The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-09-12

again
At this moment a slight noise in the
room attracted Lucas attention, and turn
ing hastily from the window, and looking
into that part of the apartment which was
involved in comparative obscurity, he was
able to detect the shadowy forms of three
men, whom he felt at once were servants
of the State.
"We come to arrest you as head con-
spirator in plot against the lawful author
ity of the Venetian Senate" said the chief
officer, stepping forward out of the obscur-
ity.
The Venetian Senate in those days made
short work of the trial of political offend
ers. There were so many of these that
the Government, in it's alarm for its own
safety, dealt out severe justice to all such
who got within its reach. The evidence
against Luca Orioli was irresistibly strong,
and it being considered that an opportun-
ity of making an example was afforded
by his detection, it was determined that a
punishment should be resorted to in his
instance which was only used very rarely,
and principally in cases which were mark
ed by especial atrocity; PARTICLES persons
who were convicted of sacrilege, monks or
nuns who had broken their vows, and the
like exceptionally gross offenders. The
punishment in question consisted in being
hung out in an iron cage, which was sus-
pended from the top of the great bell tower
or Campanile Of Venice, and in which the
victim was suffered to perish miserably of
starvation and exposure. This was the
horrible penalty which was awarded to
Orioli.
But what was the saddest part of all
and it was certainly felt to be so by Luca
hmself-was that his sister, his poor little
Brigida, was convicted of completely with
him in this disastrous plot, and was con-
demned to share his punishment
1t was that skill of hers in penmanship
which had ruined her. All sorts of docu-
ments Of the most compromising character,
plans of action to be adopted by the lead
ing conspirators, letters to them from Luca
himself on matters connected with the
plot, which, though intrusted to careful
hands for delivery, had fallen into the
clutches of the numerous spies who were
always on the lookout for such papers,
great mass of such writing had been seiz
ed, and proved beyond doubt to be in the
young girls handwriting: proved, indeed,
by comparison with the piece of writing
on which she was actually engaged at the
moment when the officers of justice made
their arrest of Luca.
The crushing weight with which this
implication of his little sister fell on Luca,
can hardly be described in words. Brigida
-Brida as he always called her-had been
SO many years under his care, her parents
having died in her childhood, and was so
much his junior, that he had got to regard
her almost more as a daughter than as a
sister, so much did a feeling of care for
her, and sense that she was creature to
be sheltered from all harm, and protected
by him at all cost, pervade all the relations
between the two. Nay, it is impossible to
say whether the physical difference between
them-for Luca was a big, powerful man,
while Brida was slightly and delicately
formed in an uncommon degree-may not
have helped to strengthen this feeling on
the brothers part, that to keep his little
sister out of harms way was one of the
chief occupations of his life.
That this frail creature should be involv-
ed through him in so terrible a calamity
was to Orioli a thought which was entirely
insupportable. Her. constitution was deli
cate, as her frame was, and there could be
| little doubt that the exposure to the cold
and damp, for it was now late Autumn,
must cause her the EXTREMIST suffering
| Death, of course, was inevitable for both,
| as they were to hang there in the iron cage
till famine did its work, but that she
should suffer as we'll as die! 1t was
too terrible, and the earnest and passionate
| appeal which Luca made to the judges on
his sisters behalf--he had made no such
appeal for himself-might have touched,
one would have thought, even harder
| hearts than those to which he had to adj
dress himself.
"It is my doing, and mine only" he
cried, at last. "She did what | told her
miserable that am. On me let the penal
ty fall-a double penalty If you choose.
Let me be tortured, burnt at slow fire,
anything, only spare her, my little Brigida,
a creature incapable of harming any one,
| ND 1xhn hor hoe
| her only fault
! But he spoke to men of stone when he
addressed that pitiless assembly in the
dimly lighted council chamber of the
Doge's palace. The fiat had gone forth,
and must be obeyed. She was sentenced,
and must suffer.
A damp, cold night at the end of Octo-
ber An iron cage hung out from the top
of the great belfry tower of Venice, and
in it were the two malefactors who had in
Cured the wrath of the Venetian Senate.
The cage and its occupants had been hung
out little before sunset, and while the
light lasted the people in the piazza below
had stood about the base of the pillar gaz
| ing up at the uncommon sight.
There was not much to see. Little
could be made out at that height of the
two figures in the cage; the structure it
self and its occupants looking not much
bigger than a bird cage with couple
of lnnets inside. Still the people knew
that human creatures were up there, and
they gazed as long as the light lasted, and
not till it had quite faded did the last OF
them go away. The cage would be there
the next day. however, "that was one
comfort" and after that who could tell
how long? There would be couple of
corpses in it one day instead of these iv-
ing creatures. The spectacle would be
more interesting, if possible, than even
now.
Hand in hand, the brother and sister sat
crouching on the floor of the cage, quiet,
resigned, and waiting for the end. They
spoke but seldom, word or two now and