ning cell sat a skeleton--found as we saw it--with its neck
in the clutch of the garrote, which was one of Ecelino's more merciful
punishments; while in still another cell the ferocity of the tyrant
appeared in the penalty inflicted upon the wretch whose skeleton had
been hanging for ages--as we saw it--head downwards from the ceiling.

Beyond these, in a yet darker and drearier dungeon, stood a heavy oblong
wooden box, with two apertures near the top, peering through which we
found that we were looking into the eyeless sockets of a skull. Within
this box Ecelino had immured the victim we beheld there, and left him to
perish in view of the platters of food and goblets of drink placed just
beyond the reach of his hands. The food we saw was of course not the
original food.

At last we came to the crowning horror of Villa P----, the supreme
excess of Ecelino's cruelty. The guide entered the cell before us, and,
as we gained the threshold, threw the light of his taper vividly upon a
block that stood in the middle of the floor. Fixed to the block by an
immense spike driven through from the back was the little slender hand
of a woman, which lay there just as it had been struck from the living
arm, and which, after the lapse of so many centuries, was still as
perfectly preserved as if it had been embalmed. The sight had a most
cruel fascination; and while one of the horror-seekers stood helplessly
conjuring to his vision that scene of unknown dread,--the shrinking,
shrieking woman dragged to the block, the wild, shrill, horrible screech
following the blow that drove in the spike, the merciful swoon after the
mutilation,--his companion, with a sudden pallor, demanded to be taken
instantly away.

In their swift withdrawal, they only glanced at a few detached
instruments of torture,--all original Ecelinos, but intended for the
infliction of minor and comparatively unimportant torments,--and then
they passed from that place of fear.

III.

In the evening we sat talking at the Caffe Pedrocchi with an abbate, an
acquaintance of ours, who was a Professor in the University of Padua.
Pedrocchi's is the great caffe of Padua, a granite edifice of Egyptian
architecture, which is the mausoleum of the proprietor's fortune. The
pecuniary skeleton at the feast, however, does not much trouble the
guests. They begin early in the evening to gather into the elegant
saloons of the caffe,--somewhat too large for so small a city as
Padua,--a