Year: 1860




ception; and he was now convinced there


had been none the day before. But wha,


did all this portend? Into what strange
and mysterious den had he been cast p


He gazed till his eyes ached; he could
discover nothing to explain the mystery


That it was so, he knew. Why it was
so, he racked his brain in vain to conjec
ture. He examined the doors. A simple
circumstance convinced him that they
had not been opened.


A wisp of straw which he had careless
ly thrown against them the preceding
day, as he paced to and fro, remained
where he had cast it, though it must have
been displaced by the slightest motion oi
either of the doors. This was evidence
that could not be disputed; and it follow
ed there must be some secret machinery
in the walls by which a person could en-
ter. He inspected them closely. They
appeared to him one solid aud complete
mass of iron; or joined, if joined they
were, with such nice art, that no mark OF
division was preceptible Again and
again he surveyed them-and the door
aud the roof-and that range of visionary
windows, as he was now almost tempted
to consider them, he could discover moth.
ing, to relieve his doubts or satisfy his
curiosity. Sometimes he fancied that al
together the dungeon had more con-
tracted appearance-that it looked small
er; but this he ascribed to fancy, and
the impression naturally produced upon
his mind by the undeniable disappear
ance of two windows.


With intense anxiety, Vivenzio looked
forward to the return of night; and as it
approached, he resolved that no treach-
erous sleep should again betray him.
Instead of seeking his bed of straw, be
continued to walk up and down his dun
geon till daylight, straining his eyes in
every direction through the darkness to
watch for any appearances which might
explain these mysteries. While thus en-
gagged, and as near Y as he could Judge
10y the time that aiterward elapsed be
fore the morning came in), about two
o'clock, there came a slight, tremulous
motion of the>hoor. He stopped. The
motion lasted nearly a minute; but it was
so extremely gentle that he almost
doubted whether it was real, or only
He listened. Not sound
could be heasl. Presently, however, he
felt rush Of cold air blow upon him;
and dashing toward the quarter whence
it seemed to proceed, he stumbled ovea
which he judged to he the
water ever The rush of cold air was
no longer perccptible; and as Vivenzio
stretched ont his hands, he found himself
close to the wall. He remained motion.
less for considerable time; but nothing
occurred during the remainder Of the
night to excite his attention, though he
continued to watch with undated vigil
ance.


The first approaches of the morning
were visible through the grated windows,
breaking with faint divisions of light the
darkness that still pervaded every other
part, long before Vivenzio was enabled
to distinguish any object in his dungeon.
Instinctively and fearfully he turned his
eyes, hot and inaamed with watching
toward them. There were FOUR He
could see only four; but it might be that
some intervening object prevented the
fifth from being perceptible; and he wait
ed impatiently to ascertain if it We're so.
As the light streng shened, however, and
penetrated every corner Of the cell, other
objects of amazement struck his sight
On the ground lay the broken fragments
Of the pitcher he had used the day be-
fore, and at small distance from them,
nearer to the wall, stood the one he had
noticed the first night. 1t was filed
with water, and beside it his food. He
was now certain that, by some mechan-
ical contrivance, an opening was obtained
through the iron wall, and that through
this opening the current of cold air had
found entrance. But how noiselessl For
had feather almost waved at the time,
he must have heard it. Again he exam
ined that part Of the wall; but both to
sight and touch it appeared one even and
uniform surface, while to repeated and
violent blows there was no reverberating
sound indicative of its hollowness. =
This perplexing mystery had for a time
withdrawn his thoughts from the win
.ows; but now, directing his eyes again
toward them, he saw that the fifth had
disappeared in the same manner ~ the
two, without tho least distin-
guishable alteration of external appear
ances. The remaining four looked as the
seven had originally looked; that is, oc-
cupying, at irregular distances, the top
Of the wall on that side of the dungeon.
The tall folding-door, too, still seemed to
stand beneath, in the center Of these
four, as it had first stood in the center of
the seven. But he could no longer
doubt, what, on the preceding day, he
fancied might be the effect of visual de-
ception. The dungeon was smaller. The
roof had lowered-and the opposite ends
had contracted the intermediate distance
by space equal, he thought, to that over
which the three windows had extended.
He was bewildered in vain imaginings
TO account for these things. Some
frightiul purpose--some devilish torture
of mind or body--some unheard-of de-
vice for producing exquisite misery,
lurlScd, he was sure, in what had taken
place.


Oppressed with this belief, and dis
tracted more by the dreadful uncertainty
of whatever fate impended, than he could
be dismayed, he thought, by the knowl-
edge of the worst, he sat ruminating
hour after hour vieldino his fears in suc-