OR, WEEKLY THE VISITOR. FOR THE USE AND AMUSEMENT OF BOTH SEXES. VOL. XI.] Saturday, August 4,....1810. THE CAVERN OF STROZZI. (Concluded.) "TWO days after we took the boat; the people who conducted it were devoted to my will, and apprized of my purpose, and we departed by break of day. "During the passage, Antoni, who had the first leaves of the work he intended to publish, upon the singularities of the Cavern of Strozzi, with him, read us the most remarkable passages of it.Zanetta alone listened to himshe was tranquil, and the serenity of her soul suffered her to dwell with rapture on his words; while mine, agitated by the intestine tempest which rent my heart, presented a picture of horrible and uncontroulable passions. "We reached the island, and Antoni landed, elate with satisfaction which science imparts to those who seek it; Zanetta with timid curiosity, and I meditating guilt. "After having crossed the space between the sea and the Cavern, we arrived at its entrance. "Antoni, transported at the [NO. 15. sight, began to explain the wonders of nature which had excited his attention. Zanetta listened attentively to him; and I, silent and thoughtful, waited the signal of vengeance. I heard it. My ferocious heart leaped with joy, and I felt, by the bitterness of the gall which flowed in my veins, that the pleasures of revenge are more delicious than those of love. "At the firing of a pistol, which echoed through the Cavern, Antoni was startled, and Zanetta turned pale. I answered it by another. At that moment, to the surprise of my victims, two armed men advanced towards Antoni, and before he could put himself in a posture of defence, though in fact he was unarmed, they loaded him with chains. Zanetta, half dead with terror, threw herself at my feet, and, without the power of uttering a word, bedewed them with tears. This sight, which might have softened a famished tiger, redoubled my rage. I beheld in the tears of Zanetta only fresh proofs of her love and my dishonour. Perfidious wretch!" I exclaimed, it is not with tears the fury of an enraged lover can be assuaged-it is blood I require. "At these words Antoni uttered a dreadful cry; and nearly breaking his chains, rushed forward like lightning, and seized Zanetta in his arms. "Atrocious woman!' said he, it is not her blood ye shall shed if you thirst for blood, behold my breast-glut yourself with mine; but spare-ah! spare this innocent.' dreadful punishment that awaited By order of the Tribunal she was conveyed to an adjoining apartment, and placed on a bedSoon her features became deformed, and the livid colour of her cheeks announced that she was on the point of becoming the prey of death. Her bosom violently heaved; her eyes looked with wild fury; her lips were black and closed, and only articulated unintelli "I called to my people to separate them. Notwithstanding their entreaties, their cries, the incredible efforts they each made to prevent it, I was obeyed. An-gible blasphemies; in short, after toni exhausted, held forth his trembling hand to me he raised his eyes, overflowing with tearsZanetta turned hers towards me ; she made a painful effort to embrace my knees, and fell on the earth. "Sword of justice, pierce my guilty heart!-Avenging thunder crush me! I seized with one hand the flowing hair of my victim, and with the other, putting aside the veil which covered her bosom, I plunged my poinard to her heart!" Here the senators, who had for some time sat motionless with horror at the recital of such horrid crimes, suddenly rose from their seats, as if by a convulsive movement, and then resumed them, pale with affright. Antoni swooned; and Olympia, stung with remorse, shuddered at the remembrand of her crimes, and the two hours of the most cruel tor- So many endowments of mind and person became, through the influence of her uncontrouled passions, the means of her destruction. Consumed by an inextinguishable desire of pleasure, she pursued its phantoms through the bloody paths of guilt; but it was in vain there is no happiness for the wicked; and love, which is the image of innocence, cannot exist independent of it. Antoni revealed to the Tribunal what he further knew of the se. crets which Olympia had carried with her to the grave. We have seen that this detestable woman was not satisfied with the murder of her rival-she had chained Antoni to Zanetta's dead body, which she had placed in a dark recess of the Cavern, under the guard of two monsters, of whom Ricardo was one; and from time to time she visited her victims, to offer him who still survived, what she called his pardon, that is to say, his liberty, provided he would espouse her. Antoni had always rejected the offer with disdain. He was content with giving a clue to the discovery of his situation, by writing on the transparent leaves of his work, of which Olympia, as a favour, had brought him a copy; fortunately he had with him the means of availing himself of the opportunity, as he never explored the wonders of the Cavern, without previously providing himself with the materials for writing, in order that he might treasure up his remarks. He afterwards addressed, and with the consent of Olympia transmitted the book to the library of St. Mark, which abounded in treatises upon natural history. Not to leave the reader ignorant of the least circumstance of this surprising adventure, it appeared that the very day Olympia was seized, was that which she had appointed either to obtain the con. sent of Antoni, or put him to death The same individuals among whom I had introduced myself to the Cavern, and who had escaped when Olympia was arrested, were discovered by means of the questions put to Ricardo, and were well known; the one as a priest, the others as bravos, who, in case the marriage had taken place, were to have been witnesses to it, and on the contrary event, were