CHAPTER XI
_The Condemnation to Death--the Burglar's Confession and Awful Fate inthe Iron Coffin._
The arrest of Frank Sydney for the murder of Maria Archer created animmense excitement throughout the whole community.--His wealth, standingin society, and former respectability caused many to believe himinnocent of the dreadful crime imputed to him; but public opiniongenerally pronounced him guilty. The following article, extracted from anewspaper published at that period, will throw some light upon the viewsheld in reference to the unhappy young man, and show how thecircumstances under which he was arrested operated prejudicially tohim:--
'ATROCIOUS MURDER. Last night, about nine o'clock, cries of murder were heard proceeding from the house No.--Bowery. The door was forced open by several citizens and watchmen, who, on entering a room on the second story, found the body of a young woman named Maria Archer stretched upon a sofa, her throat cut in a horrible manner, and standing over the corpse a young gentleman named Francis Sydney, holding in his hand a large Bowie knife, covered with blood. The landlady, Mrs. Flint, stated that Maria had that afternoon announced her intention to remove from the house in the evening; at about eight o'clock, Mr. Sydney called, _disguised_, and went up into the room of the deceased;--after a while, she (the landlady), being surprised that Maria did not begin to remove, went up to her room, and on opening the door, saw the young woman lying upon the sofa, her throat cut, and Mr. Sydney standing over her with the knife in his hand. On seeing this she screamed for assistance, and her cries had brought the watchman and citizens into the house, as we have stated.
'Mr. Sydney is a very wealthy young man, and has heretofore been highly respected. There can be no doubt of his guilt. He had probably formed a criminal connection with Mrs. Archer, whose character for chastity did not stand very high; it is supposed that it was in consequence of this intimacy that Mrs. Sydney recently separated from her husband. It is also presumed that a quarrel arose between Sydney and his paramour in consequence of his refusal to supply her with what money she demanded. This belief is predicated upon the following note, in the handwriting of Sydney, which was found upon the person of his murdered victim:--
'Mrs. Archer.--Madam: I shall this evening call upon you to confirm the words of my messenger. The unfortunate career which you have followed, is now nearly ended. Extortion and oppression shall triumph no longer. F.S.'
'This note, it will be perceived, accuses her of extortion and contains a threat, &c. Alarmed at this, the poor young woman determined to leave the house that night--but was prevented by her paramour who barbarously slew her.
'The prisoner, whose appearance and behavior after his arrest proved his guilt, was conveyed to the Tombs, to await his trial for one of the most atrocious murders that has stained our criminal courts for many years.'
Thus it will be seen that poor, innocent Frank was regarded as themurderer.
It is needless for us to enter into the particulars of his trial:suffice it to say, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced todeath. The evidence, though entirely circumstantial, was deemed positiveagainst him. Mrs. Flint testifying that he was the only person who hadentered the house that evening, and the situation in which she haddiscovered him, the murderous weapon in his hand, and his clothesstained with blood, admitted not a doubt of his guilt in the minds ofthe jury, who did not hesitate to bring in their fatal verdict,conscientiously believing it to be a just one.
A few days previous to his trial, the public were astounded by theintelligence that Mrs. Stevens, the prisoner's aunt, had committedsuicide by hanging; and her nephew's disgrace and peril were supposed tohave been the cause of the rash act. But when it came to be discoveredthat a robbery had been committed in the house, and it was stated by theservant that a strange man had sought and obtained an interview with theunfortunate old lady that evening, the public opinion took a differentturn, and the belief became general that she had been murdered by someunknown miscreant, whose object was to plunder the house. No onesuspected that she had been slain to prevent her from giving favorabletestimony at the trial of her nephew Francis Sydney.
The diabolical outrage perpetrated upon the boy Clinton at themasquerade ball soon became noised abroad, and gave rise to manysurmises, and much indignation; tho' no one as yet imagined that anyconnection existed between that horrible affair and the brutal murder ofMrs. Stevens.
After his conviction and condemnation to death, Sydney was placed inirons, and treated with but little indulgence by the petty officials whohave charge of the Tombs. An application on his behalf was made to theGovernor, in the hope of either obtaining a pardon, or a commutation ofhis sentence to imprisonment, but the executive functionary refused tointerfere, and Frank prepared for death.
The day before that fixed upon for his execution, a lady applied foradmission to the prisoner's cell, her request was granted, and Frank wasastonished by the entrance of Julia, his guilty and discarded wife!
