The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-02-16

have been taken some time after the visit
; of the emperor, for it does not at all
, sustain her reputation of beauty. I
wonder if that reputation was not fictic.
tious. We arc so imposed on by the
middle age humbug that I sometimes
doubt its beauty and heroism as well as
its piety and chastity.
The Rath house is in parts very old,
portions Of it belonging to tho fourteenth
century. Over the Gothic door, by
which we entered, are two figures start
ing out of the wall, and one of them is
! ready to drop stone on our heads. The
most interesting chamber is that where
the imperial diet so long sat. a vacant hall
! with decorated ceiling. and = stiff arm
chair for its sole furniture, which may
have been sat in by an emperor. In one
Of the apartments hangs some remarkable
Gobelin tapesty and ncedlc.work of the
fourteenth century. I have never seen
any tapestry so interesting. The nearer
the Gobclin approaches to the finish and
resemblance Of picture the less I care
for it; it then suggests the still vast diff.
ference between it and the real thing.
But these pieces are not intended to de-
ceive. They were done in the stiff sin.
cerity Of the middle ages; the figures are
quaint even to comicality, and the stu
atoms arc naive in the extreme, full of
heartiness and humor.
But the interest Of the Rath house to
bloody.mindcd person is in its lower
apartments, the so.called dungeons and
chambers Of torture. There is nothing
that people like more to read about than
torture. The damsel who acted as my
guide lighted candle, and, taking hand
full of loose papers, conducted me to the
ground floor. am ashamed to confess
that it was not as bad as hoped it would
be, for the dungeon floor was not damp,
but quite dry, and think not below the
level of the ground. At least I seemed
to be passing through series Of lumber
rooms. The first dungeon entered was
specimen of all. 1 backed into low
and narrow door, and found myself in a
dark apartment Of thick walls of wood,
some seven feet square, in which could
not stand upright. Here Count Schafl:
gotsch, one of Wallenstein's associates,
was confined, and if he ever talked to
himself, his remarks were conveyed
by means of a pipe to the room directly
above. He had no light and very little
air, and his food was thrust in to him
through small crate. Across one end
of the cell was wooden beam, which
served him for pillow.
Before the door of this room I noticed
small square hole in the pavement
covered with a movable CRATE. The
guide lighted wisp Of paper and threw
it down; the brief illumination disclosed a
dungeon perhaps twelve feet deep and
six broad. The prisoner who was dcstin.
ed to occupy it was lowered through the
whole, and left there till he starved to
death. can imagine, how he must have
listened, for four or five days, for the
steps of the keeper who walked over head.
Passing through several narrow pas
sages, closed by stout doors, we came to
the torture-chamber, where the impli.
mcnts of persuasion of the inquistion or
of private tyranny she still preserved.
Outside the entrance of the narrow cham,
Der is a bench upon which the victim was
seated in ordor that he might reflect
whether he would confess before the tor
ture or after. One side of the room is a
lattice screen. behind which the secretary
sat at table to take down any exclam.
alton wrung from the sufferer. Within
are seats for the judge and the surgeon
who attended from motives Of inhumanity,
in order that the victim should not be too
soon released FROM his sufferings by
death.
find it impossible to. believe what
trustworthy records tell US went OH in
these and like chambers in Christian
age. You can comprehend how men can
issue cruel order, but how they can look
calmly upon the agonies of a fell
low-being and delight in increasing them.
in cold blood, surpasses my conception. l
scarcely wonder that travellers take on a
tone oflevity in such cases; it is simply
want ofpower to believe the cruelty that
was perpetrated.
This room looks little like the lum-
ber'roon attached to farmers wood
shed, or rather like a cheaply fitted up
gymnasium. At one end is pillory,
with all iron band for the neck, that once
stood in the public square. Lying on it
were two pieces Of board two feet long,
each pierced with three round holes, one
for the neck and one for each wrist.
Tney were put, said my guide, upon base
women. Two of them yoked with this
ensignia of their disgrace, were coupled
together and let go in the street, a
warning to all frail and imperfect beings
oftheir sex. saw no such badges fo1
men.
One of the instruments used to teach