Conjugal Affection.CHAPTERII.[Concluded.]Victoriaimmediately saw the propriety of the latter suggestion, and on the following day she disguised herself as a Moorish fruit-seller; and with a basket of vegetables on her head, and her little daughter by her side disguised in the same manner, she got admittance to the outward wards of the castle; and while disposing of her fruit to the governor and his dependants, got into conversation with the soldiery, from whom, however, she could obtain none of the information she wanted.Her whole time was now occupied by day in visiting the prison in the disguise she had assumed; and at night in keeping up the correspondence of so much importance. By this means, at the suggestion of Albert, she supplied him, not only with writing materials, but with a file, a chisel, and a hammer; and had got even a rope in readiness, should it be required for future operation.Albert had in the first instance thought of breaking through the walls of his dungeon; but alas! they were eighteen feet thick, and no effort that he could make upon them with the slight tools he possessed, was sufficient to separate them. He had, with great caution, taken out two or three stones in the wall of his dungeon, but the interior stones were so firmly wedged, that they defied him. The labor of his task was enormous; and this was increased from the necessity of replacing every stone in its respective niche, so as to escape the vigilant eye of the keepers. So, at last, poor Albert began to despair.Victoria, however, whose inventions were more fertile than those of her husband, still comforted him. She told him that she would never desist in her exertions while he remained a prisoner, and bade him have hope and trust. He, however, had little reason to hope, for he was told by one of his guards, that on the next day, he was to be examined for the fourth time.And examined he was. Torn from his dungeon at midnight, he was again brought before the Inquisition. The examiners sat before him, in a room hung with black. Behind the chair of the chief commissioner, who wore a square cap, shone, in all the brilliance of pure white silver, an image of the crucified Redeemer; and beneath it, a skull and cross bones. The marquis was bound, and without being asked a single question,was placed at once upon a rack in the corner of the room. A physician stood by his side to watch his agonies, and to stop the torture when beyond human endurance; and the secretary of the fraternity sat ready to record the answers to the questions put to the unhappy man.Thus tortured to confess crimes which he never committed, the marquis had every bone dislocated; and when nature gave up the contest, and he sunk into stupor, he was removed back to his dungeon. For some days, he remained in the most helpless condition, without being able to move a limb, except in exquisite torture. Yet, after a time, his system recovered its wonted strength, and Albert was again inspired with hope.Victoria Colonna had pursued the same course of communication previously adopted for several successive days, and receiving no answer to her signs, was at last on the brink of despair. She believed that the wickedness of man had done its worst, and that her husband had escaped by death from the power of the tormentor. Day after day, she watched with anxious longing for some sign of his still being an inhabitant of the earth; but no sign was given to her, and she was on the point of giving up all further exertions, when on one of her nightly walks and watchings round the captive’s tower, her ear was delighted with the well-known clatter of a piece of tile. She ran to the spot, and once more recognized the well-known handwriting of Albert—“I still live for Victoria,” was the only sentence inscribed by the unhappy prisoner.The faithful wife now lost not a moment in devising some other plan for her husband’s escape. She pondered all the next day, and part of the next night. As soon as it was dark, she again raised her kite by the side of the tower, placed a note under its wing, in which she bade her husband be of good cheer, promising all her assistance, and suggesting his making a breach in the wall with the implements already afforded him. To this, on the following night, Albert replied, stating the utter impracticability of the plan, by reason of the thickness of the wall; but urging her to procure a sufficient quantity of gunpowder, by which the masses of stone might be separated and a breach made.Victoria seized the hint, and with the rapidity of thought, made her arrangements. By means of the kite, the following night, a stouter line was raised to the aperture, and from this, one still stronger; and by means of the last, the prisoner drew up several other cutting implements—a boring auger, and several parcels of gunpowder. Lastly, a still larger cord was drawn up; and it was then arranged that on the following night, the attempt should be made to blast the massive walls of the tower.The next day, Victoria was busily employed in arranging the means of escape. She had procured the dress of a friar, both for herself and husband, and wore one over the other; and at midnight, she again took her station below the tower. Again she established the communication between herself and husband; and having raised to himself several other packets of gunpowder, lastly had fastened to the cord thelighted match. But at the very moment of success, she found a strong arm grasping her, and two ruffian soldiers, with unsheathed weapons, close at her breast. She screamed fearfully. The words—“bind her,” startled her still more, for it was the voice of Montalbert, the wretch who had caused the imprisonment of her husband.