Year: 1860




as he spoke-''Yesl it must be sol | see


it II feel the maddening truth like


scorching flames upon my brainl Eternal


God!-support me! it must be sol Yes,
yes, that is to be my fatel Yon roof will
descend these walls will hem me round
and slowly, slowly, crush me in their
iron armsl Lord God look down upon
me, and in mercy strike me with instant
DEATH Oh, fiend-oh, DEVILS this your
revenge ?"


Ae dashed himself upon the ground in
agony tears burst from him, and the
sweat stood in large drops upon his face
--he sobbed aloud-he tore his hair-he
rolled about like one suffering intolerable
anguish of body, and would have bitten
the iron-floor beneath him; he breathed
fearful curses upon Tolf, and the next
moment passionate prayers to heaven for
immediate death. Then the violence of
his grief became exhausted, and he lay
still, weeping as a child would weep
The twilight of departing day shed its
gloom around him ere he arose from that
posture Of utter aud hopeless sorrow
He had taken no food Not one drop of
water had cooled The fever Of his parched
lips. Sleep had not visited his eyes for
six and thirty hours. lie was faint with
hunger weary with watching, and with
the excess of his emotions. lie tasted
of his food; he drank with avidity of the
water and reeling like drunken man
to his straw, cast himself upon it to
brood again OYER the appalling image
that had fastened itself upon his almost
lrenzied thoughts.


He slept. But his slumbers were not
tranquil. He resisted, as long as he
could their approach but when, at last,
enfeebled nature yielded to their inhu-
ence, he found no oblivion from his cares.
Terrible dreams haunted him-ghastly
visions narrowed up his lnagination-he
shouted and screamed, as if he already
felt the dungeons ponderous roof de-
scending on hlm-he breathed hard and
thick, as though wrthing between its
iron walls. Then would he spring up
stare wildly about him-stretch forth
his hands, t. be sure he yet had space
enough to live-and, muttering some in
coherent words, sink down again, to pass
through the same fierce vicissitudes Of
delirioas sleep.


The morning of the fourth day dawned
upon Vivenzlo. But it was high noon
before his mind shook off its stupor, or
he awoke to full consciousness of his
situation. Aud what fixed energy of
despair sat upon his pale features, as he
cast his eyes upward and gazed upon the
THREE windows that now alone re-
mained The threel-there were no
more land they seemed to number his
own allotted days. Slowly and calmly he
next surveyed the tops and sides, and
comprehended all the meaning of the
diminishing height of the former, as well
as of the gradual approximation of the
latter. The contracted dimensions of his
mysterious prison were now too gross and
palpable to be the juggle of his heated
Still lost in wonder at the
means, Vivenzio could put no cheat upon
his reason, as to the end. BY what hor-
rible ingenuity it was contrived, that
walls, and roof, and windows, should thus
silently and imperceptibly, without noise,
aud without motion almost, fold, as it
were, within each other, he knew not
lie only knew they did so; and he vainly
strove to persuade himself it was the in
tention of the contriver, to rack the mis-
cradle wretch who might be immured
there with anticipation, merely, of fate,
from which, in the very crisis of bis ago
ny, he was to be repreved.


Gladly would he have clung even to
this possibility. if his heart would have
let him, but he felt dreadful assurance
of its fallacy. And what matchless in
humanity was it to doom the sufferer to
such lingering torments, to lead him day
by day to so appalling a death, unsup-
ported by the consultations of religion,
unvisited by any human being, aban
doned to himself, deserted by all, and de-
MED even the privilege of knowing that
his cruel destiny would awaken pity =
Alone he was to perishl-alone he was to
wait slow coming torture, whose most
exquisite pangs would be inflicted by
that very solitude and that tardy coming.


at is not death that / fear," he ex-
"but the death / must prepare
for! 'Methinks, too, could meet even
that-all horrible, and revolving as it is
If it might overtake me now. But
where shall find fortitude to tarry till it
come? How can l outlive the three long
days and nights have to live? There
is no power within me to bid the hideous
spectre hence-none to make it familiar
to my thoughts, or myself patient of its
errand. My thoughts, rather, will fee
from me, and grow mad in looking at
it. Oh, for deep sleep to fall upon mel
That SO, in deaths likeness, might en-
brace death itself, and drink no more of
the cup that is presented to me, than my
iainting spirit has already tasted !"


La the milst of these lamentations,
Vivenzio noticed that his accustomed
meal, with the pitcher Of water, had been
as before, into his Dungeon
But this circumstance no longer excited
his surprise. His mind was overwhelmed |
with others of far greater magnitude. |
1t suggested, however, feeble hope OF
ieliverance; and there is no hope 50 fee.
bic as not to yield somo support to
heart bending under despair. lie re-
solved to watch, during the ensuing
night for the signs he had before OBJ
served; and should he again feel the gen.
tic, tremulous motion of the floor, or
4 ha ourront &C osr 10 oo,~a that t,cr,orf