I I If -ii'lC- ill lllltF f r Jit. TEK1 jr c .e " j AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. "aJ!L?' Vol. VI. Ncsv Bloomfteld, Pn., Tuesday, Mnyl4,1872. No. SO. ijc Ioomfiflb pints. IS PUBLISH KU CVSRT TUESDAY MOKMNO, BT ; FEANS JiOETIMEE & CO., At New Bloomflcld, Tciry Co., Ta. Bolnit provided with Steam Power, and large Cylinder and .lob-Pres-ie, we are prepared to do all kinds of Job-Printing In good style and at Low Prices. Two Escapes. COtiCLODED. ONLY two window looked out upon the garden from the back of the guard house. From one of thoso windows I had just now let myself down, and the other was partly shuttered up. 1 did . not dare, how ever, openly to cross the garden. I drop ped upon my face and crawled in the fur rows between the rows of vegetables until I came to the ditch. Hero the water rose nearly to my waist, but the banks on cith er side were considerably higher; and, by stooping, I found that I could walk without bringing my head to the level of the road. I thus followed the course of the ditch for some two or three hundred yHrds in the di rection of Toulon, thinking that my pur suers would be less likely to suspect me of doubling back toward prison than of push, ing forward toward the country. Half ly ing, half crouching under the rank grasses that fringed the bank above, I thou watched the gathering shadows. By-and-by I heard the evening gun; and, a minute after, some thing like a distant sound of voices. Hark ! was that a shout? Unable to endure the agony of suspense, I lifted my head and peeped cautiously out. There were lights moving in the windows of the guard-house, there were dark figures in the garden, there were hasty tramplings of feet on the road above ! Presontly a light flashed over the water only a few yards from my hiding- place 1 I slid geutly down ut full length, and suffered the foul ooze to close noiselessly over me. Lying thus, I held my breath till the very beatings in my heart seemed to suffocate mo and the veins of my temples were almost bursting. I could bear it no longer I rose to the surface I breathed again I looked I listened. All was dark ness and silence. My pursuers wore gone by ! '. . i ' . ', . i , . I suffered an hour to go by, too, before 1 ventured to move again. By that time it was intensely dark, and had begun to rain heavily. The water in the ditch became brawling torrent, through which I waded unheard, past the very windows of a guard house.' After toiling through the water for mile or more, I ventured out upon tbo road again; and so, with the rain and wind beat ing in my face, and the scattered boulders tripping me up continually, I made my way through the whole length of the winding pass, and came out upon the more open country about midnight. With no other guide than tho wind, which was blowing from the northeast, and without even star toheln me, 1 then struck off to the right, following what seemed to be a rough by-road lying through a valley. By-and-by the rain abated, and I discerned the dark outline of chain of hills extending all along to the left of the road. These, I con cluded, must be the Maures. All was well so far. I had taken the right direction, and was on the way to Italy. Excepting to sit down, now and then, uy tue wayside, 1 never paused in my flight all the night through. Fatigue and want of food prevented me, it is true, from walking very fast; but the love of liberty was strong within me; and, by keeping steadily on, I succeeded in placing about eighteen miles between myself and Toulon. At five o clock just a the day began to dawn, I heard a peal of chimes, and found that I was approaching a large town. In order to avoid this town I was forced to turn back for some distance, and take to ie nuigiit. i lie sun nau now risen, and I dared go no further: so, having pulled some turnips in a field as I went along, I took refuge in a little lonely copse, In a hollow among the hills, and there lay all day In safety. When night again closed in I resumed my journey, keeping alwayi among the mountains, and coming, now and then, on grand glimpses of moon-lit bays, and tranquil islands lying off the shore; now and then, on pastoral hamlets nestled up among the palmy heights, or on promontories overgrown with the, cac tus and the aloe. I rested all the accoud day in a ruined shed at the bottom of a do sorted sand-pit, and in the evening feeling that I could no longer sustain life without some fitting nourishment, made my way own toward a tiny fishing village on the coast below. It was quite dark by the time I reached the level ground. I walk ed boldly past the cottage of the fishermen, meeting only an old woman and a Utile child on the way, and knocked on the cure's door. He opened it himself. I told my story in a half dozen words. The good men be lieved and pitied mo. He gave me food and wine, an old handkerchief to wrap around my head, an old coat' to replace my convict's jacket, and two or three francs to help me on my way. I parted from him with tears. I walked all that night again, and all the next, keeping somewhat close upon the coast, and hiding among the cliffs during the daytime. On the fifth morning, having left Antibcs behind me during tho night's march, I came to the banks of the Var, crossed tbo torrent about half a mile below the wooden bridge, plunged into the pine- woods on the Sardinian side of the frontier, and lay down to rest on Italian ground at last t My story would be too long to give in full all the details of