“Drag her away,” said the count.Victoria clung to the projecting walls of the castle, having fixed her fingers within a clamping-iron, and hung to it with the tenacity of one who clings to life; while her screams and lamentations filled the air. Albert heard it, and judged of the cause. He applied the match to the mine he had pierced through the stones of the tower. With a tremendous crack and explosion, the ancient walls opened, shook, collapsed, and fell. The tower was shattered to its foundation; and prisoner and dungeon, turret and battlement, fell down in one prodigious ruin, and with an uproar that shook the city.Montalbert lay dead among the ruins. The faithful Victoria was miraculously saved, and Albert rose from the fallen stones uninjured. He clasped his beloved wife to his heart, and without losing a moment’s time, both escaped in the confusion and consternation that followed.They soon proceeded far from Italy, to a land where imprisonment for conscience sake is unknown, where spiritual domination cannot usurp nature’s rights; and where the children of God can walk in security and peace; and that land was England. Here they lived the remainder of their days in all the enjoyment which this country of true liberty always affords to the fugitive and stranger.A Pointed Blow.—An invalid sent for a physician, the late Dr. Wheelman, and after detaining him for some time with a description of his pains, aches, &c., he thus summed up with—“Now, Doctor, you have humbugged me long enough with your good-for-nothing pills and worthless syrups; they don’t touch the real difficulty. I wish you to strike the cause of my ailment, if it is in your power to reach it.”“It shall be done,” said the Doctor, at the same time lifting his cane, and demolishing a decanter ofginthat stood upon the sideboard!Inhabitants of an Oyster.—Observations with the microscope have shown that the shell of an oyster is a world occupied by an innumerable quantity of small animals, compared to which the oyster itself is a colossus. The liquid enclosed between the shells of the oyster, contains a multitude of embryos, covered with transparent scales, which swim with ease; a hundred and twenty of these embryos, placed side by side, would not make an inch in breadth.This liquor contains besides, a great variety of animalculæ, five hundred times less in size, which give out a phosphoric light. Yet these are not the only inhabitants of this dwelling; there are, also, three distinct species of worms.“I am transported to see you,” as the convict at New Holland said to the kangaroo.
CHAPTERII.[Concluded.]
Victoriaimmediately saw the propriety of the latter suggestion, and on the following day she disguised herself as a Moorish fruit-seller; and with a basket of vegetables on her head, and her little daughter by her side disguised in the same manner, she got admittance to the outward wards of the castle; and while disposing of her fruit to the governor and his dependants, got into conversation with the soldiery, from whom, however, she could obtain none of the information she wanted.
Her whole time was now occupied by day in visiting the prison in the disguise she had assumed; and at night in keeping up the correspondence of so much importance. By this means, at the suggestion of Albert, she supplied him, not only with writing materials, but with a file, a chisel, and a hammer; and had got even a rope in readiness, should it be required for future operation.
Albert had in the first instance thought of breaking through the walls of his dungeon; but alas! they were eighteen feet thick, and no effort that he could make upon them with the slight tools he possessed, was sufficient to separate them. He had, with great caution, taken out two or three stones in the wall of his dungeon, but the interior stones were so firmly wedged, that they defied him. The labor of his task was enormous; and this was increased from the necessity of replacing every stone in its respective niche, so as to escape the vigilant eye of the keepers. So, at last, poor Albert began to despair.
Victoria, however, whose inventions were more fertile than those of her husband, still comforted him. She told him that she would never desist in her exertions while he remained a prisoner, and bade him have hope and trust. He, however, had little reason to hope, for he was told by one of his guards, that on the next day, he was to be examined for the fourth time.
And examined he was. Torn from his dungeon at midnight, he was again brought before the Inquisition. The examiners sat before him, in a room hung with black. Behind the chair of the chief commissioner, who wore a square cap, shone, in all the brilliance of pure white silver, an image of the crucified Redeemer; and beneath it, a skull and cross bones. The marquis was bound, and without being asked a single question,was placed at once upon a rack in the corner of the room. A physician stood by his side to watch his agonies, and to stop the torture when beyond human endurance; and the secretary of the fraternity sat ready to record the answers to the questions put to the unhappy man.
Thus tortured to confess crimes which he never committed, the marquis had every bone dislocated; and when nature gave up the contest, and he sunk into stupor, he was removed back to his dungeon. For some days, he remained in the most helpless condition, without being able to move a limb, except in exquisite torture. Yet, after a time, his system recovered its wonted strength, and Albert was again inspired with hope.
