The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-12
For the National Ere.
4 PALACE IN GEN GA.

Th GE IN uC ~ v NJ
By EDWARD SPENCER. n
XII HH
Inside the Hon-studded Door.
La bufera Internal, che mai non res,a
Mena gil spirit con la rapins;
Voltando perconiendo Ii molesia.
Di qua, di la, di giu, di .u gil mena.
Nula speranza Q Ii conforta mai,
Non che di posa, ma di minor pensn
DAME, Ipern., V. 81, 49,
- " He seemed hurt,
Even as a man with his peculiar wrong"
Mr.. Beale Lloyd had enjoyed the reputation
of being man of exquisite tastes-one who
had that refined and aesthetic sensuousness
which delights to be surrounded by things
pleasant to the cultivated eye. His apartment
at the st. Bobolink Hotel was famous among
his acquaintance for its blending of. soft lux
ury with the costliest and most recherche OBJ
iects of taste. 1t was not the abiding place
of Sybarite, for all the yielding voluptuous-
ness of its furniture; it rather the nest, the
retreat, the place of rest, of man of wealth,
of education, and Of elevated tastes, who was
fond OF his own ease, and proud of his feeling
for the beautiful. Hsngings and Ornamental
ton of subdued Renaissance style, which
had the airy grace, without the prurient glare,
of La Petite IridaOn; bookcases, which might
have held the reading of a young lady, 80
dainty were they, but were stored with the
choicest collection of authors, bound in the
most elegant styles of London and Paris /;
mirrors framed after classic designs; chande-
liers that might have been modelled from some
of the few chaste patterns which are to be seen
in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, relics of
vases, and cameo reliefs-all these were gath
cred there, not crowded, but just enough in
number, and rare enough in richness, to please,
to attract, to be most effective. Besides, there
we're portfolios of engravings, mostly the ohoi-
cest artist proofs and laboriously selected from
the most renowned works of the most famous
BURNS of all ages there were miniatures, in
real Parian, of the first sculptures, and, on the
walls, hung few select landscapes, from the
pencils of the best artists, both of Europe and
America-small, but costly works and none
bad, not even an Indifferent one, among them.
To sit surrounded by these Injuries of comfort,
feasting ones eyes upon these glories OF art,
and joining with the banker in conversation
upon artistic or literary subjects, was refined
pleasure which the few to whom it was permit
ted did not soon forget, nor cease TO long after.
And, If we compare his second choice OF a
domain, after he had fallen from the possibility
of these enjoyments, we may estimate very &C
curately the extent of that fall, the degree OF
the change wrought in him, and the enormity
of the torture and punishment which he deemed
it necessary to infict upon himself, in expia
ton of his crime. s-.a, y, s--s-
Born, SO to speak, in the purple, he fled, like
the King of Babylon, to the waste places, and
grovelled as beast. In falling from his high
estate, he did not, as some princes have done
clothe himself in sackcloth, and sit sorrowful
in the courts of his palace, like MorGecai a
the gate. On the contrary, he He'd the palace
and took refuge inside the iron bound door o.
a dungeon. And as the distance was between
that soft and beautiful room in the st. Bobohnk
and that dark bare dungeon, that dismal, damp
foetid, morbifc Ou6iiette under the Patdzzt
Cieco, even SO great was the transition from
Beale Lloyd, ESQ.,, banker, of Wall street, ant
the fugitive, restless Mr. William Beale, whe
was hiding himself in those dismal vaults il
Genoa. r.as
A long, narrow cell, with high ceiling ont
grated window, that permitted scarce ray o
light to intrude; four sombre walls, cementet
over with some funereal-colored preparation, ant
bare entirely, save one inscription, which added
tenfold to the gloomy suggestions of the place
a scrawled inscription, saying: +" oh Ser bran
ca ! per Ia Somma Virtu di Dio, GiOuaant Roc
co implora pieta :" Was this entresty for mer
10 af
preme Goodness, was it answered, or did the
forlorn wretch, chained perhaps to that rusty
ring bolt in the floor, abide there, in the straw
and the darkness, till the chill Angel touched
him, and there was no darkness any more
Either way. had ne to live there, we would
rather this inscription were washed out. Con.
slider also the marble paved floor, which denied
the sunligbt was never quite dry, but seemed
always as if the snails had traced to and fro
across 1t. Consider the weight, the security
the massive responsiveness of that low door
which was all iron within, and banded, black
bolted, like the safe of bank. MIR. Lloyd kept
his books, when he did business in Wall street
behind such door as that and now--the dool
closes upon him, and he has trusted the key td
his lost honor Hol whittier has the warden
Aed? A prisoner is dying Consider the cold
air of the place, with its earthly smell, that taHs
upon you, and, in q moment, lessons the life oil
your pulse. Consider the Internal thoughts, the
sbortive fancies, the monstrous imaginngs, nat
uraly procreated of such a place--the legiti
mate and necessary offspring of all Bastiles
solitary cells, Cachots, Oubiettes. Consider ali
these things, and then remember that in this
place, with but swinging lamp, that sheds a
dismal and sickly light around; rough, mis-
cradle bed single chair, and paper-strewu
desk, for his peculiar use, this Beaie Lloyd has
passed the greater part of an entire month, self
prisoned
Two necessities, and madly INDUCED pur
pose, had possession of Beale Lloyd, when first
he became the lessee of PdlozzO Cieco: The
necessity of escaping from men the necessity
of work, to save himself; and the purpose and
hope of redeeming his name and credit, by
means of that work. He must escape from bis
fellows, or go mad he must toll to exhaustion
or thought would turn in and cOrrode upon
itself; and he must work with system and in
telligence, or all his schemes would end in air
When ne reached Genoa, excitement, and the
fierce anxieties of his journey and escape, had
combined to make him almost mad. de could
scarce indeed restrain himself from breaking
out publicly into the convulsive gestures and
delirious cries of positive mania. The 6righi
sunlight of Genoa seemed to soorch his brain,
like the breath of a furnace; the flashing, dane
ing waters, in their sparkling, took, to bis dstem
pered mind, the semblance of million swords,
drawn against him, and menacing his life ;
while the exuberance of color he saw all around
him filed his eyes, he said, with horrid images
of blood and carnage. The cool corridors and
lofty halls of his palace gave him no relief, but
rather, by their suggestions of immensely, tend.
ed to aggravate his malady. Demented, raving,
he had fed hither and thither, up and down,
through the house, watched and followed by the
anxious George, until, weary, worn ont by the
fury of his madness and the exhaustion of his