how, though compar atively safe, I still pursued my journey by the least frequented ways how I bought a file at the first hamlet to which I camo, and freed myself from tho iron anklet how, having lurkod about Nice till my hair and beard had grown, I begged my way to Ge noa how I worked my passage on board a small trader from Genoa to Fumicino, touching at all the ports along the coast and how, coming slowly up the Tiber in a barge laden with oil and wine, I landed, one evening in March, on the Kipetta quay, in Home. In so largo a city, and at so great a distanco from the scene of my im prisonment, I was personally safe. I might hope to turn my talents and education to account. Outcast that I was, I slept that night un der a dark arch near the theatre of Marcel lus. The morning dawned upon a Glorious clay, and I crept out shivering into the sun shine. Lying crouching against a bit of warm wall, I caught myself wondering more than once how long it would be worth while to endure the agonies of hunger, and whether the brown waters of the Tiber wero deep enough to drown a man. It seemed hard to die so young. My future might have been so ploasant, so honorable I The rough life that I had been leading of late, too, had strengthened me in every way, physically and mentally. I had grown taller. My muscles were mora developed. I was twice as active as energetic, as resolute, as had been a year before. And of what use were these things tome? I must die, and they could only serve to mako me die the harder. I got up and wandored about the streets, as I had wandered the day before. Once I asked fur alms, and was repulsed. I fol lowed mechanioally in the stream of car riages and foot-passengers, and found my self, by-and-by, in the midst of the orowd that ebbs and flows continually about Bt. Peters's during Easter week. Btupifled and weary, I turned aside into the vestibule of the Sagrestia, and cowered down in the shelter of ' a doorway. Two gentlemen were reading a printed paper wafered against a pillar close by. " Good heavens I" said one to the other, " that a man should risk his neck for a few pauls I" " Ay, and with tue knowiouge that, out of eighty workmen, as many as six or eight are dashed to pieces evoiythne." added his companion. "Shocking 1 Why, that is an average of teu per cent I" " No less. It Is a desperate service." " But a fine sight," said the first speaker, philosophically; aud with this they walked away. X sprang to my ioet, and read tue pla card with avidity. It was headed, "Illu mination of Saint Peter's," and announced that eighty workmen - being required for the lighting of the dome and cupola, and three hundred for the cornices, pillars, col onnade, and so forth. In conclusion, It stated that every workman employed on the dome and cupola should receive in pay ment a dinner and twenty-four pauls, the wages of the rest being less than a third of that sum. ' A desperate service, it was true; but I was a desperate man. After all, I could but die, and I might as well die after a good dinner as from starvation. . I went at onoe to the adminiiirator, was entered in his list, received a oouplo of pauls as earn est of the contract, and engaged to present myself punctually at eleven o'clock on the following morning. That evening J supped at a street stall, and, for a few bajoocbt, ob tained leave to sleep pn some straw in a loft over a stable at the back of the Via del Aroo. At eleven o'clock on the morning of Easter Sunday, April sixteonth, I found myself, accordingly, in the midst of a crowd of poor fellows, most of whom, I dare say were as wretched as myself, waiting at the door of administrator's office. As the clock struck the hour, the folding-doors were thrown open, and we passed in a crowd, into a hall, where two long tables wero laid for our accommodation. A couple of sen tinels stood at the door; an usher marshall ed us, standing, round tables, and a priest read grace. As he began to read, a strange sensation came upon mo. I felt compelled to look across the opposite table, and there yes, by Heaven ! there I saw Gasparo 1 He was looking full at me, but bis eyes dropped on meeting mino. I saw him turn vividly white. The recollection of all he had made mo suffer, and of the dastardly blow he had dealt me on the day of our flight, overpowered for tho moment even my surprise at seeing him in this place. Oh, that I might live to meet him yet, un der the free sky, whero no priest was pray ing, and no guards were by 1 Tho grace over, we sat down and fell to. Not cvon anger had power to blunt the edge of my appetite just then. I ate like a famishing wolf, and so did most of the oth ers. v e were allowed no wine, and the doors were locked upon us, that we might not procure any elsewhere. It was a wise regulation, considering the task we had to perform. The dinner lasted long, and when no one seemed disposed to eat more, the tables were cleared. Most of the men threw themselves, on the floor and benches and went to sleep, Gasparo among the number. Seeing this, I could lefrain no longer. I wout over and stirred him roughly with my foot. " Gasparo I You know me !" Ho looked up suddenly. " Devil s mass ! I thought you were at Toulon." " It is not your fault that I am not at Toulon ! Listen to me. If you and I sur vive this night, you shall answer to me for your treachery 1 He glared at me from under his deep brows, and without replying, turned over on his face again, as if to sleep. ".becoun maiadettoi" (There s an ac cursed fellow !) said one of the others, with a significant shrug, as I came away "Do you know anything of.liim?"