In the first cell was a shrine of the Virgin, set in the wall. Beneath
this, while the wretched prisoner knelt in prayer, a trap-door opened
and precipitated him upon the points of knives, from which his body
fell into the Bacchiglione below. In the next cell, held by some rusty
iron rings to the wall, was a skeleton, hanging by the wrists.

"This," said the guide, "was another punishment of which Ecelino was
very fond."

A dreadful doubt seized my mind. "Was this skeleton found here?" I
demanded.

Without faltering an instant, without so much as winking an eye, the
custodian replied, "_Appunto_."

It was a great relief, and restored me to confidence in the
establishment. I am at a loss to explain how my faith should have been
confirmed afterwards by coming upon a guillotine--an awful instrument
in the likeness of a straw-cutter, with a decapitated wooden figure
under its blade--which the custodian confessed to be a modern
improvement placed there by Signor P----. Yet my credulity was so
strengthened by his candor, that I accepted without hesitation the
torture of the water-drop when we came to it. The water-jar was as
well preserved as if placed there but yesterday, and the skeleton
beneath it--found as we saw it--was entire and perfect.

In the adjoining 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