The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1885-05-20
The Kew OF Death.

In the collection of curiosities preserve
in the arsenal of Venice, there is a key
of which the following singular tradition
is related: "About the year 1 600 one
of those dangerous men, in whom extra
ordinary 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 Tebaldo, be-
came enamored of the daughter of an an
cient house, already affianced 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 most formidable weapon
which could be imagined. This was q
key of large size, the handle of which
was so constructed that it could
be turned round with little diff
Guilty: when turned it discovered
spring, which, on pressure, launched
from the other end a needle
or lancet of such subtle fineness that 1t
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 Oreceive the nuptial
benediction. The assassin sent the
slender steel unperceived into the breast
of the bridegroom. The wounded man had
no suspicion of injury, but seized with a
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 devise
the cause of this strange illness; and in
few days he died. Tebaldo again de-
manded the hand of the maiden from her
parents, and received a second refusal.
They, too, perished miserably in few
davs. The alarm which these deaths
which appeared almost miraculous-o
stoned excited the utmost vigilance of the
magistrates; and when, on close eXamin-
alton 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 cruel
ly orphaned had passed the first months of
her mourning in a convent, when Tebaldo,
hoping to bend her to his will, entreated
to speak with her at,the CRATE. The face of
the foreigner had been ever displeasing
to her, but since the death of all those
most dear to her it had become odious
(as though she had presumption of his
guilt), and her reply was most decisive
in the negative. Tebaldo, beyond him
self with rage, attempted to wound her
through the CRATE, and succeeded; the
obscurity of the place prevented his
movement being observed. On her re-
turn to her room, the maiden felt pain
in her breast, and uncovering it, she
found it spotted with a single drop of
blood. The pain increased, the surgeons
who fastened to her assistance taught
by the past wasted no time in con
lecture, but, cutting deep into the
wounded part, extracted the needle be
fore any mortal mischief had commenced,
and saved the life of the lady. The
State inquisition used every means to
discover the hand which dealt these in
sidious and irresistible blows. The visit
of Tebaldo to the convent caused sus-
picion to fall heavily upon him. His
house was carefully searched the infa-
nous invention discovered, and he per
ished on the gibbet. Public Opinion.