! asked. " Nothing, but that he is said to be wolf and a blasphemer." I could learn no more, so I also stretched myself upon the floor, as far as possible from my enemy, and in a very few moments fell profoundly asleep. ' . At seven, the guards roused those who still slopt, and served each man with a small mug of thin wine. We were then formed into a double file, marched round by the back of the cathedral, and conduoted , up and Inclined plane to the roof below the dome. From this point, a long series of staircases and winding passages carried us up between the double walls of the dome and, at different stages in the ascent, a cer tain number of us were detached and post ed ready for work. I was dotachod about half way up, and I saw Gasparo going higher still. When we were all posted, the superintendents came round and gave us our instructions. At a given signal every man was to pass out through the loop-hole or window before which he was placed, and seat himself astride upon a narrow shelf of wood hanging to a strong rope just below, 1 ins rope came turougu tue window, was wound round a roller, and secured from within. At the next signal a lighted torch was put in his right hand, and he was to grasp the rope firmly with his left. At the third slgnul the rope was to be unwound from within by an assistant placed there for the purpose, he was to be allowed to slide rapidly down over the' curve of tho dome, and, while thus, sliding, was to apply his torch to every lamp he passed in his down ward progress. Having received these Instructions, we waited, each man at his window, until the first signal should be given. It was fast getting dark, and the silver 11 lumination had been lighted since seven All the great ribs of the dome, as fur as oould see; all the cornices and friezes of the facade below; all the columns aud parapets of the great colonnade surrounding the pi azza four hundred feet below, were traced out in lines of paper lanterns, Jhe light from wh ich, subdued by the paper, gleam ed with a silvery fire which had a magical and wonderous look. Between and among these lantornonl were placed at different in tervals all over the cathedral on the side facing the piazza, iron cups, called pa&llo, ready filled with tallow and turpentine. To light those on the dome and cupola was the the perilous task of the sunpietrlnl; when they were all lighted, the golden iUumina- tion would be effected. A few moments of intense suspense elapsed. At every second the evening grew darker, the lantemoiii burned brighter, the surging hum of thousands in the piazza and streets below rose louder to our ears. felt the quickening breath of the assistant at my shoulder I could almost hear the beating of my heart. Suddenly, like the passing of an electric current, the first sig nal flew from lip to lip. I got out and crossed my legs firmly round the board with the second signal, I seized the blazing torch with the third, I felt myself launch ed, and, lighting evory cup as I gli ded past, saw all the mountainous dome above and below mo spring into lines of leaping flame. The clock was now striking eight, and when the last stroke sounded, the whole cathedral was glowing in outlines of fire. A roai, like the roar of a great ocean, rose up from tho multitude below. and seemed to shake the very dome against which I was clinging. I could even see the light upon the gazing faces, the crowd upon the bridge of St. Angelo, and the boats swarming along the Tiber. Having diopped safely to the full length of my rope, and lighted my allotted share of lumps, I was now sitting in secure en joyment of this amazing scene. - All at once I felt the rope vibrate. I looked, up saw a man clinging by one hand to the iron rod supporting the padcllo, and with the other Merciful Heaven ! It was the Picdmontese firing tho rope above me with his torch ! I hadno time for thought I acted upon instinct. It was done in one fearful mo ment. I clambered up like a cat, dashed my torch full in the felon's face, and grasp ed the ropo an inchior two above the spot where it was burning 1 Blinded and baffled, he uttered a terrible cry, aud dropped like a stone. Through all the roar of the living ocean below, I could hear the dull crash with which he came down upon the leaded roof. Echoing through all the years that have gone by since that night, I hear it now. I had scarcely drawn breath, when found myself being hauled up. The as sistance came not a moment too soon, for was sick and giddy with horror, and faint ed as soon as I was safo in the corridor. The next day I waited on the administra- tore, and told him all that had happened My statement was corroborated by the va cant rope from which Gasparo had de scended, aud the burnt fragment by which I had been drawn up. The ainminlstra- tore repeated my story to a prolato high in office; and while none, even of the sanpiet rini, suspected that my enemy had come by his death in any unusual manner, the truth was whispered from palace to palace, until it reached the Vatican. I received much sympathy, and such ' pecuniary assistance as enabled me to confront the futuro with out fear. ' Since that timo my fortunes have been various. I have lived in many countries, and known many strange ad ventures; but never, before or since, found myself in such tcrriblo company as on the dome of St. Peter's, that memorablo Eas ter Sunday