Terror-stricken.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 219, 11 December 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Terror-stricken.

A Sfcnat&To of tho Experience of Two Persons. Written by themselves and some others. CHAPTER I. BRING THE NOTES OF THR FIRST INTERESTED PERSON. I have often heard of people going mad when they bad been abut up in solitary confinement and left merely to the torture of their own thongbte for pastime, bat I never realised anything of the kind before. I think that fortnight of it brought me as near madness as 1 well could be without my reason going altogether. I was driven to the very verge of despair. Ido not wish to state now how 1 cam© to be looked in a little dark room np a ricketty flight of stairs, in a wretched part Of Melbourne, lor I do not know who may get possession of these writings, but I have made up my mind to a certain course of action, and 1 will not give it up for those who merely thirst for what I have gotto leave behind me. It is not right of them to try and force me in this Tough way, for my woman’s nature rebels against It in every shape ; but they are people who have got anthority over me, and they are as unscrupulous as they are firm to bend me to their will. Ido not know how 1 got into this house, for I must have been faulting or dragged when I came here, but I know it is in a mean quarter of the oity, and a very lonely one too, for the sounds I hear are few, and the rattle of the cabs and other vehicles are from a distance.

Sometimes I fancy 1 must be dose to some theatre, for I hear the sounds of music and singing borne into my obamber at night time. The straggle with my captors had been going on for a long time, and I have suooeMfully misted them up to now, but the weary monotony of my confinement had broken me, and 1 felt that X must either submit or go mad. The first lew days were so oppressive that 1 broke a pane of glass in my .window to let in the air and the light. I have regretted it every sinoe, for tho oaths and quarrels of the women were so horrible tbstl felt the blood run oddly in my veins, and pat my fingers in ray ears to shat the sounds oat. There was no chance of my dying t I was too strong for that, and, although 1 knew my male persecutor was both reckless and unscrupulous to the extent of violence, still he would never try to starve me to death or submission. It was too dangerous a game to play. It had been rawing all the day long in a oeaaelees downpour of mistaadouttipg sleet, which rattled against my window and made the monotony of my misery complete. My window looked out upon s court-yard, pitched with small square bluestone cubes, and fenced in with dilapidated buildings all roand. The far end seemed to me to be the rear of a low publiohouse, from the way in which the women passed continually in and out, carrying jogs and bottles with them, tinder their aprons sometimes, and sometimes quite openly, with a total disregard of appearances. The rain continued unceasingly, and X watched the drops forming little gutters down the roofs of the tenements opposite until my head felt quite sick and giddy with the prospect, and X wished for the sun to set, whilst X dreaded the long darkness of tho weary winter’s night. I had token to paoing up and down for exercise, for I slept by filial starts, and dreaded to drink the tea, and even the water, offered me, lor fear it should be dragged. I felt myself slowly sinking into s dreadful feeling of depression, and the utter weariness of my prison-house bore me down. The howling of a dismal dog in the yard under my window, and the rattling ot his chain, were additional sounds of melancholy, and X fait myself sobbing silently on my one rickety chair when 1 heard the sounds of someone coming up to my room. I bad been from the first ready (or a chance of escape, and i bad £SO in Sydney notes stitched up iu my stays, with a warm jacket aud cap ready to my hand at a moment’s notice, The sounds of the approaching footsteps rallied me, end I drew myself up before the window outwardly calm, but with my besrt beating violently, I was resolved to brave it out as long as L could. The harsh grating of a key iu the lock of the door, followed by the rustle of a dress, warned me that my female gaoler confronted me. She paused, and 1 felt she was watching me angrily. “Yon need not stand there, my floe lady, looking out at the yard,” she said in a somewhat unsteady Voice | “and I warn you it will go bad with you before long.” 1 felt it was better to say nothing, and I kept my back turned to her. “ By the lord, ma’am, you are enough to provoke a saint 1” she said, after a long pause. “So you are not broken yet. But, | he will fit yon some day!” Still I gave her no answer, and she sprang over to me and turned me round by the •boulders. 1 felt like nearly giving way, but I held my peace. ••Obi X could kill you, standing there so quiet as though you did not mind it all 1 He loves me and swears so a hundred times a day, and if you was dead he would marry me I Yes, me 1” and she struck her clenched fiat upon the table. I could keep silent no longer. “ For Gxl s sake,” I said, “go and leave me. What have 1 done to you T* r •‘Why don’t yon did” she shrieked. “What benefit would my death be to you ?” I asked as calmly as 1 could, although a felt my leg* tottering under mo. “ What benefit! Ob, hear her 1 My God I Ho would marry me I” “No,”I said resolutely; “you know ho could not. There Is another—” “ Silence S” she yelled. “If you tell him —but be would never believe you,” and she laughed an unsteady laugh. I traced the symptoms of drink In her tones aud actions. “ He would believe me."