Victoria Colonna had pursued the same course of communication previously adopted for several successive days, and receiving no answer to her signs, was at last on the brink of despair. She believed that the wickedness of man had done its worst, and that her husband had escaped by death from the power of the tormentor. Day after day, she watched with anxious longing for some sign of his still being an inhabitant of the earth; but no sign was given to her, and she was on the point of giving up all further exertions, when on one of her nightly walks and watchings round the captive’s tower, her ear was delighted with the well-known clatter of a piece of tile. She ran to the spot, and once more recognized the well-known handwriting of Albert—“I still live for Victoria,” was the only sentence inscribed by the unhappy prisoner.
The faithful wife now lost not a moment in devising some other plan for her husband’s escape. She pondered all the next day, and part of the next night. As soon as it was dark, she again raised her kite by the side of the tower, placed a note under its wing, in which she bade her husband be of good cheer, promising all her assistance, and suggesting his making a breach in the wall with the implements already afforded him. To this, on the following night, Albert replied, stating the utter impracticability of the plan, by reason of the thickness of the wall; but urging her to procure a sufficient quantity of gunpowder, by which the masses of stone might be separated and a breach made.
Victoria seized the hint, and with the rapidity of thought, made her arrangements. By means of the kite, the following night, a stouter line was raised to the aperture, and from this, one still stronger; and by means of the last, the prisoner drew up several other cutting implements—a boring auger, and several parcels of gunpowder. Lastly, a still larger cord was drawn up; and it was then arranged that on the following night, the attempt should be made to blast the massive walls of the tower.
The next day, Victoria was busily employed in arranging the means of escape. She had procured the dress of a friar, both for herself and husband, and wore one over the other; and at midnight, she again took her station below the tower. Again she established the communication between herself and husband; and having raised to himself several other packets of gunpowder, lastly had fastened to the cord thelighted match. But at the very moment of success, she found a strong arm grasping her, and two ruffian soldiers, with unsheathed weapons, close at her breast. She screamed fearfully. The words—“bind her,” startled her still more, for it was the voice of Montalbert, the wretch who had caused the imprisonment of her husband.
“Drag her away,” said the count.
Victoria clung to the projecting walls of the castle, having fixed her fingers within a clamping-iron, and hung to it with the tenacity of one who clings to life; while her screams and lamentations filled the air. Albert heard it, and judged of the cause. He applied the match to the mine he had pierced through the stones of the tower. With a tremendous crack and explosion, the ancient walls opened, shook, collapsed, and fell. The tower was shattered to its foundation; and prisoner and dungeon, turret and battlement, fell down in one prodigious ruin, and with an uproar that shook the city.
Montalbert lay dead among the ruins. The faithful Victoria was miraculously saved, and Albert rose from the fallen stones uninjured. He clasped his beloved wife to his heart, and without losing a moment’s time, both escaped in the confusion and consternation that followed.
They soon proceeded far from Italy, to a land where imprisonment for conscience sake is unknown, where spiritual domination cannot usurp nature’s rights; and where the children of God can walk in security and peace; and that land was England. Here they lived the remainder of their days in all the enjoyment which this country of true liberty always affords to the fugitive and stranger.
A Pointed Blow.—An invalid sent for a physician, the late Dr. Wheelman, and after detaining him for some time with a description of his pains, aches, &c., he thus summed up with—
“Now, Doctor, you have humbugged me long enough with your good-for-nothing pills and worthless syrups; they don’t touch the real difficulty. I wish you to strike the cause of my ailment, if it is in your power to reach it.”
“It shall be done,” said the Doctor, at the same time lifting his cane, and demolishing a decanter ofginthat stood upon the sideboard!
Inhabitants of an Oyster.—Observations with the microscope have shown that the shell of an oyster is a world occupied by an innumerable quantity of small animals, compared to which the oyster itself is a colossus. The liquid enclosed between the shells of the oyster, contains a multitude of embryos, covered with transparent scales, which swim with ease; a hundred and twenty of these embryos, placed side by side, would not make an inch in breadth.
This liquor contains besides, a great variety of animalculæ, five hundred times less in size, which give out a phosphoric light. Yet these are not the only inhabitants of this dwelling; there are, also, three distinct species of worms.
“I am transported to see you,” as the convict at New Holland said to the kangaroo.