A VISIT TO THE IDRIAN MINES.
After passing through several parts of the Alps, and having visited Germany, I thought I could not return home without visiting those dreadful subterraneous caverns, where thousands are condemned to reside, shut out from all hopes of ever seeing the cheerful light of the sun, and obliged to toil out a miserable life under the whips of imperious task-masters.
Imagine to yourself a hole in the side of a mountain, about five yards over. Down this you are lowered in a kind of bucket to a depth of more than one hundred fathoms, the prospect growing still more gloomy, yet still widening as you descend. At length, after swinging in terrible suspense for some time in this precarious situation, you reach the bottom, and tread on the ground, which, by its hollow sound under your feet, and the reverberations of the echo, seems thundering at every step you take. In this gloomy and frightful solitude you are enlightened by the feeble gleam of lamps, here and there dispersed, so as that the wretched inhabitants of these mansions can go from one place to another without a guide; though I could scarcely discern, for some time, anything—not even the person who came to show me these scenes of horror.
From this description, I suppose you have but a disagreeable idea of the place; yet let me assure you that it is a palace, if the habitation be compared with the inhabitants. Such wretches my eyes never yet beheld. The blackness of their visages only serves to cover a horrid paleness, caused by the noxious qualities of the mineral they are employed in procuring.
As they, in general, consist of malefactors, condemned for life to this task, they are fed at the public expense; but seldom consume much provision, as they lose their appetites in a short time, and commonly, in about two years, expire, through a total contraction of all the joints.
In this horrid mansion I walked after my guide for some time, pondering on the strange tyranny and avarice of mankind, when I was accosted by a voice behind me, calling me by name, and inquiring after my health with the most cordial affection. I turned, and saw a creature all black and hideous, who approached me, and, with a piteous accent, said, "Ah! Everard, do you not know me?" What was my surprise when, through the veil of this wretchedness, I discovered the features of a dear old friend. I flew to him with affection, and, after a tear of condolence, asked him how he came there. To this he replied that, having fought a duel with an officer of the Austrian Infantry, against the Emperor's command, and having left him for dead, he was obliged to flee into the forests of Istria, where he was first taken, and afterwards sheltered by some banditti, who had long infested that quarter. With these he lived nine months, till, by a close investiture of the place in which they were concealed, and after a very obstinate resistance, in which the greater part of them were killed, he was taken, and carried to Vienna, in order to be broken alive upon the wheel. However, upon arriving at the capital, he was quickly known, and several of the associates of his accusation and danger witnessing his innocence, his punishment of the rack was changed into that of perpetual banishment and labour in the mines of Idria.
As my old friend was giving me this account, a young woman came up to him who at once I perceived to be born for a better fortune. The dreadful situation of this place was not able to destroy her beauty; and, even in this scene of wretchedness, she seemed to have charms sufficient to grace the most brilliant assembly. This lady was, in fact, daughter to one of the first families in Germany; and having tried every means to procure her husband's pardon without effect, was at last resolved to share his miseries, as she could not relieve them. She accordingly descended with him into these mansions, whence few of the living return, despising the splendour of opulence, and contented with the consciousness of her own constancy.
I was afterwards spectator of the most affecting scene I ever beheld. In the course of some days after my visiting the gloomy mansion I have represented to you, a person came post from Vienna to the Idrian bottom, who was followed by a second, and he by a third. The first inquiry was after my unfortunate friend, and I, happening to overhear the demand, gave them the first intelligence. Two of these were the brother and cousin of the lady; the third was an intimate acquaintance and fellow-soldier of my friend. They came with his pardon, which had been procured by the general with whom the duel had been fought, and who was perfectly cured of his wounds. I led him, with all the expedition of joy, down to this dreary abode, presented to him his friends, and informed him of the happy change of his circumstances. It would be impossible to describe the joy that brightened upon his grief-worn countenance, nor were the young lady's emotions less vivid at seeing her friends, and hearing of her husband's liberty.