The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-07-02
The Key of Death.

HI the cOllecllOn Oh cuflOSltleB pre-
served in the arsenal of Venice there is
a key of which the following singular
tradition is related: About the year
1000 one of those dangerous men in
whom extraordinary talent is only the
fearful source of crime and wickedness
beyond that of ordinary men came to
establish himself as a merchant or
trader in Venice. The stranger, whose
name was Tebado, became euamored
of the daughter of an anc ent house,
already affianced to another. He de-
manded her hand in marriage, and
was, of course, rejected. Enraged at
this, he studied how to be revenged.
Profoundly skilled in the mechanical
arts, he allowed himself no rest until
he had invented the most formidable
weapon which could be imagined. This
was key of large size, the handle of
which was so constructed that it could
be turned round with little difficulty !;
when turned it discovered a spring,
which, on pressure launched from the
other end needle or lancet of such
subtle fineness that it entered into the
flesh and buried itself there without
leaving external trace. Tebaldo waited
in disguise at the door of the church in
which the maiden whom he loved was
about to receive the nuptial benedic-
ton. The assassin sent the slender
steel unperceived into the breast
of the bridegroom. The wound
ed man had no suspicion of injury, but,
seized with sudden and sharp pain in
the midst of the ceremony, he tainted,
and was carried to his house, amid the
lamentations of the bridal party. Vain
was all the skill of the physicians, who
could not divine the cause OF this
strange illness; and in few days he
died. Tebaldo again demanded the
hand of the maiden from her parents,
and received second refusal. They,
too, persisted miserably in q few DAYS.
The alarm which these deaths-which
appeared almost miraculous-occa-
stoned excited the utmost vigilance of
the magistrates; and when, on close
examination of the bodies, the small
instrument was found in the gangrened
flesh, terror was universal; every one
feared for his own life. The maiden
thus cruelty orphaned had passed the
first few months of her mourning in q
convent, when Tebaldo, hoping to bend
her to his will, entreated to speak with
her at the CRATE. The face of the for
eigner had been ever displeasing to
her, but since the death of all those
most dear to her it had become odious
las though she had presumption of
his guilt, and her reply was most de-
cisively in the negative. Tebaldo, be-
yond himself with rage, attempted to
wound her through the crate, and sue
ceeded; the obscurity of the place pre-
vented his movement being observed.
On her return to her room the maiden
felt pain in her breast, and, uncover
ing it, she found it spotted with a
single drop of blood. The pain in
creased The surgeons who fastened
to her ssistance-taught by the past
wasted no time in conjecture, but, cut
ting deep into the wounded part, ex-
tracted the needle before any mortal
mischief had commenced, and saved
the life of the lady. The state inqui-
sition used every means to discover the
hand which dealt these insidious and
irresistible blows. The visit of Tebal-
do to the convent caused suspicion to
fall heavily upon him. His house was
carefully searched, the Infamous inven-
tion discovered, and he persisted on the
Qibbet Public ODi1iOn