The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-06-25
DARK DUNGEONS.


|
Abbey arouse to the minds of most English
mon very much the SAM sort of interest,
They are both to be regarded with Affection
ate reverence as memcntoss of past that
cannot be recalled To repeat the dramas
that were enacted in the old fortress, that
were palace and prison 10 one, or to re-
people its narrow cells, is, we feel, as impos-
sible as to give life to the dry bones of our
departed kings and queens, poets and politl-
clans. We have got TO associate state pris-
ons such as the tower with an almost me-
diaeval age, with iou,ts aud tornaments and
knight errantry. With us they went out
or at any rate the horror and romance |
of them went out-with rugs aud trunk |
hose, and habeas corpus, which unlocked
the doors of the white tower, and made 1t
impossible 10 pack off people to the little
Ease" without rhyme or reason, SCENE to US
unromantic matter.of-fact E1glishmen OF
the present day as the work Of another age
to divide us, as it were, from another Eng
lan.. la Russia, the contemplation OF a
state prison suggests no rehsotions OF this
nature. A Moscovite, with a historical bent,
who meditates outside tle walls OF Schus
sebourg or the fortress of Sts Peter OF
Paul, may trouble himself with the occu-
pants Of these old grim state prisons but
his thoughts are much more likely TO run on
the condition and future Of their present
tensn,s. For there is little to choose be-
tween their past and everyday incidents OF
.hair ,aressnt Tho latter are just as terrible
just as romantic, if we like to use the term,
as the former.
These dungeons-or, at least, a fair num-
Der of them-had their political prisoners
in the days when our dukes and earls carved
: their names on the Tower walls, and ladies
Of high degree were rowed under Traitors
gate at the dead Of night, without knowing
the why nor the wherefore, and they have
them still. A Londoner can read the re-
mantle history of Lady Jane on the stone OF
her cell but the native or the stranger who
has penetrated by hook orby crook beyond the
gu, or walls OF tne fortress Ui Schlusselbourg
and is so venturesome as to ask to be shown
the dungeon of little Ivan VI is as likely as
not to be told he cannot see it, because it is
at present in the occupation of some prison
ers of state. Very few, however outside the
circle of those officials whose unpleasant
duty is to guard its secrets, are admitted
withp the walls of Russian state prison. II
is as hard to get in (save as a pr soner as tc
unlock the gates of castle in the Arabian
Nights without possessing the charm State
prisons in Russia being fortresses as well,ap-
plication for admission to them has to be
made to the minister for war rather than to
the minister of justice. This great official is
pretty sure to resent to the tourists curios-
osity. He will probably tell him that neith
er Schlussebourg nor the fortress of Sts. Pc.
ter and Paul possess any real interest for the
stranger, and if he yields at least to his i'm
portunity he will take very good care that
he penetrates but very little way into the
secrets they conceal. The commandant Of
the fortress, to whom the special order for
admission is shown, will probably on his
part, evnce no little reluctance to admit
the privileged stranger-ior it need hardly
be said that no ordinary tourist is thus hon
ored. And no wonder. Could the stones
of the vaulted passages which echo under
our tread speak in articnlate language they
would have a story to tell that might eclipse
the romances that gathered round the Bastie
or the tower. When Custine visited the
fortress of st. Petersburg in 1889 there were
unfortunate wretches incarcerated in the
dungeons followed out under the Neva who
had been there since the days of the First
Alexander They had ceased to DE men and
were only numbers. Some of them had for
gotten their own titles and designations
while the crimes they had committed, or
which had been made the excuse for their
confinement, were quite unknown to the
goalers who guarded them,
Schlusselbourg was not always 50 called
When in possession Of the Swedes it was
named Notenbourg, and was only reduced
by the troops of Peter the Great after a
weeks bombardment and desperate as
sault. The captors changed its name to
Schlusselbourg, as being the key Ingria and
Finland. 1t is built on a shelving rock in
the middle of the Lake Ladoga, which it
entirely commands,so that its possessor must
necessarily be master of the Neva and the
capitol. Its situation is one of the natural
curiosites Of Russia, and has naturally COM
mended it to the Russian authorities at all
times as place of confinement for prisoners
of the higher rank and consequence, whose
safe custody is a matter of the utmost mo-
ment To foreigners it is best known as the
prison-house Of the unfortunate Ivan vi
and the scene of the crime ofthe Empresses
Elizabeth and Catahrine Ivan Antonovitch
whose only crime was that the Empires:
Anne twelve days before her death had de
clared him heir to the throne, was, on the
usurpation of Elizabeth, seized and con.
fined First in sthe fortress of Riga anC
then in Oranienburg. Thence he was brought
for greater security to Schlusselbourg, where
he was imprisoned in a subterranean vaul
entirely deprived of daylight and air. When
Peter III, shortly before his own dethrone
ment and assassination, paid him secre
visit in his dungeon, and asked him what
he wished for, he answered "to have NOR,
air" The emperor, tonehed by his mavinl
complaint, planned little circular paac,
in front of the fortress in the center o
which was to be garden, so that the boy
craving for light and air should be in som'
way gratifed The idea, however twas neve
carried out, and subsequently it was used b,
Catharine as an accusation against Pete
himself, and was made one pretext for hi
ASSASSINATION. When Peter visited Ivan ht
was aged rather more than twenty years au(
had never seen the light of day since he vas
fourteen months old. The emperor, accor.
ding to Baron Korf, who relates the inter.
view, asked him several questions. Among
others, ,"Who are you ?''-,"I am the Emper.