River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-02-12

4
my project was 10 escape by penetrating the
wall and swimming across the canal at the
risk of drowning myself Whenever the jaier
brought me food / read written signs on the
wall, like Palace Side Canal Side 'Subter-
rsnean Side With the genius of Gagged thing
plning for liberty succeeded in deciphering
with my hnger-tips on the surface of stone
an Arabian inscription, by which its author IN
\ formed his successors in the cell that he had
I taken two stones out of the last course and had
/ dug eleven feet under ground To continue
1 his task it was necessary TO heap up on the
| floor of the cell the earth and mortar produced
| by the excavation; but even if the warders and
supeTintendents had not been confident In the
| construction of the building, which only re-
| quired an exterior watch, the position of the
| pits down to which two or three steps led, made
| the disposal of the earth easy so that the jail
! ers need perceive nothing The immense task
had been in vain, at least for him who had be-
gun it, for its non-completion proved the
death of the unknown. To profit by his labor,
those prisoners who succeeded him must have
known Arabic, but had studied Oriental Ian
guages at the Armenian convent
Il worked for a month without any visible
result but while l worked, and when fatigue
/ OverpOwered me- heard the sound of gold;
/ saw gold before me, M eyes wer5 dazzled by
| diamonds. One night the old sword | was
I working with touched wood | sharpened the
I steel and made a hole IN the wood 1t was the
last night but one that should spend in prison
made one final effort; pierced the wood, and
my tool reached nothing on the other side.
applied my eyes to tho aperture; had pene-
/ trated the wainseot of vault, where feeble
| light showed me a heap of gold The Doge
and one of the Council of Ten were in the
/ vault What that they said informed me that
! beheld the secret treasury of the republic
was saved When the jaller came proposed
to him 10 permit my flight and to escape with
me, carrying of all we could. He agreed
ship was setting sail for the Levant; all our
precautions were taken and Blanca apprised of
3 usyNhsaW SaTu AssnrF
That night the hole in my cell was
enlarged, and we stood in the SO.
cret treasury Of Venice. What a sight
| have seen four tuns filled with gold. In an
adjoining room as much silver was heaped up
IN two banks on each side, leaving a land down
the middle of the apartment between piles of
coin five feet high. / thought the iailer would
lose his senses; he sang, danced, laughed, and
pranced among the gold; threatened to stran-
gle him if he lost time to make a noise. In his
JOY he did not see the table where the diamonds
were. / fell upon it. and filed my sailors
shirt and trousers pockets; even then hard
IL took third of what there Under
the table were bars Of gold. ! pursuaded my
companion 10 take only gold; the pearls and
/ diamonds would betray us, l told hum. Great
as our greed was we could only carry of two
| thousand pounds of gold which necessitated
six journeys across the prison to the gondOla.
The sentinel at the water gate had been bought
with bag Of ten pounds of gold. As for the two
goudOliers, they thought they were serving the
republic At daybreak we were off When we
were on the high sea and l recalled that night;
when ! remembered the sensations | had ex-
pc.lenced, and saw again IN imagination the
immense treasure of which, according to my
calculations, / left behind thirty millions in
silver, twenty millions in gold, and uncounted
millions In diamonds, pearls, and rubles, my
mind reeled; | had the fever of gold We dis
embarked at smyrna and at once started for
France.
AS we were getting on board
the French ship, Heaven saw fit to
rid me Of my accomphce At the moment
| did not reflect upon the full extent OF this
turn of fate over which | reioiced SO much. We
had been so completely enervated that we re-
manned entranced without speaking to each 9TH
er, waiting till we were i'll safety to enjoy at leis
ure No wonder the rogue's head was giddy.
loH will see how God punished me. l was not
at rest until | had sold two thirds of my dla-
monds in London and Amsterdam and turned
my gold dust into money. For five years |
lived hiden in Madrid; then in ITO | wen to
Paris nnder Spanish name and lived COR
geously. Blanca was dead. In the midst of
my splendor L was struck with blindness, he
result of my life in the Venetian cell, and of
which NV preternauranv acute vision for
gold might have forwarueu me At that time
was Ill love with woman to whom | hoped to
join my fate; ! had told her the secret of my
name; She belonged to powerful family, and
/ hoped everything from the favor shown me
by Louis Nv trusted the woman, who was
a friend of Madame du Barry She advised
me TO consult a famous London osculist; but
after few months sojCurn in that city the
woman abandoned me, robbing me of my
whole fortune and leaving me without re-
source in the world for to tell my name was
to deliver myself to the vengeance of Venice
Il spare Won the recital of adventures wOr-
thy of Gil Bias The French revolution come
l was compelled to enter the Quinze- Yingts
Asylum, where the woman who had betrayed
me had me placed, after keeping me two years
at Bcetre for insanity. | never have been
able to kill her blind as | am and am too poor
now to hire an avenger, If | had consulted
my iailer before lost him, about the situation
of my cell, | should have been able to find the
treasury again if l had returned TO Venice
when the Republic was DESTROYED by Napoleon
But now have found You, the man / have
hoped to find all these years Come with me
to Venice What If | am blind? / shall find
that prison door, for shall PEE thegold through
the walls shall feel it under the waves where
1t is buried; for though the power of Venice
was overthrown, the secret of that treasury
must have persisted with Eendramino, Blanca s
brother, doge by wnom l hoped my
peace would be made with the Ten.
| have addressed notes to the First
Consul, I have proposed treaty to the En-
peror of Austria; both have dismissed me as a
madman Come, let us be off to Venice. We
start beggars, but we shall return millionaires.
We shall buy back my estate; You will be my
heir; YOU will be Prince of Varese"
Agitated by the wild tale. tempted by tho
wild scheme, saddened at the sight of that
whitened head, hushed Ey the view of the
black water in the Bastile mOats-stagnant as
the Venetian canals-I was silent Facino
Cane doubtless thought that / looked upon
him, like the rest, with cOntemptuous pity.
He made a gesture which expressed all the
philosophy of despair. Perhaps his tale car
RED himback to his happy days, to Venice He
seized his clarinet and played a melancholy
Venetian song-a barcarolle for which he
won back his early talent. the inspira-
ton of a patrlclan beneath the balcony of his
lady-loye. 1t was a sort of ''By tho Rivers
of Babylon, the prayer of banished man,
the regret of a lost great name, mingled with
memory Of Blanca. My eyes filled with tears.
The gold lust soon reasserted itself, the ruling
passion extinguished the reflected light of this
beam of youth
Il am in the treasury" he cried; ''asleep or
waking, l always see it; | walk there, the dia-
monds flash / am not as blind as you think;
gold and diamonds light up my night the
night of the last Faciuo Cane, the last-my
title goes to the Memmis. just heaven. the
murderer's punishment begins in this world
Ave Maria"
He muttered prayer without removing his
eyes from my face. The prayer affected me
like spell pronounced by wizard
I'VE will 80 to Neuice." | exclaimed The
words seemed forced from me by will other
than my own.
The old man rose to his feet His massive
figure wavered in the moonlight He stag
gered toward me. His face was on fire. E'1O-
morrow" he gasped, Eve viii beg. | am
strong, and there is gold ahead-gold"-
He clutched at his throat, beat the air, tot
tered and fell / sprang to his assistance. The
low, night wind walled, the wedding guests
went singing by, and Facino Cane was dead