The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-10-01
WHOLE NO. l753.
Dungeon Life.

Polish lady. the Countess Of x,
living in Paris. She wears a very
Isingular brooch. 1t is encircled by
twenty precious stones, on ground
of dark blue enamel, covered in the
centre by glass. And what does
this brooch contain? A portrait or
a lock of hair? No, only four COM
mon pins, bent together in the form
OF a star And she wears this in
memory of her husband, a Polish
nobleman, who was put into prison
because he was thought to be Sc
cret enemy to the government. 1t
was a dark, deep dungeon, far down
under the ground. He had no one
to speak to, for no one was allowed
to see him but the keeper of the
prison, and he of course was not
permitted to converse with his pris-
oner. DAYS, weeks, months passed
on, and he was still left in his dun
geon. He was most miserable and
feared that he should lose his senses,
for his reason seemed to be giving
way. OH if he had only some
hope-some one thing to relieve his
misery. Feeling all over his coat
one day he found four pins, and he
actually wept for joy yet what
could four pins be to him? He took
them from his coat and threw them
down on the floor of his dungeon,
and then he went down on his hands
and knees and felt all over the floor
till he found them again. When he
had succeeded in this he scattered
them again on the floor, and could
you have gone into his dungeon you
you'd have found him cropping on
his hands and knees for his four
pins. When, after six years i'm
prisonment, he was set free, they
still found him cropping in the dark
for his four pins. 1t was all his
work. Nor would he leave his pris-
on without taking his pins with
him. They were his best friends,
because they had given him some
thing to do in his solitude and con-
finement, and his Countess had
them made into a brooch which she
valued more than gold. They
had preserved her husbands reason.
The following is one OF the most
affecting records In existence. 1t is
from Count Gonfalonieri's account
of his imprisonment in the fortress
of Spleberg, above the town of Brun,
in Moravia, for political offense in
the reign of the Emperor Francis of
Austria, who died in 1885. He was
an Italian, and had conspired to dis
possess the Austrians at Milan
am an old man now, but by fifteen
years my soul is younger than my
body Fifteen years | exirted (for |
did not live, it was not life in the
self-same dungeon, ten feet square.
During six years | had compan-
ion; during nine l was alonel |
never rightly distinguished the face
of him who shared my captivity in
the eternal twilight OF our cell. The
first year we talked incessantly to-
gether. We related our past lives,
our joys forever gone. over and over
again. The next year we communi-
Gated to each other our thoughts
and ideas on all subjects. The third
year we had no ideas to communi-
cate-we were beginning to lose the
power of reflection. The fourth, at
the interval of month or so, we
would open our lips to ask each
other if it were indeed possible that
the world went on as gay and bust
ling as when we formed a portion of
mankind. TIE fifth, we were silent.
The sixth, he was taken away-I
never knew where-to execution, TO
liberty-but | was glad he was gone;
even solitude were better than that
dim, vacant face. After that | was
alone. Only one event broke in
upon my nine years misery. Oae
day-it must have been a year or
two after my companion left me-
the dungeon door was opened and a
voice, from whom proceeding l
knew not, uttered these words: "Bv
order of his Imperial Majesty, l
intimate to you that your wife died
a year ago." Then the door shut
and | heard no more. They had
but flung this great agony in upon
me, and left me alone with 1t.
The companion for six years with
Count Gonfalenieri was a French
man, Count Andryane, who has since
published some memoirs OF his own
life e" Memoirs dun Prisonnier d.
Etat, par Comte Alexander Andry-
anne.") He mentions that Count
Gonfalonieri was liberated at the
Emperor death in 1885. and sent
to the United States, from whence
he returned to Austria. There,
broken down by sorrow and suffer
ing, he wandered about for a few
years, and died at Urian, pied de st.
Gothard, December, 1916. Count
Andryanne adds the touching Incl
dent that for time Count Gonfalon-
ieri was allowed to receive letters
from his wife, and when she was dy-
ing she wrote several letters, dating
them at different future periods, that
he might, when delivered, think she
was still alive. This tender, loving
kindness was, however, cruelty frus-
trated by the sudden information of
her death, so brutally conveyed by
order of the Emperor. Poor man :
be was spared no single pang. 1t
pleased God to "vex him with all
his storms"
Sufferers from the effects of qui-
nine, used as remedy for chills
and fever, will appreciate Ayers
A o,ra Cura a r,O-artul fopfp hitter