New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-07-07
FTOm BIackWOed fJT June
TIE VENETIAN PRISONS.


From Blackwoed for June.
TIE VENETIAN PRISONS.
We are now in prson-ina Venetian dungeon
with our Ieadcrfor n companion. How atrocious-
" ingenious, how diabOlcaly inventive Is cruelty
Ia cell, which we enter STOPPING, we are made
IN notice that the round hole above the door from
the passage by whichit is entered. while ii admits
air enough TO keep a prisoner alive, and was not
meant 10 do more, excludes the companion
ship OF the solitary candle, which was permitted
only at meal time. The light placed withoW
and opposite To the aiT-hOlc, TO throw merely
small circular hale on the prison walls. These
awful cEcentrs bear strong testimony also 10 the
endurance of man in suffering, and prove that mind
may even be active and that a certain cxortion OF
its power. is possible in utter darkness aud hope
less confinement, aggravated too often by the anti
cipation of IA sanguinary death, Of which the only
uncertainty the vhen and the ray. Upon the
stone over which we stumble as we enter, Byron,
composing his Foscar" is said to have looked
darkness in the face for several hours at a time
These horrid cells have even their curiOsities OF
all the portraits of themselves which painters
have bcauea he'd, none which ever vet behcld
interested US like two profes on one low roe-
kingly head, with a crown on, and by 1t another
face. These arc the Paduan tyrant, Carrara, and
his son, who we're certainly srapgled within these
dungeons Awaiting himself of the hour when his
star the candle shonc from the hole above, each,
with charred spoon tor pencil, is said TO have
marked the shadow of the other on the roof. -Four
centuries and more have rolled by, but well does
the ndelible charcoal still cling to the dry stone
wall. Nor without its interest is the scrawl OF
poor iterate fellow who records of himself only
his own merry disposition, though doomed to live
and die here. as were all VINO passed along this
al hay braV
churches on the walls, with - Come let US wors ship
God in his sanctuary Priests in their captivity
here acknowledge their fidelity to the Holy See ,
their names and that of their may be read
and Long life to the holy Roman Catholic
Church " Just the soldiers who sank before
him in attempting river they could not ford, cried
"Nvc rEmpereur Concerning this same Ro-
man Catholic Church, 10y the way, that nerer had
ScLiSm Venice. not three centuries ago, dcicd
the Pope's terrible prerogative of excommunca-
ton. She shut up the church and the chapel, and
laid hold IN the priests, calling herself, neverthc
less. both1 Roman and Catholic. On the other
hand, to make Bologna and Pavia obcdicnt sub
iects his holiness erased them from the list OF
dda,es for heaven. We entered one cell which
had ,ciRdoc as we'll rs door and what win
dow BY it, side hole Is wrought IN the wall,
sufficient for the introduction Of cord. Ii was
pointed ou, to u.. We should have overlooked it.
Under that window RATTAN, is the very stone, of a
proper hight, for the victim 20 Sa on and be strun
glcd like peuliry-to have his neck wiung Cob
damnabc and bloody man y against the uuyicld
ing iron of his easement The next cell, humber
six. believe, smells strong of the iro lighted by
blessed mob some thirty years ago Swee
smells the old carbon"
Another cell. ard the last. j. that in which frat
ricilc sotle of Dalmatia was confined for fourteen
wears He was, they say, the only surviving vic
tim of the inqulsiters tribunal, when the score
stair was first detected, and the peoge rusheC
down to the cells. He bad shot his brother. q
priest, while no officiating at the high altar il
cara He died about forty -four DAYS after hi.
liberation aged thriy-fve years. His nervou.
system. not able To sustain the stimulatio of All
and light, To which he had been long unused
reacted on the machine, and put az end To its func
tons, This cell has been spared ss q Specimc,
to postcr,y. ard is even a. i, was and a. they al
were, a wild beast den, yautcd with lslrian mar
bic above, aud ribbed all round with wood. anC
rvcucd to tho walls with large nails Its shaP,
is exactly that vt a trunk which you pack clothe
ina trunk with round top. This Is a colos sal
impcnetrabc trunk At one foot above the grounC
you see the plsnks still ready for the bed Of straw
YOU the shelf for the and the loaf of bread
and you see. and shudder, ~ the small air
hole above his pallet from the dark cell into IN,
dark corridor, at the end OF which corridor ,her,
is small slit, whence ghmmer OF daylight come
to scare the v,ry yiser, who may 90 away wher
he plcases But these are not all the horrors
Here rolled the head from the decapitaled trunk
through these round holes fell the ensaneunec
sawdusi into the sea, making the green one rcd.
for these prisons are only Just above the level ~
the water. Glad are YOU to ascend the dungeon
steps; in doing which YOU obtain. through psr>i
monou.ly lighted cell. view of the Bridge o
Sish., with the stcrn-lookng marble heads which
project in high relief from the covered arch. " hat
sounds these Is it possible that man car
sing and wrsngle behind the deeply rcccdng win
do~>, with the double bars, of such locality
Yes for they be- here for certain season only
They had no Bridge of Sigh. to cross. Their
friends know where they are, ard why they have
oye>' and see the light; tscy have TO catch
the Jocund sounds on the quay below The hcllisl
judgements OF the Ten and Of the Three hav,
ceased tor ever. They shal. not die like poultry
not even though they had committed one of the
four capital crimes which Paul Vcioncsc has paint
al ia the Judgement Hail. A friend of ours h,.
put hi, hand into the Lions mouth 10 satisfy him
self that there really no secret announcement.
unswallowcd IA hi. rsophagus. Ths Austrian and
hi. soldiers may b. hated bu, he would not drown
his state prisoners. The silent mischief of IN,
officer of the night, and the mysterious dissp
pearancc Of men. whose house and family shal
know them no more, no longer intmidaie
Mute are those mutcs who used TO conduct him up
tho Scala Segrcta 10 the presence At rcmorseles.
Judges perhaps out of rooms of State in his own