William Mudford

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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 eonsider them ; he could discover nothing, absolutely nothing, to relieve his doubts or satisfy his curiosity. Sometimes he faneied 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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, traeed by a human hand! He rushes towards them: but his blood freezes as he reads:
"I, Ludovica Sforza, tempted by the gold of the prinee of Tolfi, spent three years in eontriving and exeeuting this aceursed triumph of my art. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. But this circumstance no longer excited his surprise, IIis mind was overwhelmed with others of a far grcater magnitude. It suggested, however, a feeble hope of deliverancc; and there is no hope so feeble, as not to yield some support to a heart bending under despair. ”

“ Frequently he would stop and for some sound that might betoken the vicinity of man ; but the solitude of the desert, the silenee of the tomb, are not so still and deep as the oppressive desolation by which he was cneompassed. His heart sunk within him, and hc threw himself dejectedly upon his couch of straw. Hero sleep gradually obliterated the conscioucness of misery, and bland dreams wafted his delightcd spirit to scenes which were once glowing realities for him, in whose ravishing illusions he soon lost the remembrance that he was Tolfi’s prisoner. ”

“ Some pcrson must bo 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 possibility of his worst fears being visionary.
The night eame; and as the hour approached when Vivenzio imagined he might expect the signs, he stood fixed and silent as a statue. He feared to breathe, almost, lest ho might lose any sound which would warn him of their coming. ”

“ 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 ”

“ When he grew more calm, he surveyed his gloomy dungeon. Alas! thc stronger light of day only served to confirm what the gloomy indistinctness of the preceding evcning 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 excited his surprisc and curiosity. Thc onc, he thought might be fancy; but the other, was positive. His pitcher of water, and the dish which contained his food, had been removed from his sido while he slept, and now stood near the door. ”

“ Still lost in wondcr at the means, Vivenzio could put no cheat upon his rcason, as to the end. By what horrible ingenuity it was contrived, that walls, and roof, and windows should thus silently and imperceptibly, without noise, and without motion almost, fold, as it were, within each other, he knew not. He only kncw they did so; and hc vainly strove to persuade himself it was the intention of thc contriver, to rack thc miserable wretch who might be immured there, with anticipation, merely, of a fate, from which in the very crisis of his agony, hc was to be reprieved. ”

“ Thc iron bedstead had been so contrived, by the mechanical art of Ludovico Sforza, that as the advancing walls came in contact with it, head and feet, a pressuro was produced upon concealed springs, which when made to play, sct 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 whieh the preceding ones had aroused. ”

“ 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. ”