25 T“ v - ._ THE ROMANCE or‘ REAL LIFE. THE SIEUR V . ‘ The resolution which it was supposed had been formed by Morey, the accomplice ol'Fieschi, of starving himselfto death, is not the first example ofthe kind on record. The same mode b_'fsuic‘_ide has on several former occasions been successfully a- dopted b accused and condemned persons. It has been re- markedt at the horrible tcirtures of hunger do not produce deliri- ttm, or even annihilation of the intellectual faculties, except when violently imposed by power superior to that ofthe victim. The suffering, on the contrary, when incurred for the purpose ofsuicide, and endured with energetic but fatal determination, seems to excite and invigorate the moral faculties, and to in- crease the acuteness ofthe senses. In spite ofthe exhaustion and prostration ofthe physical organization, the immaterial por- iion ofthe system acquires renewed strength, and attains an in- conceivable developement of power. A very curious example of suicide by means of starvation. oc- curred some years ago in Corsica. During the elections, the Si- our —''--'‘—‘rushed into the electoral college armed with a dagger, which he plunged into the breastofa man who had done him some injury. The man fell dead at his feet. The. assassina- tion was committed in the full ligbtofday, and in the presence of an assembled multitude. Never was an act of Italian vendetta more signally executed. -'-“-=-‘-was tried, found guilty and condemned to death. His high spirit and resolute character were well known ; and it was suspected that he would seek, by a voluntary death, to evade the disgrace of perishing on the scaffold. He was therefore vi- ilantly watched; and every precaution was taken to deprive him of the means ofputting an end to his existence. He resolved to starve himselfto death during the interval which elapsed between the sentence ofthe Court of Assizes and the reply which the Court of Cassation would make to the ap- 'p'eal he had addressed to it. , He had succeeded in concealing from the observation of his jailors a portion o_fthe food with which they supplied him, so as to make it be believed that he regularly took his meals. After three‘ days abstinence, the pangs of hunger became insnpp0rta- s. It then suddenly occurred to him that he might the more speedily accomplish the object he had in view, by eating with avidity. He thought that the state of exhaustion to which he was reduced would unfit him to bear the sudden excess, and that it would inevitably occasion the death he so ardently de- sired. He accordingly sat down to the food which he had laid aside, and ate voraciously, choosing in preference the heaviest things. The consequence was that be was seized with a vio- lent fit of indigestion, from which, contrary to his expectation, the prison doctor speedily curedhim. He then resumed his fatal design. He sufibred again what he had undergone before. The torture was almost beyond his strength-. His thirst, too, was intolerable. It overcame his re- solution. He extended his hand towards thejug of water which had been placed in his cell. He drank with avidity, and to use his own expression, he was restored to life. To avoid yielding again to a similartemptation, he daily took the precaution ofoverttirning thcjug ofwater which was brought to him. Lest he should be induced to raise it to his lips, he. threw it down with his foot, not venturing to touch it with his hand. In this manner he passed eighteen days. Every day at different intervals, he noted down in his album a minute account of his sensations. He counted the beatings of his pulse, and marked their number from hour to hour, measur- ing with the most scrupulous attention the gradual wasting of his strength. In several parts of his melancholy memento, he declares that he felt it harder to bear the agonies ofthirst than those of hunger. He confessed that he was frequently on the point ofyielding to the desire of drinking. He nevertheless rc- sisted. He was surprised to find his sight become more and more clear, strong, and accurate :—-it appeared to him like the devel- opment ofa new sense. The nearer he approached his latt.er moments, the more his power ofvision seemed to increase. On this subject he thus expresses himself:—- “it appears as though I could see through the thickest walls.” His sense of feeling likewise attained the most exquisite sensi- hility. His hearing and smelling improved in a similar degree, '1‘ttE ;\'UR\V.~\l,.K c.i'/,ia't"t‘_i-:‘. . ..