Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-12
DUNGEON LIFE.
A Peculiar BrOoch-The Count Gonfa-
lonierPs ImprisO nment for Fifteen
Years.

A Peculiar BrOoch-The Count GOnfa-
lonieris ImprisO nment for Fifteen
Years.
There is or was lately (1S71l Polish
lady, the Countess of K, living in
Paris. She wears very singular 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? Aportralt or a lock
Of hairy No, only four common pins, bent
together in the form of star! And she
wears this in memory Of her husband, a
Polish nobleman. who was put into prison
because he was thought to be secret
enemy to the government. 1t was dark,
deep dungeon far down under the ground.
de had no ore 10 speak to, for no one was
allowed to see him but the keeper oil the
prison, and he, Of course, was not per-
United to converse with his prisoner.
Days, weeks, months passed on, and he
was still left in his dungeon. He was
most miserable, and feared that he should
lose his senses, for his reason seemed
to be giving away. 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; vet what could four pins be
to him! He took them from his coat and
threw them down on the floor of his dun
geon. and then he went down on his hands
and knees and felt all over the floor till he
found them again. When he had succeed
ed in this he scattered them again on the
floor, and could you have gone into his
dungeon you would have found him CROP
ing on his hands and knees for his four
pins. When, after six years ir1prisOn-
ment, 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
prison without taking his pins with him.
They were his best friends, because they
had given him something to do in his sOli-
tude and confinement, and his Countess
had them made into brooch which she
valued more than gold. They had pre-
served her husbands reason.
The following is ole of the most affect
ing records in existence. 1t is from Count
GOnfalonieri's account of his imprison-
ment in the fortress of Spielberg, above
the town of Brunn, in MOravia, for a po-
itical otfense 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: 81 am
an old man now, but by fifteen years my
soul is younger than my body! Fifteen
years [ existed (fOr l did not live, it was
not llfe) in the self-same dungeon, ten
feet square. During six years l had a
companion; during nine l was alonel 1
never rightly distinguished the face of
him who shared my captivity in the eter-
nal twilight of our cell. The first year we
talked necessarily together. We related
our past lives. our joys forever gone, over
and over again. The next year we COM
municated to each other our thoughts and
ideas on all subjects. The third year we
had no ideas to communicative were
beginning to lose the power of reflection.
The fourth, at the interval of a 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 busting as
when we formed portion of mankind.
The fifth, we were silent. The sixth, he
was taken away never knew where
to execution, to liberty-but l 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. One day-it must
have been year or two after my compan-
ion left me-the dungeon door was opened
and voice, from whom proceeding /
know not. uttered these words: by or
der of His Imperial Majesty, intimate to
you that your wife died year ago. Then
the door shut and l heard no more. They
but flung this great agony in upon me and
left me alone with it,"
The companion for six years with Count
GonfalOnieri was a Frenchman, Count
Andryane, who has since published some
memoirs of his own life ('EMemoires DUN
PRISONER d'Etat, par COmte Alexander
He mentions that Count
was liberated at the Empe-
rOr's death in 1885, and sent to the United
States, from whence he r turned to Aus
tria. There, broken down by sorrow and
suffering, he wandered about for a few
years, and died at Urian, pied de st. Go
I6or6, december, 1916.