night, where I made my second escape from death A DESPERATE FIGHT. r II HE celebrated fight beetween Adam J Foe and the Shawnee chief, Black Father, has been spoken of in tho histories of early Kentucky, but I believe the par ticulars of that combat have never been given correctly to the public. The fight was remarkablo not only on account of tho well known powers of the parties engaged, but for the exceoding stubbornness with which it was conducted, and f lie many different phases It assumed before being brought to an end. They Utterly fought on the earth, in the ait and under the water. Adam Poe, one of the first settlers of Kentucky, had often expressed a desire to meet the chief of the Shawnee In a hand to-hand combat, and these boastings having reached the ears of Black Father, he declar ed his intention of seeking out the daring white man. This, for two reasons, he actually did, but circumstances combined to keep them apart for that time. Fiually, however, the opportunity came. Adam Poe and his brother had been out hunting, and wore returning towards sun down, bearing a buck on a polo between them. When passing a thicket a shot was fired at them, the ball lodging in the head of the deer, which was naxt to Adam Poe. To drop the burden and rush for th ambush was but the work of a second, Adam taking too right and his brother taking the left band side. The thicket proving much larcir than either thought,. hey became more widely separated than was intended, and Adam was upon the point of returning to where the deer had. been left, when at a distance he discovered the gigantic form of the Shawnee chief, who was just ia the act of firing upon him. '' " Adam had, time to reach eover before the shot was made and then began a eciica of tactics, such as were rarely witnessed In these wiltfe), for two of tho most noted war riors tt the day wero each striving to gain an advantage over the other. Foot by foot they drew nearer to each other, leaping from tree to tree, from stump to stump, or rock to rock, as the case might be. Imperceptible to each other, perhaps, they gradually "worked" round, until both stood on tho vergo of a high bluff bank overlooking the river facing each other, but some twenty paces apart. Here, from behind separate trees, the wily foemeu strovo to obtain a shot; and at last, Adam, thinking he saw his chance, fired at the exposed hip of the chief. - He missed his aim, and like an unchained lion, the gigantio Indian rushed from hi cover and bore down upon the nowise un daunted white man. Half-way they met, the Indian wieldinif his tomahawk, having cast asido his rifle, while Adam laid his hopes and prospects upon the keen blado of his bunting knife. With a shock they both met midway. and then began a struggle such as is rarely witnossed between two of tho human kind. Poe was not quite as tall as tho. Shaw nee but he was fully as strong, aud much more active; and so the fight was about upon an equal footing, . For many minutes they struggled back and forth upon the grassy level, now clon ing in tho attempt to throw each other, and failing in this, again resorting to blows. dealt with tomahawk or knife. By this time botli were wounded in sev eral places, the chief probably the more severely of the two. At length in making a savage stroke with his weapon tbo grasp of the redskin slipped, and tho light ax wont whirling far into the river. ' In an instant tho Indian grappled, anil a struggle, fiercer than any that had yet taken place, ensued, each putting forth every effort until, approaching to near tho precipice, they missed footing, and went tumbling into the stream locked in a deadly embrace. At the point where they fell, the stream was very deep, and the current swift aud strong. The advantage now laid with Adam. Ha was a practiced swimmer, while he quickly discovered that his opponent could not swim at all. The Indian, aware of this, in turn strove to regain the shore, but was thwarted at every point by Poe, who would jerk him back into doep water, and then both would go under together. Finally, falling further out than bereft, fore, the combatants were caught by 'the current, and quickly borne some distanco from land. "' The fight was now all in the white man's favor, and would have beeu quickly ended, but for an unlooked for and unfortunate circumstance. Adam's brother suddenly appeared upon the scene, and taking In his brother's peril, as he thought, nt a glance, ventured upon the hazardous experiment of finishing the chief by a shot. The ball sped, but not truly, for it struck Adam in tho shoulder, almost paralyzing the left arm. His situation now became desperate in deed. He could force the Indian beneath the current, but he could not hold him there and seeing that his own strength !was rap- ' idly departing, he determined to out wind the enemy. . With this object he suddonly threw his arm about the savage a neck, and together they disappeared beneath the surface Adam's brother, standing upon the bank unconscious of the harm he had .done, witnessed this sudden disappearance in dis may. Long he waited for the re-appearance of one or the other, until, at length, be coming thoroughly alarmed he leaped into' the stream and swam for the spot. , , t . , He reached it not a moment too soon. Adam had out-winded the Indian, and In doing so, had nearly drowned himself. They reached the shore iu aufoty but Adam never recovered from the great eer-ertiou.
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