New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-05-13
TIE KEY OF DEATH.
A Marvel of Mechanical Ingenuity That
Excited Terror in Venics.
From Public Opinion.

6AS1bSu 4S4GO4 Ia VSAAS9s
From Public Opinion.
In the collection OF curiosities pre-
served in the arsenal Of Venice, there
is key of which the following singular
tradition is related: about the year
1900 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 q merchant or trad
er in Venice. The stranger, whose
name was Tebaldo, became enamoured
of the daughter of "a ancient house,
already af1ianced to another. He
demanded 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 mostformidable weap-
on which could be- imagined This
was key of large size, the handle OF
be turned round with little difficulty,
when turned it disclosed spring,
which, on PRESSURE. launched from the
other end needle, OF lancet of such
subtle ineness thatit entered into the
flesh and buried itself there without
leaving external trace. Tebaldo wait
ed in Disguise at the door of the church
in which the maiden whom he loved
was about to receive the nuptial bene-
diction The assassin sent the slender
steel unperceived into the breast of the
bridegroom. The wounded man had no
suspicion Of injury but seized with sud-
den 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 devise
the cause of this strange illness; and in
a few days he died Tebaldo again de-
handed the hand Of the maiden from
fusal. They, TOO, persisted miserably
in afew days., The alarm which these
deaths-whlcht appeared almost mirac-
accustomed excited the utmost
vigilance Of thu magistrates; and when,
| on close examination of the bodies,
! the small Instrument was found in the
gangrened flesh, terror was universal:
every ono. feared for his own life.
The maiden, thus cruely orphaned had
passed the first months of heg mourning
in convent, when Tebaldcs hoping to-.
bend her to. Ills will, entreshed to speak
with her<at; the CRATE. Thg face of the
foreigner. had been ever 6iispleasingstc1
her, butssinee tie death of all those.
most. dsar to- her it had bscome odinus.
Gas though she had prescription cfghis
guilt. and her reply was most decisive,
in thesnegative. Tebasda, beyond, him
self with rage, attempted to wounds her
through the CRATE. and succeeded: the
obseurity Of the place prevented his
movement being observed. On. her
reA1rn to her room, the maiden felt
a pain in her breast, and uncov-
ering 1t, she found it spotted with a
, single drop of blood. The pain in
/ creased, the surgeons who fastened to
her assistance-taught by the past
} wasted no time in conjecture, but, cut
) ting deep into the wounded part, ex-
tracted the needle befoxe any mortal
] mischief lad commenced , and saved the
) life OF the lady. The State inuuisitioa
t used eve1y means to discover the hand
+ which dealt these insiilous and irresist-
ible blows The visit of Tebaldo 10, the
8 conveat caused suspicion to fall heavily
r upon him. His house was carefully
searched. the infamous invention dis.
!. covered, and he persisted oashe gibbet