LOST IN THE CATACOMBS.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1492, 21 November 1874, Page 5 (Supplement)

LOST IN THE CATACOMBS.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF AN AMERICAN —TWENTY HOUES IN THE DARKNESS UNDER PARIS. A correspondent of the Cleveland " Leader" visited the catacombs of Paris recently, fell behind his companions, was lost, and spent twenty hours in the dreadful place. He gives the following descriptions of his dreadful experience : The stairway, on which we were descending, was winding and darcp, and at each step the air grew colder and the gloom more impenetrable ; and the lights flared and flamed upward, as if striving to escape from the awful darkness that their rays so poorly dispelled. Once at the bottom, a shudder shook my frame as darkness closed in about us, and the damp wind rushing past, tugged at my garments as if, fearing for my welfare, it were persuading me to return to the life and suushine of the upper world. Our course lay to the right, for we were to make our exit by stairway leading out on to the Rue Dareau. Our party strung out behind the guide, and with their lights borne aloft, looked like a glittering monster creeping among the caverns and under the arches. At first there was a forced gaiety, but the laughter rung out upon the terrible silence and echoed and jumped from crevice to cavern, until it sounded like a wail of the dead, or the mirth of fiends, and the gaiety that had entered with us soon died out, and we were as sombre as the place, and as sober as those who follow the dead in silence. An occasional pause ensued to afford opportunity to inspect the inscriptions on the walls, or to examine the surroundings. Entering a narrow passage, some rude tracings on the rock attracted my attention, and I lingered to examine them. It seemed to me but a moment that I tarried, and when I sought the party with an eager search of the gloom, their lights had disappeared. I was not alarmed, for I knew they could not be far off. I hastened in the direction to which I saw them last, following with hasty step, but I failed to discover them. Now it began to occur to me that I was lost, and I cried with lusty voice and long, but it came back to me in a thousand airs and echoes as if I had been answered by the skulls that were so numerous not far off. My apprehension gave double vigor to my limbs, and I dashed onward with a despairing energy, not knowing whither I ran, but running because I found j comfort in action. At every turn I peered with hungry eyes into the pitchy darkness of the passages, vainly striving to discern the presence of some living soul beside myself, but I saw nothing. Again I cried out until it seemed my very lungs must burst with the effort, and again and again, and all

