The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-10-15
FOSCUE, THE MISER.

In the year 1852, al extraordinary instance
Of avarice occurred in France. A miser OF
the name Of Foscue, who amassed enormous
wealth by the most sordid parsimony and
the most discreditable cxtortfon, was request
ed by the Government to advance certain
sum of money as loan. The miser, TO whom
fair interest was not an inducement sufl-
ciently strong to enable him to part with his
treasured gold, declared his incapacity TO
meet the demand he pleaded severe loss and
the utmost poverty. Fearing, however, that
some of his neighbors, among whom he was
very unpopular, would report his immense
wealth TO the Government, he applied his in
genuity to discover some effectual way Of
hiding his gold, should they institute search
70 ascertain the truth or the falsehood Of the
plea. With great care and secrecy he dug a
deep grave in his cellar; TO this receptacle
for his treasure he descended by ladder,
and to the trapdoOT lie attached q spring
lock, so that on shutting 1t, it would fasten
of itself
BY and by the miser disappeared inqui-
rics were made, the house was searched.
woods were explored, and the ponds were
dragged, but no Foscue could they find the
fed with his gold to some part where, living
incognito, he would be free from the demands
OF the Government Some time passed on
the house in which he had lived was sold and
workmen were busily engaged in its repair.
In the progress of their work they met with
the door of the secret cave, with the key in
the lock outside They threw back tie door
and descended with a light The first object
upon which the lamp was reflected, was the
shastly body of Foscue, the miser, and scat
tered around him were heavy bags Of gold
and pondProus chests OF untold treasure : a
candleStick Law beside him on the floor.
This wOTShipeT Of mammon had gone into
his cave to pay his deyoirs to his golden god,
andbccame a sacrifice to his devotion. What
must have been the sensation of that nisera-
bic man, what the horrors of his situation.
when he heard the door close after him, and
the spring lock efTectually imprison him
within his secret mine Row bitter must
have been the last struggle of that aVaricious
soul. How terrible must have been the ap-
peals of conscience within that sordid sinner.
How each bag must have disgorged its treas
ures, ard each piece Of gold have danced, in
imagination, round him like a demon How
hated, when the gnawing pangs of starvation
came slowly upon him, must have been that
yellow vision his very heart must have
grown sick at that which he once so dearly
loved Gold in bags gold in chests gold
piled in heaps gold for his pillows gold
strCwn upon the ground for him to lie upon.
While his taper lasted, turn where he weuld
his eyes, nothing met him but his gold. But
when the last flicker died away, and the
miser was left in darkness, to dwell upon his
coming death and upon his many sins, how
awful must have been the agonies Of con-
science How surely, amid the gloom Of that
sepulchre of gold, must be the poor whom he
had oppressed, and the unfortunate whom
he had ruined by his ayaUice have risen uT
to reproach him And when the mind be-
came fevcred by its last deadly struggles
how the5faces of haggard poverty, of hate
and loathing for the miser, must in one, loud
discordant chorus have cried for vengeance
and retribution on his guilty soul