How does the beginning of "The Pit and the Pendulum" contribute to the meaning of the story?

"Impia tortorum longos hic turba furores
Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit.
Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris antro,
Mors ubi dira fuit vita salusque patent" (Epigraph)

 "Here an unholy mob of torturers with an insatiable thirst for innocent blood, once fed their long frenzy. Now our homeland is safe, the funereal cave destroyed, and life and health appear where dreadful death once was'' (Translation).

Poe uses the above epigraph to refer to the Jacobins and their Reign of Terror in France as they sent countless people to the guillotine to be beheaded. In this short story, the narrator is a victim of the Inquisition as he awaits what appears to be certain death. Just as the Jacobins tormented and executed their victims, it appears the narrator will fall to the same fate.

Thus, with the epigraph Poe sets the tone for the rest of the story foreshadowing the plight of the first person narrator. However, our narrator is rescued at the end.