The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1870-04-09
[rupLIeHED BY REaUEsrl
THE G0LD-BUG.
-! BY EDGAR A. POE. !,
(coNoLupED IN OUR Nsxr.)

ana we spent the whole day, and the
greater part of the next night, in a
! scrutiny of it's contents. There had been
nothing like order or arrangement. Every
thing had been heaped in promiscuously
Having assorted all with care, we found
ourselves possessed of even vaster wealth
than we had atfirst supposed. In coin there
was rather more than four hundred and
fifty thousand misunderstanding the
value of the pieces, as accurately ns we
could, by the tables Of the period There
was not a particle of silver. All was
gold of antique date and of great variety
French, Spanish aud German money,
with few English guineas, and some
counters, of which we had never seen
specimens before. There were several
very large and heavy coins, SO worn that
ne could make nothing of their inscrip-
tions. There was no American money.
The value of the jewels we found more
difficulty in estimating. There were
diamonds, some of them exceedingly
large and fne-a hundred aud ten in all.
and not one Of them small eighteen
rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three
hundred and ten emeralds, all very beau
tiful; aud twenty-one sapphires' with an
opal. These stones had all been broken
from their settings and thrown loose in
the chest. The settings themselves,
which we picked out from among the
other gold. appeared to have been beaten
up with hammers, as if to prevent identi-
fcation. Besides all this, there was a
vast quantity of solid gold ornaments !;
nearly two hundred massive finger and
ear rings; rich chains-thirty of these,
il remember; eighty three very large
and heavy crucifixes; five gold censers
pf great value; prodigious golden
Paneh bow, ornamented with richly
chased vine-lcaves aud Bacchanaliun
figures; with two sword handles couisite-
ly embossed, and many other smaller ar
ticles which | cannot recollcct. The
weight of these valuabes exceeded three
hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois (;
aud III this estimate have not included
one hundred and nine-seven superb gold
watches; three Of the number being
worth each five hundred dollars. if one.
Many of them were very old, aud al
time keepers valneless the works hav.
ing suffered, more or less, from corrosion
but all were richly jewelled and in
cases of great worth. We estimated the
entire contents Of the chest, that night.
at a million and n half of dollars; and
upon the subsequent disposal of the
trlnkets and jewels Ga few being retained
for our own use,) it was found that we
had greatly undervalued the treasure.
When, at length, we had concluded
our examination, aud the intense excite
ment of the time had, in some measure.
subsidcd, Legrand who saw that was
dying with impatience for a solution of
this most extraordinary riddle, entered
into full detail of all the circumstances
contacted with il.
"lou remember" said he, "the night
when L handed you the rough sketch [
had made of the scarabous. You re-
collect also, that became quite vexcd at
you for insisting that my drawing re-
sembled death's-head. When you first
made this assertion | thought you were
jestiug but afterwards | called to mind
the peculiar spots on the back of the in
sect, and admitted to myself that your
remark had some little foundation in fact.
Still, the sneer at my graphic powers ir-
ritated me-for am considered good
ar'ist--ana, therefore, wkga you handed
me the scrap of parchments | was about
to crnmble it up and throw it angriy
into the fire."
"The scrap of paper, you mean" said
|.
"No; it had much of the appearance
of paper, and at first | supposed it to be
such, but when came to draw upon it,
discovered it, at once, to he piece of
very thin parchment. 1t was quite dirty,
you remember. Well, as l was in the
very act Of crumpling it up, my glance
fell upon the sketch at which you bad
been looking, and you may imagine my
establishment when perceived, 10 fact,
the figure of death s-head just where,
it seemed to me, | had made the drawing
of the beetle. For a moment WINS too
much amazed to think with accuracy