NEW evils, however, soon assailed my unhappy friend. One of the
arteries, beginning at the joints of the hand, began to pain him,
extending to other parts of his body; and then turned into a scorbutic
sore. His whole person became covered with livid spots, presenting a
frightful spectacle. I tried to reconcile myself to it, by considering
that since it appeared we were to die here, it was better that one of us
should be seized with the scurvy; it is a contagious disease, and must
carry us off either together, or at a short interval from each other. We
both prepared ourselves for death, and were perfectly tranquil. Nine
years’ imprisonment, and the grievous sufferings we had undergone, had at
length familiarised us to the idea of the dissolution of two bodies so
totally broken and in need of peace. It was time the scene should close,
and we confided in the goodness of God, that we should be reunited in a
place where the passions of men should cease, and where, we prayed, in
spirit and in truth, that those who DID NOT LOVE US might meet us in
peace, in a kingdom where only one Master, the supreme King of kings,
reigned for evermore.
This malignant distemper had destroyed numbers of prisoners during the
preceding years. The governor, upon learning that Maroncelli had been
attacked by it, agreed with the physician, that the sole hope of remedy
was in the fresh air. They were afraid of its spreading; and Maroncelli
was ordered to be as little as possible within his dungeon. Being his
companion, and also unwell, I was permitted the same privilege. We were
permitted to be in the open air the whole time the other prisoners were
absent from the walk, during two hours early in the morning, during the
dinner, if we preferred it, and three hours in the evening, even after
sunset.
There was one other unhappy patient, about seventy years of age, and in
extremely bad health, who was permitted to bear us company. His name was
Constantino Munari; he was of an amiable disposition, greatly attached to
literature and philosophy, and agreeable in conversation.
Calculating my imprisonment, not from my arrest, but from the period of
receiving my sentence, I had been seven years and a half (in the year
1829), according to the imperial decree, in different dungeons; and about
nine from the day of my arrest. But this term, like the other, passed
over, and there was no sign of remitting my punishment.
Up to the half of the whole term, my friend Maroncelli, Munari, and I had
indulged the idea of a possibility of seeing once more our native land
and our relations; and we frequently conversed with the warmest hopes and
feelings upon the subject. August, September, and the whole of that year
elapsed, and then we began to despair; nothing remained to relieve our
destiny but our unaltered attachment for each other, and the support of
religion, to enable us to close our latter prison hours with becoming
dignity and resignation. It was then we felt the full value of
friendship and religion, which threw a charm even over the darkness of
our lot. Human hopes and promises had failed us; but God never forsakes
the mourners and the captives who truly love and fear Him.