Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-04-26

brave fellows death, just fourteen days
after his rash affair at Schlusselburg:
IN. Mierowitz, in pursuance of his
sentence, was publicly beheaded on
Wednesday last: he behaved at his exc
cution as he had done throughout the
whole transaction with the greatest res
ignation. 81 51 the soldiers and under
officers who were engaged with him were
so severely whipped that IT Is said three
OF them are since dead. Many more are
to be punished. One, Usakoff. lieuten-
ant, who was privy to the design, was
accidentally drowned
Notwithstanding his rank and years,
Mierowitz was retained in a dungeon
among a number of miserable Russian
rogues and Polish prisoners, clad in
filthy sheepskin, many of them being
afflicted with the terrible disease known
as matted hair, which hung over their
necks in clothed Jumps, every tube be-
ing swollen and dilated with globules of
blood, and there he died.
The lower vaults Of Schlusselburg
were those built by ivan the Terrible for
the reception of a few of the revoluters
of Novgorod, after he had put twenty
FIVE thousand of her citizens to the
sword. They were prisons like the fright
full cells of the Bastile; those of the In
QUESTION, or Of old castles of the Middle
Ages-a rival to that Chillon TO which
Byron's genius has given a greater name
than ever its terrors won it. One of the
lower vaults of Schlusselburg was den,
! the floor of which was below the rocks
! wherein the seals of Ladoga basked in
the sunshine, and which was consequent
| ly liable to be flooded during those mum
dations that, at certain seasons, overflow
all the country for great way north,
so that no crops will grow upon the emf
nences.
| Vaulted with stone, it was nearly
| square, and measured twelve feet each
way, with a floor that sloped down at
one end, having been unevenly hewn out
when the rock was pierced: and from a
portion of this rock sprang the solid arch
of granite blocks which formed the roof.
A narrow slit, six inches broad by twelve
| high and having even in that small
space a thick iron bar, admitted to the
interior a feeble ray of light. This slit
was partly built of stone, but its sill
was the living rock of Schlusselburg 1t
opened toward the lake, but gave no
prospect save the clouds.
The prisoner, when seated on the stone
! bench which formed a bed or seat alter
/ nately, could only see the changing hues
of the sky, and know by the darkness
which gradually obscure6 this mere shot
hole that day was passing away, and
that another night, chill, dark, dreary
and hopeless, was at hand.
| AS the floor sloped down some twelve
= =. a. =
ways full of water, into which the slime
that gathered on the vault of the arch
| fell at intervals with a regular splash
that, TO the silent and apparently forgot
ten prisoner, became maddening in its
monotony of sound, by day and night, by
morning and evening, by dawn and sun
/ set. Then, as the tides rose and fell, or
! as the waters of the vast inland lake of
| Ladoga are affected by the Baltic stop
ping the downward flow of the Neva, or
| by rains flooding the many tributaries
that join then. so did this dark pool in
the dungeon rise and fall, when the cur
rent ooZed through secret and unknown
channels or crannies in the granite rocks.
1t was in this vault, or one of those
adjoining-such a den as that in which
Dante placed his demon-that the wife
| G e Empress Elizabeth. was drowned
ten years after the date of this history,
when the waters of the Neva rose ten
/ feet; and, as they subsidized bore her
body to the Gulf of Finland.
| No one could live very long in such a
place-low, damp, cold and horrible
And we'll did Bernikof know this. when
in the blind transports of rage and ag
ony resulting from his double wounds,
| he barbarously consigned Natalie Mic
rowna to such a place-ay, even Natalie
I tire soft end delicate, the high-bred and
! tende4ir nurtured daughter of Miorowitz:
| and she had now been in the under
ground vault for three days and nights
seventy-two hours-which to her had re-
sembled horrible and protraeted night
mare.
She was ignorant as yet of her broth
er's execution, week before Betrayed
by one of their most trusted adherents
as the price of his own liberty. she and
Katinka had been taken. or the fate of
the latter she knew nothing. For her
| self, the poor girl only knew She was
placed there to await the pleasure Of
her empress and the grand chancellor
Hope was dead, completely, in her
heart; and though the desire to live was
strong, her former life seemed all a
dream OF. something that had happened
long. long ago!
Crouehing on a damp pallet that lay
on the couch of stone, her hair dishev-
eled. her dress more than ever torn, dis
eolored and disordered. her snowy hands
and arms stripped of every ornament and
ring. her tender feet well nigh shoeless.
her eyes half closed and surrounded ov
dark infiamed circles, her cheeks sunk
and haggard--it would be difficult to rec
ognize in her the once beautiful and
brilliant Natalie. whose coquetry had e&-
cited the ready jealousy of Catha line;
/ the Natalie of the imperial salons at
Moscow. at Oranienbaum, or the palace
/ of Tsarky Selo; or the Natalie of that
princely old chateau near the Louga-
the proud, bright-eyed and beautiful girl
whom Charlie Balgonie had loved and
worshiped as a goddess.
She was pale as white marble-cold
rs death--a prey to utter confusion rath-
err than profound grief. When she did
rouse herself to calm reflection and the
realities OF her position. thought we'll
nigh drove her mad.
Her old father-his sturdy figure, his
venerable beard and white eyebrows, his
/ silver hair queued by a simple ribbon,
| his quaint. old-fashioned costume of the
I first Peters time rose wildly before her.
and with gush of memory came all ,the
pecularities of disposition. his warmth of
heart and temper. his kindness aud irri-
liability. his pride CT race and family.
/ Where were ali these nowg
Her lover. too-his voice. and eyes,
aud gentle manner came next to add TO
her pangs-for him. too. must she relin-
auish forever. No shelter was there now
for her save the cold grave, which was
perhaps TO receive them ali-Basil, Usa-
/ koff and Mariolizza.
Suddenly a scream escaped her; she
/ was in total darkness. Amid her sleep
or stupor a fourth night had come on