the answer that came was tlie shrieking of a million echoes that were fall of horror and sepulchral, groanings. The ; li^ht burned low and added not a little j to my anxiety, as it must soon burn ' out and leave me in utter darkness. j Again I hurried on, and after twisting every way, I entered a widej1 passage ' than I had yet passed through, when, I horror of horrors! I stood face to face ] with grinning skulls, whose empty \ sockets gazed at me from rows of bones that ranged above my head. Never had I see^i such a terrible spectacle. All terrors I had experienced in my life ! combined could not equal the agony of thatone moment. Alone with three millions of dead ! The awful reality of my situation came upon me with a ! rush, bearing with it the agonizing possibilities of death, and the suffering , that would ensue in such ?. place. My : heart stood still, the cold sweat oozed [ from my pores in great drops, the clammy wind fanned me in sullen j gusts, as if the black wing of death had brushed my brow. The silence was oppressive, the darkness a weight. But in a moment I recovered myself and hurried forward while the bones and the skulls seemed to clutch and mock at mo as as I passed, as if they envied me the life 1 had. On, on, I went, but there seemed no end, and suddenly the light flared up, trembled and flrshed out, and darkness settled over me like a pall. 1 stood awhile in amazement lost in a dull stupor. I was bewildered and could scarcely think. The sudden transition from life, with all its possibilities and hopes, to another region, that was not of life or death, but led down to the latter, with no opening to the former, was so quick and unlooked for that the change robbed me of my thought and feeling, and I groped in mental blindness. By degrees my mind struggled into its normal condition, and I began to weigh the chances of life and death, and calculated them as coolly as the interest oil an investment. Eora while I wandered in the darkness until tired nature could no more, and shrank away into a passage, leading from the horrible array of bones, and sank down beside a pillar to a troubled rest axed dreams. My life was traced, step by step, along the line of years that seemed so long in living and so short when looked at; now a day all sunshine, and another all cloud : now wandering through flowery meads, now struggling up a rugged path until the present was reached and I seemed to stand upon an eminence, and, bidding adieu to all behind, I struck out on a narrow foot-bridge that led over an unfatomablo chasm and whose farther end was lost in darkness. When I had walked far out the bridge melted away, and I felt myself falling, falling like a star through a space that had no limit, and around me on every side were a thousand gibbering, laughing fiends, who were wild with glee over my presence. At length I alighted gently on ? solid surface, and was instantly surrounded by millions of skeletons, who danced and grimaced about me in a pale, phosphorescent light that made the darkness beyond them blacker. The air was uproarious with the rattling of bones, but I pushed away amidst the ghastly mob and hurried forward towards a luminous light in the distance. As I approached it it gL-ew brighteiymd my ghostly attendants fell behind. At length I stood before a gigantic gate whose top was lost in the gloom above, and which was as immovable as a mountain. Before it stood two beings unlike any that I had ever seen. One was clad in shining garments, and a bright star sparkled on its forehead, and its countenance was beaming with hope, and peace, and joy. The other was clad in a robe of deepest black, npon the front of which was worked in white skull and bones. Its face was sad and cold, and its eyes were dull and lifeless. They conversed together long and earnestly, and I was able to glean from their conversation that I was in the realms of Death, and Life had come to claim me, and Death was loth to give me up. At length Life unrolled a long chart, and pointed to Death that I had not yet lived my destiny and must be permitted to go forth and complete it. Death ceased his objections and the great gate swung with a terrible squeaking of its rusty hinges, and O what a glorous view opened before me] Then the busy world was mapped out in plains, mountains, rivers, cities, and people engaged in every occupation, and Life pointed the way and I rushed into existence once more. At last I awoke full of hope, but it was brief, for I soon comprehended my situation, and gloom and melancholy settled over me. I tried to accept the gloom as a good omen, and cheer myself with the consolation that its realization was not far off. I could hear the carriages rattling in the streets overhead, and I knew another day had dawned on earth. As near as I could make out by running my fingers over the face of my watch, it was about nine o'clock, and I had spent twenty hours in the catacombs. I began to feel the pangs of thirst and hunger and settled down into a state of dejection. Hark ! I hear voices ! No, I must have been mistaken. But listen, there comes a faint sound floating on the heavy air, as if it had been wafted to my ears from miles away. The blood ran wildly to my heart. In an instant hope was alive and strong! I called out with a shout that made the caverns tremble! The echoes come and go, growing fainter and

fainter, and then die out. What an agony of suspense was crowded into ■ one brief second, as I strained every | muscle and movement into silence to ! catch the response! It came, and my [ heart leaped for joy. In another moment came the glimmer of lights, and ' another and I was safe among the ! living. Then came explanations as we hurried towards the entrance, for I I had my till of the Paris catacombs. My friends had not missed me until after they had left the catacombs, but felt no apprehension then, as it had often ! been my custom in moments of caprice to leave them without a word of notice, and they gave themselves no uneasiness. . But as the night wore away, and I did ! appear at the hotel, the suspicion began to grow lip them that I had gone , astray in the catacomb. At early dawn 1 they revealed their fears to the officials, ! secured passes and guides, and set out 'in search of me, with what rasults you 1 know. In a few moments I was once more breathing the pure, sweet, delicions air of life. It was Monday. To the l-ight towered the majestic dome of the Pantheon, and thither I was tempted to hasten and sing, " Praise God from whom all blessings flow," until the arches and vaults rang with the joy of my gratitude. But I didn't; I went and got something to eat. i . ,