Page:Iron shroud, or, Italian revenge (1).pdf/14

 being, abandoned to himself, descrteddeserted [sic] of all, and denied even the sad privilegoprivilege [sic] of knowing that his cruel destiny would awaken pity! Alone he was to pcrishperish [sic]!—alone he was to wait a slow coming torture, whose most exquisite pangs would be inflicted by that very solitude and that tardy coming!

"It is not death I fear," he exclaimed, "but the death I must prepare for! Methinks, too, I could meet even that—all horrible and revolting as it is—if it might overtake me now. But wherowhere [sic] shall I find fortitude to tarry till it come! How can I outlive the three long days and nights I have to live? There is no power within me to bid thothe [sic] hideous spectre hence—none to make it familiar to my thoughts; or mysclfmyself [sic], 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 itsclfitself [sic], and drink no more of the cup that is presented to me, than my fainting spirit has already tasted!"

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, IIisHis [sic] mind was overwhelmed with others of a far grcatergreater [sic] magnitude. It suggested, however, a feeble hope of deliveranccdeliverance [sic]; and there is no hope so feeble, as not to yield some support to a heart bending under despair. He resolved to watch, during the ensuing night, for the signs hche [sic] had before obscrvedobserved [sic]; and should hohe [sic] again feel the gentle, tremulous motion of the floor, or the current of air, to seize that moment for giving audible expression to his misery. Some pcrsonperson [sic] must bobe [sic] near