to have procured a less pacific means of relief to the wretched Antoni. It is unnecessary to state that the most guilty of these wretches atoned by their lives for the crimes they had committed; the others were confined in dungeons, and some were sent to the gallies of the Republic. The memory of Zanetta was publicly honored. Antoni, after having obtained the necessary assistance from the Tribunal, returned to Peschia to his old uncle, who supposed him dead. I, whom the tribunal honored with a degree, returned thanks to God, who had employed the weak hand of a mortal to punish those secret crimes which he alone had witnessed. PROVERBS. He who will take no pains, will never build a house three stories high. I once had is a poor man. gestion will be easy and good, the body lightsome, the temper cheerful, and all the animal functions performed agreeably. Sleep, when it follows, will be natural and undisturbed. While indolence with full feeding, occasions the incubus and horrors ineffable; we fall from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers and de If the following essay you should - think of sufficient importance to claim a place in your paper, I would thank yon to give it publi-mons, and experience every sort city, and hope it may be productive of much good. As a great part of our life is spent in sleep, during which we have sometimes pleasing and sometimes painful dreams, it becomes of some consequence to obtain the one kind and avoid the other; for, whether real or imaginary, pain is pain, and pleasure is pleasure. If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful dreams are avoided. If while we sleep, we can have any pleasing dreams, it is, as the French say, tant gagne, so much added to the pleasures of life. To this end, it is in the first place necessary to be careful in preserving health by due exercise, and great temperance; for in sickness the imagination is disturbed, and disagreeable, sometimes terrible, ideas are apt o present themselves. Exercise should precede meals, not inimediately follow them; the first promotes the latter, unless mode rate, obstructs digestion. If after exercise we feed sparingly, the di of distress. Observe, however, that the quantities of food and exereise are relative things; those who move much may, and indeed ought to eat more; those who use little exercise, should eat little.In general, mankind since the improvement of cookery, eat about twice as much as nature requires. Suppers are not bad, if we have not dined; but restless nights naturally follow hearty suppers after full dinners. Indeed as there is a great difference in constitutions, some rest well after these, meals; it costs them only a frightful dream, and an apoplexy, after which they sleep till dooms-dayWe frequently read in newspapers instances of people, who after eating a hearty supper, are found dead. Another means of preserving health, to be attended to, is the having a constant supply of fresh air in your bed chamber. It has been a great mistake, the sleeping in rooms exactly closed, and in beds surrounded by curtains. No outward air that may come into you, is as unwholesome as the un changed air, often breathed of a close chamber. As boiling water does not grow hotter by longer boiling, if the particles that receive greater heat can escape: so living bodies do not putrify, if the particles, as fast as they become putrid, can be thrown off. Nature expels them by the pores of the skin and lungs, and in a free open air they are carried off: but in a close room, we perceive them again and again, though they become more and more corrupt. A number of persons crouded into a small room, thus spoil the air in a few minutes, and even render it mortal, as in the Hole of Calcutta. bed-chamber, or put down the glass of a coach.. Confined air, when saturated with perspirable matter, will not receive more; and that must re diseases; but it gives some pre main in our bodies and occasion vious notice of its being about to be hurtful, by producing certain uneasiness, slight indeed at firsta such as with regard to the lungs is a trifling sensation, and to the pores of the skin a kind of rest lessness which is difficult to des cribe, and few that feel it know the cause of it. But we may recollect, that sometimes, on waking in. the night, we have if warmly covered, found it difficult to get asleep again.. We often turn over and over without finding repose in any position. This fidgetness, to use a vulgar expression for want of a better, is occasioned wholly by an uneasiness in the skin, owing to the retention of the perspirable matter the bed clothes having received their quan A single person is said to spoil only a gallon of air a minute, and therefore requires a longer time to spoil a chamber full; but it is done, however, in proportion, and many putrid disorders hence have their origin. It is recorded of Methusalem, who being the longest liver may be supposed to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in the open air. Phy-tity, and being saturated, refusing sicians, after having for ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do them good. It is therefore to be hoped that they may in time dis-proach the part uncovered of his cover, that it is not hurtful to those who are in health; and that we may be then cured of the aerophibia, that at present distresses weak minds, and make them choose to be stifled and poisoned, rather han leave open the windows of a to take any more. To become sensible of this by an experiment let a person keep his position in the bed, but throw off the bed. clothes, and suffer fresh air to ap body: he will then feel that part suddenly refreshed; for the air will immediately relieve the skin,.. by receiving, licking up, and carrying off the load of perspirable matter that incommoded it. For every portion of cool air that ap-.. |