__,__,._,.; His album contains many curious statements _on these subjects» The Sienr V had devoted some attention to anatomy and physiology; and he attributes the increased acuteness of his senses to the way in which the intestinal irritation acted on the nervous system. His ideas, he says. were numerous and clear, and were very dilierent from anything he had experienced in moments ofexcite- meat or intoxication. They were all directed to logical investi-' gation, whether he applied them to an analysis of material oh-" ‘ jccts or to philosophic contemplation. He also felt himselfin- spired with a singular aptitude for mathematical calculations, a study for which he had previously felt very little inclination. In short, he declares that he never derived so rnnch gratifica- tion from his intellectual condition, as throughout the whole dur- ation of his physical torture. He made notes in his album to the last moment ofhis exis- tence. He had scarcely strength sufficient to hold the pencil with which he traced t.hc following words :—“My pulse has near- ly ceased to beat ;—my mouth is totally parched ;—-but my brain retains a degree of vigour which in my sad condition is the great- est solace Providence could bestow on me. It is impossible" that I can live out this day, My jailors watch me and fancy they have adopted every precaution. They little think that I have outwitted them. Death annuls the sentence which has‘ been pronounced on me. In another hour, perhaps, they will find nothing but a cold corpse. . .” V expired as he foretold. His album has been carefully preserved. It is a record replete with interest to medical profes- _ sors. The slow torture, endured with so much courage, and de- scribed with such remarkable clearness, renders it one ofthe most curious documents in the annals of medical science.- HANNAH DU STON. This woman should be ranked among the heroines ofat1- tiquity. She was the wife of Thomas Duston. of Haverhill in Massachusetts ; born in the year 1659, and married 1677.--_ She had, altogether, thirteen children. Viiben the Indians, who dwelt at the sources ofthe Mcrrimac River, and in the region round about, after a great freshet on the 15th of March, 1697', came down the river and attacked Havcrhill, she was confined to her bed with an infantonly a week old. Her husband catch- ingtlte alarm from the field, fled to the house, antl consulted his wife on the course he should pursue. She calmly told him to leave her and her infant tothcir fate. and to make his escape, if possible, with her other children. He sent seven ofhis child- ren on a path through the woods, on the way to the garrison, and mounting his horse he followed in the tear ; with his musket be kept the pursuing Indians at bay, until he found his charge in a place of safety at the garrison. Before Mr. Duston reach- ed the garrison, the Indians returned and captured his sick wife and Ma-ry Niel’, her nurse. They with other captives took up their march, by order of the savages, for the north. After they had travelled a few miles, the Indians found the infant trouble- some, and they took the child from the nurse and dashed its brains out against a tree. Mrs. Duston was feeble and wretched, but this outrage ncrved her soul for every enterprise. After this horrid outrage, she wept no more ; the agony of nature drank the tear drop ere it fell. She looked to heaven with a silent prayer forsuccorand vengeance, and followed theinfernal group . without a word of complaint. At this instant, the high resolve was formed in her mind, and swelled every pulse of her heart. They travelled on some distance, as she thought, one hundred_ and fifty miles, but perhaps, from the course they took, ab tit seventy five. The river had probably been broken up but a short.tim€, and the canoes of the Indians were above the falls on the Mcrrimac, when they commenced theirjourney toattack -I-laverhill. Above these falls, on an isfand in this river, the Indians had a \Vigwam, and in getting their canoes in ‘order, and by rowing ten miles up the strcam,became much fatigued. \Vheu they reached the place of rest, they slept soundly. Mrs Duston did not sleep. The nurse, and an English boy, a pris- oner, was apprised of her designs, but were not Ofmuclt 115610 ‘her in the execution of it. In the stillness ofthe night she arose and went out ofthe wigwam to test the soundness and secprity ofsavage sleep. They moved not ; they were to sleep until the last day. She returned, took one of their batchets, and 918- patched ten of them in a moment, each with a single blow.—- An Indian woman, who was rising when sheostrucli lief. fled with her probable death wound ;—and an Indian boy was de- signedly spared ; for the avenger ofblood was a woman and a I
Norwalk Chronicler