Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-07-25
CHAPTER, TX

THE PASSING OF ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA.
Silently we went down the long passage,
and as we went saw the eyes of the dwell
ers in this living tomb watch us pass
through the gratings of their cell doors.
Little wonder that the woman about to die
had striven to escape from such homo
back to tho world of life and love! Yet for
that crime she must perish. Surely God
will remember the doings Of such men rs
these priests and the nation that fosters
them. And indeed he does remember for
where is the splendor Of Spain today, and
where arc the cruel rites she gloried in?
Here in England their fctters arc broken
forever. and in striving to bind them fast
upon US FREQ Englishmcn she is broken
also, never to be whole again.
At tho far end of passage wc found q
stair, down which we passed at its foot
was an iron bound door that the monk un-
locked and locked again upon the farther
side Then came another passage hol-
lowed in the thickness of the wall, and n
second door, and we wero in tho place OF
death.
1t was vault low and damp, and tho
waters of the river washed its outer wall,
for could hear their murrnurings in tho
silence. Perhaps the place may have
measured 10 PAGES in length by broad.
For the rest it's roof was supported by mass.
I've columns, and on one side there was u
second door that led to prison cell. AT
tho further end of this gloomy den that
was dimly lighted by torches and lamps
two men with hooded heads and draped in
coarse black gowns were at work silently
mixing lime that sent up hot steam
upon tho stagnant air. BY their sides
were squares of dressed stone ranged neat
ly against the end of the vault, and before
them was nicho cut in the thickness Of
the wall itself, shaped like largo coffin
set upon its smaller end. In front of this
niche was placed massive chair of chest
nut wood. I noticed also that two other
such coffin shaped inches had been cut in
this samo wall and filled in with similar
blocks of whitish stone. On tho face Of
each was dato graved in deep letters.
One had been scaled up somo 80 years be-
fore and one hard upon hundred.
These men were the only occupants Of
tho vault when VIC entered it, but present
ly O sound of soft and solemn singing
stole down the second passage. Then the
door was opened, the mason monks ceased
laboring at the heap of limc and the sound
Of singing grew louder, so that 1 could
catch the refrain. 1t was that Of Latin
hymn for the dying. Next through tho
open door came the choir, eight vcilcd
nuns walking two by two, and ranging
themselves on either side of the vault they
ceased their singing. After them follow
cd the doomed woman, guarded by two
moro nuns, and last of all priest bearing
q cruciflx. This man wore Il black robe,
and his thin, half frcnZicd face was IN
covered. All these and other things no.
ticcd and remembered, yet ut the time 1t
seemed to me that I saw nothing except
the figure of the victim. 1kncw her again,
although I had seen her but once i'll tho
moonlight She was changed indeed; her
lovely face was fuller, and the great, tor
mentcd eyes shonc like stars against its
waxcn pallor, relieved by the carminc Of
her lips alone. Still it was the same face
that some months before I had seen lifted
in cntrcaty to her false lover Now her
tall shape was wrapped about with grave
clothes, over which her black hair stream
babe that from time to time she pressed
convulsively to her breast
On the threshold of her tomb Isabella
dc Sigucnza paused and looked round wild
ly as though for help, scanning each of the
silent watchers to find friend among
them. Then her eye fell upon the niche
and tho heap Of smoking lime, and the
men who guarded it, and she shuddcrcd
and would have fallen had not those who
attended her led her to the chair and pluc.
cd her in it-a living corpse.
Now the dreadful rites began. The Do
minican father stood before her and rcclt-
cd her offcnsc and tho sentence which
had been passed upon her, which doomed
her "to be left alone with God and the
child of your sin, that he may deal with
you as he secs fit. Lest such cruelty
should seem impossible and unprcccdcnt,
cd the writer may mention that in the mu,
scum of the city Of Mexico he has seen the
dcsiccatcd body of u young woman which
was found immurcd in the walls of n rcli-
gious building. With it is the body OF an
infant. Although the exact cause OF her
execution remains matter of conjecture,
tl.-,., i 80 :1c.-it -. 49, ...:-....S-