The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1881-02-03
THE CHAMBER OF DEATH
The Terrible Secret an Archi-
tect's Measurements Dis
closed.

closed.
The London correspondent OF
tile New York Times contributes
the following sombre romance
The owner of the place, a jcvial
old country gentleman, with a
large family, began to find his
house somewhat too small for the
requirements of the countless
guests with whom he delighted to
fill it. He sent for an eminent ar
chitect, and consulted him as t
the possibility of adding room or
Two without injury to the appear
ance of the building. The archi
tect went to work at once, inspected
the house within and without,
made sundry measurements, and
returned to his host with the com
placent air of man who had
found out something worth know
ing.
I'm fortunate enough" said he,
with a smile, "to have come just
in time to save you from a very
useless labor. Do you know that
while you are talking of adding
new rooms to your house you have
a room in it at this moment which
you have never used yetF' "What
ON earth do you meauP" asked the
bewlldered squire. 81 mean," an
swered the professional, with
quite scientific superiority, "that
the measurements l have just been
taking leaves several square yards
OF the houses area unaccounted
Tor; in other words, there is some
where within its walls a secret
chamber of which you know moth
ing"
The squire laughed the idea to
scorn, but his wife captivated by
the romantic suggestion of a pos
sible "Bluebeard's chamber" in
her own house, at once ranged her.
self on The side of the architect,
and insisted that The mysterious
room should be searched for and
found. "If it exists" put in her
husband. ut not only exists" re
torted the architect, somewhat net
tied by the implied doubt of his
Judgment, "but [ am positive that
l can point out The spot where it is
to be found. Pick q hole in the
wall that closes the east end of the
great corridor on the third floor,
and if you do not find the secret
chamber lying behind it. L will pay
all the expenses of the search"
The proprietor, beginning to feel
Interested, in spite Of himself, at
once agreedto the proposal, and
the workmen Were promptly called
in. A few sturdy blows sufliced to
bring down the wall. already crum-
bling. Behind 1t, to the great ex
ultaIion OF the archictect and the
amusement of the still incredulous
squire, appeared Wondering oak
en- door, winch was speedily driv-
Ell in, revealing a dark recess, from
which exhaled a strange, sickening
Udor. The architect, taking a
lighted candle from one OF the by
standers-fOr by this time the
whole household had assembled to
watch the progress of the excava-
tlon-squeezed himself himself
through the aperture, but instantly
sprang back with a cry of horror.
The squire, more courageous or
less impossible, entered in his
turn, and this is what he saw
Hidden in the thickness of the
wall lay a small oval chamber, once
lighted by narrow, diamond
paned window, which had been
completely brick up from the out
SIDE. The furniture was of rich
antique cast, the carved oak table
spread with costly dishes and sill
yer flagons, but dust and cobwe0s
covered all, and the very haL gings
were rotten upon the mouldering
walls. Rats were heard scrapiBg
and gnawing behind the wainscot,
and huge Shiny beetles were crawl
ing about the damp blotched floor.
The GROWING horror of this living
tomb, however, lay elsewhere. On
the mildewed couch beside the ia
BILE a human skeleton was shrunk
together in a posture of hideous
distortion, while another sat
crouching in corner, with its bo-
ny fingers thrust between its vel
low rafting jaws, as if the wretch
had gnawed his own flesh from his
bones in the desperation of the last
agony. The news of the ghostly
revelation flew abroad like wildfire,
stimulating the local antiquaries to
solve, if possible, the mystery of
this horrible secret. Their zeal at
length ferreted out the legend of
the death-bed confessio made by
the hereditary owner of the place,
in the days of James 1. In ven
geance for his wife's infidelity he
had decoyed her and her paramour
into the fatal chamber, where he
built them up alive with his own
hands. AS further refinement of
cruelty, he had previously spread
the table with a splendid banquet,
every morsel of which was poisoned,
thus giving the poor wretches only
the choice of starvation or suicide.
What horrors that lonely chamber
witnessed before the end came
none but God can tell; but the dis
torted attitudes of the two victims
sufficiently showed in what fear
full agonies they must have died.
The Boss Chrome.