William Mudford

“ Unknowing what it is he does, he fumbles in his garment for some weapon of self-destruction. He clenches his throat in his convulsive gripe, as though he would strangle himself at once. He stares upon the walls, and his warring spirit demands, "will they not anticipate their office if I dash my head against them?" An hysterical laugh chokes him as he exclaims, "why should I? He was but a man who died first in their fierce embrace ; and I should be less than man not to do as much?"
The evening sun was descending, and Vivenzio beheld its golden beams streaming through one of the windows. ”

“ 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 flee from me and I grow mad in looking at it. Oh! for a deep sleep to fall upon me! That so, in death’s likeness, I might embrace death itself and drink no more of the cup that is presented to me, than my fainting spirit has already tasked!”
In the midst of these lamentations, Vivenzio noticed that his accustomed meal, with the pitcher of water, had been conveyed, as before into his dungeon. ”

“ The castle of the Prince of Tolfi was built on the summit of the owering and precipitious rock of Scylla, and commanded a magnificent view of Sicily in all its grandeur. Here during the wars of the middle ages, when the fertile plains of Italy were devastated by hostile factions, those prisoners were confined, for whose ransom a costly price was demanded. Here, too, in a dungeon, excavated deep in the solid rock, the miserable victim was immured, whom revenge pursued,—the dark, fierce, and unpitying revenge of an Italian heart. ”

“ Another morning dawned upon the wretched captive, and the fatal index of his doom met his eyes. Two windows! and two days, and all would be over! Fresh food, fresh water! The mysterious visit had been paid, though he had implored it in vain. But how awfully was his prayer answered in what he now saw! The roof of the dungeon was within a foot his head. The two ends were so near, that in six paces he trod the space between them. Vivenzio shuddered as he gazed, and as his steps traversed the narrowed area. ”

“ Vivenzio partook of the food that was before him, without apprehension. It might be poisoned; but if it were, he knew he could not escape death, should such be the design of Tolfi; and the quickest death would be the speediest release. ”

“ What mind shall conceive, what tongue utter, or what pen describe the dark and terrible character of his thoughts. Like the fate that moulded them, they had no similitude in the wide range of this world’s agony for man. Suddenly he stopped, and his eyes were riveted upon that part of the wall which was over his bed of straw. Words are inscribed here! A human language, traced by a human hand! He rushes towards them; but his blood freezes as he reads:
“I, Ludovica Sforza, tempted by the gold of the Prince of Tolfi, spent three years in contriving and executing this accursed triumph of my art. ”

“ When he grew more calm, he surveyed his gloomy dungeon. Alas! the stronger light of day only served to confirm what the gloomy indistictness of the preceeding evening had partially disclosed, the utter impossibility of escape. As, however, his eyes wandered round and round, and from place to place, he noticed two circumstances which exited his surprise and curiosity. The one, he thought might he fancy; but the other, was positive. His pitcher of water, and the dish which contained his food, had been removed from his side while he slept, and now stood near the door. ”

“ His instant death, under any form of refined cruelty, was not the object of Tolfi, for he might have inflicted it, and he had not. It was too evident, therefore, he was reserved for some premeditated scheme of subtile vengeance ; and what vengeanco could transcend in fiendish malice, either the slow death of famine, or the still slower one of solitary incarceration, till the last lingering spark of life expired, or reason fled, and nothing should remain to perish but the brutc functions of the body! ”

“ 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. He was faint with hunger; weary with watching, and with the excess of his emotions. He tasted of his food; he drank with avidity of the water; and reeling like a drunken man to his straw, cast himself upon it to brood again over the appaling image that had fastened itself upon his almost frenzied thoughts. ”

“ Miserable wreteh, whoe’er thou art, that readest thesc lines, fall on thy knees, and invoke as I have done, His sustaining mercy, who alone can nervo thee to meet tho vengeanee of Tolfi, armed with his tremendous engine, which in a few hours must crush you, as it will the needy wreteh that made it."
A deep groan burst from Vivenzio. He stood like one transfixed, with dilated eyes, expanded nostrils, and quivering lips, gazing at this fatal inscription. It was as if a voice from the sepulchre had sounded in his ears, "Prepare!" Hope forsook him. ”

“ It was evening when Vivenzio entered his dungeon, and the approaching shades of night wrapped it in total darkness, as he paced up and down, revolving in his mind these horrible forebodings. No tolling bell from the castle, or from any neighbouring church or convent, struck upon his ear to tell how the hours passed. Frequently he would stop and listen for some sound that might betoken the vicinity of man ”

“ And what matchless inhumanity it was to doom tho sufferer to such lingering torments—to lead him day by day to so appalling a death, unsupported by tho consolations of religion, unvisited by any human being, abandoned to himself, descrted of all, and denied even the sad privilego of knowing that his cruel destiny would awaken pity! ”

“ The iron bedstead had been so contrived, by the mechanical art of Ludovico Sforza, that as the advancing walls came in contact with its head and feet, a pressure was produced upon concealed springs, which when made to playset in motion a very simple though ingeniously contrived machinery, that effected the transformation. The object was, of course, to heighten, in the closing scene of this horrible drama, all the feelings of despair and anguish which the preceding ones had aroused. ”

“ Being heartly tired of this kind of fare, he applied to the cook: ‘Cookee,’ says Thomas, ‘is it the standing rule of this family to keep their servants on nothing but bread and cheese?‘ 'What!’ says the cook, ‘do you grumble?’ ‘No, no, by no means, cookee,’ replied Thomas, being fearful of forfeiting the money. But recollecting his master’s park was stocked with fine deer, he took a musket and shot a fawn, skinned it, and brought it to the cook. ‘Here cookee,’ said Thomas, ‘take and roast this fawn for me immediately ”

“ Again and again he surveyed them—and the floor—and the roof—and the range of visionary windows, and he was now almost tempted to consider them; he could discover nothing, absolutly nothing, to relieve his doubts or satisfy his curiosity. Sometimes he fancied that altogether the dungeon had a more contracted appearance—that it looked smaller; but this he ascribed to fancy, and the impression naturally produced upon his mind by the undeniable disappearance of two of the windows.
With intense anxiety, Vivenzio looked forward to the return of night ”

“ He resolved to watch, during the ensuing night, for the signs he had before observed; and should he again feel the the gentle, tremulous motion of the floor, or the current of air, to seize that moment for giving audible expression to his misery. Some person must be near him, and within reach of his voice, at the instant when his food was supplied; some one, perhaps, susceptible of pity. Or if not, to be told even that his apprehensions were just, and that his fate was to be what he foreboded, would be preferable to a suspense which hung upon the possibilitp of his worst fears being visionary. ”

“ Being in want of a coachman, not one round the country would venture to go after the placo. Now it happened that one Thomas Winterbourn, a coachman of London, who had bcen discharged from a nobleman’s family, was in that part of the country on a visit, and being acquainted with the oddity of the ’squire’s whim, resolved to accept of tho place, and, on application, was admitted into the family. ”

“ He listened. Not a sound eould be heard. Presently, however, he felt a rush of eold air blow upon him; and dashing towards the quarter whence it seemed to proceed, he stumbled over something whieh he judged to be the water ewer. The rush of cold air was no longer perceptible; and as Vivenzio stretched out his hands, he fonud himself close to tho walls. ”

“ The mere thought of being approached by a living creature, and the opportunity it might present af learning the doom prepared, or preparing, for him, imparted some comfort. Besides, if he came alone, might he not in a furious onset overpower him? ”