Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-04-23
VAULTS THAT ARE roxss.


under the food. Here light and
warmth ara unknown. These vaults
lead to covered bridge, the Bridge
Of Sighs. and to the fatal vault, closed
by an iron door. No victim entering
this fatal room was ever known to
return, for the room grew less and
less. the four walls being pressed in
ward by a screw, until the life was
forced out Of the unfortunate prisoner.
Here Carrsra and his valiant sons
met their silent doom. their only
crims being an effort to save their
father from bis cruel fate. Here also
the great and noble Captain Carmag.
nola was led with all courtesy and
honor, and when the door was closed
on him he gave cry of despair, ex
claiming in tones of anguish. 81 am
lost-lostI''
Near by, are narrow vaults crowded
together like tombs in a graveyard,
and could the walls speak, what tales
Of horror they could reveal. Unfor.
tunate victims were imprisoned here,
till they mercifully lost their reason
and filled the ghostly corridors with
their wild shrieks aud laughter.
During the dark hours Of the night
the prison boat would arrive laden
with freight:
And bore away as to the Lower World,
Disburdening in the Canal Orfano,
That drowning place, where never net was
thrown
Summer or winter, death the penalty,
And where q secret once deposited,
Lay till the waters should give up their
dead.
Yet what SO gay as Venices
Every gale breathed music. night
and day the enchsntress, Pleasure,
waved her hand over the city, but
silently misery held her sway, and
the prisoner, heartsick and weary,
hearing the distant murmur OF the
merry crowd, would sigh for the light
and happiness which could never
more be his. Let one breath a word
or indulge thought against the laws
of Venice. and in that hour he vanish
ed from sight, doomed to drag out a
weary existence in some gloomy
dungeon, or perish by the haad of
the assassin.
STERN LAWS.
The laws of Italy were stern to a
degree; brother could not shield
brother, nor a father his child. As
an instance, let US draw aside the cur.
tain in the hall of justice in the Du-
cal palace of Venice and witness a
memorable scene which occurred at
the trial of Giacomo, the son of the
Dogs Foscari. Twenty.six are sitting
in judgment, men who have served
their country and grown gray in the
service THAR black robes and the
sombre looking arras give the hall a
funeral aspect. Now and again a
smothered groan is heard. Half with
drawn. little to the left sits vener-
able man robed in crimson. Cold
drops Of sweat stand on his brow, his
hands are clutched. his eyes are half
closed, and he appears rigid as mar
BILE. 1t is Foscari, the Doge; and
lying at his feet, stretched out on the
torture rack, is his son-his only son
-Giacomo. accused of murder. The
proofs of his guilt have been left in
the Judgment hall by some unknown
hand, and the father must endure the
sight of his beloved son suffering the
questions of the Council of Ten.
Twice has he asked them to let him
lay aside his ducal crown, 60 that he
might be spared this cruel trial and
twice have the relentless Ten sternly
refused his request.
There he sits, a spectacle of woe
condemned to wear in bitter mockery
the bauble he had once sighed for.
Once again the torture is applied to
Giacomo, and looking up at bis father
he murmurs in q faint and broken
voice, my father!' The old man
shrinks back, muffiing his face in his
mantle;
cart thou not guilty ?" he asks his
son, but the denial is of no avail, and
Giacomo hears the words Of his doom
fall slowly from his fathers lips
"Banishment to Gambia death if he
leaves it." In the dead of night the
bark sets sail. and Giacomo is forced
to leave Venice without a farewell
word from those he loved. Day after
day, year after year, he haunted an
ancient rampant that overlooked the
sea in the direction Of Venice, the
home Of his youth.
AT last messengers came bidding
him return to the judgment hall,