THE KEY OF DEATH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1110, 26 May 1883, Page 1

THE KEY OF DEATH.

In the collection of curiosities is preserved i.i the arsenal at Venice there is a key of which the following singular tradition is related: —

About the year 1600. one of those ' dangerous men, to whom extaordinary talent is only the fearful source of crime and wickedness beyond that of ordinary men, came to establish himself as a merchant or trader in Venice. The stranger, whose name was Tebaldo, became enamored of the daughter of an ancient house, already affianced to another Ho demanded her hand in marriage, and was, of course, rejected. Enraged at this, he studied how to be revenged. Profoundly skilled in the mechanical arts, he allowed himself no rest until he had invented the • most formidable weapon which could_ be imagined. This was a key of large size, the handle of which was so constructed ' that it could be turned round with little difficulty. When turned, it discovered a spring which, on pressure, launched from the other end a needle or lancet of such subtle fineness that it entered into the flesh,and buried itself there without leavirigexternal trace. Tebaldo waited in disguise at the door of the church in which the maiden whom he loved was about to receive the nuptial benediction. The assassin sent the sharp steel unperceived into ‘the breast of tho bridegroom. The wounded man had no suspicion of injury ; but, seized with sudden and sharp pain in the midst of the ceremony, he fainted, and was carried to his house amid the lamentations of the bridal party. Vain was all the skill of tho physicians, who could not divine the cause of this strange illness, and in a very few days he died. Tebaldo again demanded the hand of the young maiden from her parents, and received a second retusal. They, too, perished miserably in a few days. The alarm that these deaths, which appeared almost miraculous ' 'asioned, excited the utmost vigilance magistrates, and when on close ex0t . 6 .. n of/ tho bodies the small instruaminatio. «<( un( j j n gangrened flesh ment was i- Versal; everyone feared for terror wasium. v e aide J n thus cruelly bis own life- In thfl first month of orphaned bad passes „ e . when Tebaldo, her mourning m a com * wi ll, entreated hoping to bend her to his Her re . to speak with her at the g. , oe^a tive. ply was most decisively,in the ra _ e Tebaldo, beyond himself wi Jfj.g attempted to wound her through tin, i ’ and succeeded ; the obscurity of the p». 4 prevented his movements from being observed. On her return from her room the maiden felt a pain in her breast, and uncovering it she found it spotted with a single drop of blood. The pain increased; the surgeons who hastened to her assistance, taught by the past wasted no time in conjecture, but, cutting deep ’ into the wounded part, extracted the needle before any mortal mischief had commenced, and saved the life of the lady. The State Inquisition used every means to d : scover' the hand which had dealt these insidious and ii resistible blows. The visit of Tebaldo to the convent caused suspicion to fall heavily upon him. The house was carefully searched, the invention discovered, and he perished on the gibbet.