Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1855-02-24
THE IRON SHROUD.
A THRILLING TALE.
ICONCLUDED.l

TORE ms halr; be rolled about like one sufferin
= | lntolerable anguish of body, and would hay
bitten the iron floor beneath him, he breathe
fearful curses upon Tolf, and the next me
ment passionate prayers to heaven for imme
. date death. Then the violence Of his grie
became exhausted, and he lay still, weeping a
child would weep. The twilight of depart
ing day shed its gloom around, and ere b
: arose from that posture of utter and hopees
. borrow. He had taken not foo. Not dro
of water had cooled the fever on bis parchet
lips. Sleep had not visited his eyes for 81,
and thirty hours. He was faint with hunger
!, weary with watching, and with the excess o
his emotions. He tasted of his food, he dranl
with avidity of water, reeled like drunker
man TO his straw. cast himself upon it to brooG
again over the appalling image that had fasten
itself upon his almost frenzied thoughts.
He slept. But his sumbers were not tran
gull. He resisted, as long as he could, their
approaches; and when at last, enfeebled nature
yielded to their influence he found no oblivion
from his cares. Terrible dreams haunted him
ghastly visions narrowed upon his Imagination;
he shouted and screamed as if he already felt
the dungeons penderous roof descending on
him; ne breathed hard land thick, as though
writhng between its iron walls Then would
| he spring up; stare wildly about him: stretch
! forth his hands to be sure that he had yet space
enough to i've; and, muttering some incoherent
words, sink down again, to pass through the
same fierce vicissitudes of delirious sleep.
The morning of the fourth day dawned upon
slgenzlo. But it was high noon before his
mind shook of its stupor, or he awoke to full
consciousness Of his sad, hopeless and dreadful
situation. And what fixed energy of despair
sat upon his pale features, as he cast his eye
upwards, and gazsd upon the three windows
that now renamed! The threei There were
no more, and they seemed to have numbered
his own allotted davs Slowly and calmly he
next surveyed the top and sides, and compre-
hended all the meaningtof the latter. The con-
traeted dimensions OF his mysterious prison
were now too gross and palpable to be the
luggle of his heated Imagination. Still lost in
wonder at the means, Vivenzio could put no
cheat upon his reason, az to the end By what
terrible ingenuity was it contrived, that walls,
and roof, and windows, should thus silently
and imperceptiby, without noise and without
motion almost, fold as it were within each 9th.
er, he knew not. He only knew they did so,
and he yainIy strove to persuade himself it
was the intention of the contriyor to rack the
miserable wretch who might be immursd there,
which, in the very crisis of his agony, he was
TO be reprieyed.
Gladly would he have chung even to this
possibility, if his heart would have let him; but
he felt a dreadful assurance of its fallacy.-
And what matchless inhumanity it was to
doom the sufferer to such lingering torment: |
to lead him day by day to so appalling death, |
by the consultations of religion, |
unvisited by any human human being. aban- |
bonded to himself, deserted of all, and denied !
even the small privilege of knowing that his |
cruel destiny would awaken pity! Alas! he !
vas to parish; alone he was to wait slow |
coming torture, whose most exquisite pangs I
would be inflicted by that very solitude, and |
that tardy coming!
at is not death fear" he exclaimed, abut
the death must prepare for! Methinks, too.
could meet even that, all horrible and revolt
ing as it is, if it might overtake me now. But |
where shall find fortitude to tarry till it comes!
How can | endure the three long days and
nights am to live? There is no power in me
20 bid the hideous spectre hence; none to make
t familiar with my thoughts; or myself, patient
IF his errand. My thoughts rather flee to me,
md 1 grow mad in looking at it. Oh! for
ieep sleep to fall upon ne. that so, in deaths
LIKENESS | might embrace death itself, and
rink no more of the cup that is presented to
ne, than my fainting spirit had already tasted!''
In the midst of these lamentations, Viven-
io noticed that his accustomed meal, with a
'iteher of water, had been conveyed as before,
nto his dungeon. But this circumstance no
onger excited his surprise. His mind was over.
Vhelmed with others of greater magnitude. I,
suggested, however, a feeble hope of deliy,
rnD anH se - |
0 yield some support to heart bending un- I
er despair. He resolved to watch during the {
nsuing night for the signs he had before obs
erved; and should he again feel the gentle, |
'emulous motion of the floor, or the current {
I air, to seize that moment for giving audible I
xpression to bis misery. Some person must
Q near him, and within reach of his voice, at r
10 instant the food was supplied; some one, t
erhaps, susceptible of pity. Or if not, to be t
I'D even that his apprehensions were Just, |
nd that his fate was to be what he foreboded, q
ould be preferable to a suspense whish hung
pom the possibility of his worst fears being t
sionary. v
The night came; and as the hour approached q
hen Vivenzio imagined he might expect the y
gns, he stood fixed and silent as statue. He h
ared to breathe, almost, lest he might lose t
" scnnd which would warn him Of their b
ming. While thus listening, with every IA a
llty of mind and body strained to an agony Fl
attention, it occurred to him he should be
ore sensible of the motion if he stretched b
mself along the floor. He accordingly laid
mself softly down, and had not long been in b
at position when-yes he was certain of it, Z
e floor moved under him. He sprang up, Il
d in a voice suffocated nearly with emotion, n
He'd aloud. He paused; the motion ceased; d
felt no stream of air; all was hushed; no
ice answered to his he burst into tears, and e
he sunk to the ground, in renewed anguish, q
claimed: n
'Oh, my God! my God! You alone have