Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-08-23

HAL mas ueiciluiiy Deen so Of0eIeQ
that agony prolonged beyond a GER
tain point ends in benumbing the
power of feeling. Thus it is that
criminals condemned to execution
often sleep soundly and eat with ap-
petite; fact which seems amazing
to those who consider how compar-
atively slight degree of mental dis
tress has power to rob the night of
rest and to turn the daint:est food to
poison. They do not reflect that
mental agony in its extremity ceases
to be felt. But thus it is-and thus
it was with me.
| believe also that the air of the
shaft must have acted upon me with
some stupefying or bewildering influ-
ence, like that of the vapor which
often gathers at the bottom of old
wells. The agitation of my mind
gradually gave place to a strange
feeling of Indifference. The peril
under which lay ceased to trouble
me, and at last no longer occupied
my thoughts.
began instead to be curiously
disturbed by another circumstance,
very trivial in itself; by sound
|
which reached my senses from some
where in the stiffness sound low,
muff1ed, throbbing and mysterious,
like the beating of my own blood.
Had my mind been clear | could not
long have failed to recognize it for
what it was. The sound seemed in
my ears but this was merely owing
to my position in the shaft. In re-
reality, it was the ticking of the great
clock above my head.
For hours [ sat there, listening
mechanically, half unconsciously, to
this monotonous sound, half broken
at intervals by the notes of the deep
toned bell. At length, probably
owing in a great measure to the
heavy effect of the air upon me, [
must have passed into sort of stu
por which lasted very long.
When | came to myself | was con-
scious of a very singular sensation.
The pltchy darkness was about me,
and of course | could see nothing.
But, in some unaccountable manner,
of which fear it is impossible for
me to convey notion, l was aware
that during my trance the weight
had descended a great way, and was
close above my body. 1 could feel
though nothing touched me the huge
and threatening mass brooding over
me in the darkness. With a mighty
effort-for like a person in night
mare, | seemed to have lost the pow
er of motion-I raised my hand. MY
expectation was correct one. My
hand strnck against the under sur
face of the weight, at an elevation
of less than three inches from my
face! At last-after an eternity
of unutterable suspense-at last-it
touched me.
1t touched me. At first lightly,
then with perceptible pressure,
then with a pressure which grew dis
tressing. In vain sought relief in
vain I strove to writhe my body into
narrower compass. Slow y, steadily,
the mass descended, crushing me
against the floor.
The last minutes of my life seemed
come. I breathed prayer to heaven
and resigned myself to die. Still
space the weight descended; my
brain swan; my breathing became
difficult. I believe that for some
brief seconds that bore upon my
fainting form the whole burden of
the ponderous mass. The blood
rushed in torrents to my head.
felt that my senses were leaving me.
Very suddenly the pressure ceased.
| was conscious of welcome relief.
I drew in a deep breath freely. l
| moved nv limbs, and found their lib
erty no dream. The weight was
gone.
I raised my head and encountered
space l staggered, gasping, to my
feet. The weight was already above
my head, and rising rapidly upward
into the darkness of the shaft. A
sound of moving mechanism reached
me from above. 1 thought l heard
the murmur of voices; men were
moving in the tower above me.
The purpose which brought them
was evident; they were winding up
the clock.
1t was not until afterward that
learned what really had occurred. The
clock should have been wound up the
day before but the men whose duty
it was to do the winding had over
looked their work, and the oversight
was not discovered till late al night.
Afraid that the clock would run down
and that they should be blamed, they
had come to the cathedral earlier to
rectify the error. Had il not been
for their neglect of duty, the weight
would not have descended nearly so
far as it did toward the bottom of the
shaft while, had their visit been de-
layed but little while longer, they
would assuredly have found the clock
already stopped-stopped by cause
which l now shudder to think of.
Then-at that moment of relief
thought of nothing clearly. Giddy,
bewlldered, reeling with a wild sense
of deliverence, the prolonged op-
preston of my soul fonnd vent in
loud, and ringing cry.
I remember little more, and that
confusedly. have some dim men,
ory of an interval of silence, broken
by voices outside my prison; of the
sudden opening of a door; of blind
ing light of group of several forms
| without. | seem to remember also