Page:Iron shroud, or, Italian revenge (1).pdf/20

 transformation. The object was, of course, to heighten, in the closing scene of this horrible drama, all the feelings of despair and anguish whiehwhich [sic] the preceding ones had aroused. For the same reason, the last window was so made as to admit only a shadowy kind of gloom, rather than light, that the wretehedwretched [sic] captive might be surrounded, as it were, with every seeming preparation for approaching death.

Vivenzio seated himself on his bier. Then he knelt and prayed fervently ; and sometimes tears would gush from him. The air seemed thick, and he breathed with diffieultydifficulty [sic]; or it might be that he fancied it was so, from the hot and narrow limits of his dungeon, whiehwhich [sic] were now so diminished that he eouldcould [sic] neither stand up nor liolie [sic] down at his full length. But his wasted spirits and oppressed mind no longer struggled within him. He was past hope, and fear shook him no more. Happy if thus revenge had struekstruck [sic] its final blow; for he would havohave [sic] fallen beneath it almost unconseiousunconscious [sic] of a pang. But suehsuch [sic] a lethargy of thothe [sic] soul, after suehsuch [sic] an exeitementexcitement [sic] of its fiercest passions, had entered into thohe [sic] diaboliealdiabolical [sic] calculations of Tolfi; and thothe [sic] full artifieerartificer [sic] of his designs had imagined a counteracting devieodevice [sic].

The tolling of an enormous bell struekstruck [sic] upon the ears of Vivenzio! He started. It beat but once. The sound was too close and stunning, it seemed to shatter his very brain, while it echoed through the rocky passages like reverberating peals of thunder. This was followed by a sudden crash of the roof and walls, as if they were about to fall upon and closoclose [sic] around him at once. Vivenzio screamed, and instinctively spread forth his arms, as though he had a giant’s strength to hold them