Soh tbrsw op her arms in a spasm of rage, ber fists closed, and her eyes dilated. I •brand from her as she camo towards me. Suddenly »bs paused and stood listening. The sounds of footsteps rang on the stoma must be him,” she said a little quieter. “Carso yon I If you don’t give In we'll make you,” and she flung herselt from the room jost as a voice below called, with a curse, her name. I board the sounds of angry voice* in the hail below, and tbc-i a door wna shut, and silence reigned. By-snd-bye 1 could hear that they wire quarrelling again, and presently I heal'd the front door open and shut violently. Then all was quiet again. Then I beard the woman go out and enter the pnbliotaonse. I paced my room in an agitated •late of mind for an hoar or more. The Jarkneoa seemed filled with horrid noises, ami a vague, nndetinable fear took possession of mo; a feeling which I could not analyse, but which nearly drove me distracted. After a long and weary lapse of time, I heard sounds of unsteady footsteps echo on the pavement of tbe court-yard below, and then the sounds of angry voices. I looked ont. A woman and a man were talking angrily in the yard. I could not hear what they said, bnt they were quarrclliug. I recognised them both. goon the mao, by his gesticulations, •corned to bo worked into a pitch of frenzy, and I »aw him thrust bis hand behind his book under the short, rough coat that ho wore and clutch something hidden there. Their angry altercation continued. His hand twisted nervously, and I saw the gleam q|« sheftMuiifo Bader the light of the solitary

ni lamp which stood at the entrance of tho yard'. I felt my poises throbbing, and my temples almost bursting with the strain upon my nerves, and it was with a feeling of relief that 1 saw him replace the knife. I could bear, but only very indistinctly, and, although I pressed my face against the broken pane in the window, the noise of the rain and the wind shat out other sounds. Id a little while they entered a house opposite, and I saw the light of a candle gleam m a room opposite my own. Then again came the sounds of a struggle, and I saw him and the woman locked together in a fierce conflict. With one hand he clutched her throat, and then she straggled from him and rnshed to the door. For a few moments I could not see them, they being out of the line of light, but I knew the straggle was going on still. Then the front door opened, and she came ont, only to be dragged back again into the house. What was going on ? Was it murder? I held my bauds to my throbbing temples and looked out again in an agony of snlferwere upstairs now and separated. For a long time—’an age it seemed to me—they talked thus, and then he rushed across tho room and oanght her. I saw them straggle together, I saw him drag her past tho window and throw her oa the rongh bed. I saw his band go behind his back, and the gleam of a knife flashed in the light of tho candle. Then they straggled Main, and I saw mm stoop over her prostrate form on the bed. I held my head and felt that my brain was banting. I looked again and saw he was alone. He walked over to the light and put it ont What dreadful thing had 1 seen ? 1 beard him come down the steps and shut the front door. Ho stood in the coart-yard talking to another woman. Then be left and harried off. A weight seemed pressing me down. A feeling of horror overcame me. I staggered to the door and pulled at the handle with the the force of despair. To my surprise it gave way to me, and opening threw me on the floor of the room. In the woman’s excitement when she left me she bad forgotten to lock it. Hurriedly,* and with trembling bands, I ■iezed my jacket and cap and stood upon the landing. 1 groped my way down stair# and tried the street door. It opened to my touch. The rain still oame down in torrents, and 1 ran down the right-of-way into a narrow dark street. I. glanced mechanically at the houses and taw “Little Bourke street” painted on a board at the side of one.

Following my instinct, I ran on, never heeding the noise and bnstle of the roadway, never heeding my wet feet or the rain which still poured upon me. A passing cabman bailed me. I got in and was rapidly driven round a corner into a lighted main street. X did not know where I was going, but I sat all breathless in the corner of the cab, keeping as much out of sight as I could from the other passengers. I was free. {To be continued.")