Did she come to entreat his forgiveness for her crime, and to endeavorto administer consolation and comfort to him in this his last extremity?
No, the remorseless and vindictive woman had come to exult over hismisfortunes, and triumph over his downfall!
'So, miserable wretch,' she said, in a tone of contempt--'You are atlast placed in a situation in which I can rejoice over your degradationand shame! A convicted, chained murderer, to die to-morrow--ha, ha, ha!'and she laughed with hellish glee.
'Accursed woman,' cried Frank, with indignation--'why have you come tomock my misery? Have you the heart to rejoice over my awful andundeserved fate?' and the poor young man, folding his arms, weptbitterly, for his noble and manly nature was for the time overcome bythe horror of his situation.
'Yes, I have come to gloat upon your misery,' replied the vile,unfeeling woman. 'To-morrow you will die upon the gallows, and yourmemory will be hated and condemned by those who believe you to beguilty. I am convinced in my own mind that you are innocent of themurder; yet I rejoice none the less in your fate. Your death will freeme from all restraint; I can adopt an assumed name, and removing to somedistant city, entrap some rich fool into a marriage with me, whosewealth will administer to my extravagance, while I secretly abandonmyself to licentious pleasures. Sydney, I never loved you--and when youdiscovered my intimacy with my dear African, I hated you--oh, howbitterly! When you cast me off, I vowed revenge upon you; but myvengeance will be satisfied to-morrow, when you pay the forfeit ofanother's crime. And now in the hour of your disgrace and death, I spitupon and despise you!'
'Begone, vile strumpet that you are,' exclaimed Frank, starting to hisfeet--'taunt me no more, or you will drive me to commit an actualmurder, and send your blackened soul into the presence of your offendedCreator!'
'Farewell, forever,' said Julia, in a tone of indifference, and she lefther poor, wronged husband to his own bitter reflections. Shortly afterher departure, a clergyman entered the cell, and remained with theprisoner until long after midnight, preparing him for the awful changehe was to undergo on the morrow.
* * * * *
That very night Fred Archer issued from the secret outlet of the DarkVaults, and bent his steps in the direction of Wall street.
This street is the great focus around which all the most extensivefinancial operations of the great metropolis are carried on. It isoccupied exclusively by banks, brokers' and insurance offices, andestablishments of the like character.
It was midnight when Archer turned into Wall street from Broadway. Themoon was obscured by clouds, and the street was entirely deserted. Hepaused before a large, massive building in the neighborhood of theExchange, and glanced around him in every direction to assure himselfthat he was unobserved. Seeing no one, he ascended the marble steps,drew from his pocket a huge key, and with it unlocked the door; heentered, and closing the door
after him, carefully re-locked it.
'So far all is well,' muttered the burglar, as he ignited a match andlighted a piece of wax candle which he had brought with him. 'It's luckythat I obtained an impression of that lock in wax, and from it made thiskey, or I might have had the devil's trouble in getting in.'
He advanced along the passageway, and opening a large door covered withgreen baize, entered a commodious apartment, containing a long tablecovered with papers, a desk, chairs, and other furniture, suitable to abusiness office. In one corner stood an immense safe, six feet in heightand four in depth; this safe, made of massive plates of iron andprotected by a door of prodigious strength, contained the books,valuable papers, and cash belonging to the ---- Insurance Company.Archer advanced to the safe, and took from his pocket a piece of paper,on which some words were written; this paper he examined with muchattention.
'Here,' said he, 'I have the written directions, furnished me by thelocksmith who made the lock attached to the safe, by which I can openit. Curse the fellow, a cool hundred dollars was a round sum of money togive him for this little bit of paper, but without it I never could seethe interior of his iron closet, tho' I have an exact model of the keybelonging to it, made from an impression in wax, which I bribed theclerk to get for me.'
Pursuing the directions contained in the paper, he touched a smallspring concealed in the masonry adjoining the safe, and instantly aslide drew back in a panel of the door, revealing a key-hole. In this heinserted a key, and turned it, but found that he could not unlock it; hetherefore had recourse to his paper a second time, which communicatedthe secret of the only method by which to open the door. Following thosedirections implicitly, he soon had the satisfaction of turning back themassive bolts which secured the door; a spring now only held it fast,but this was easily turned by means of a small brass knob, and the heavydoor swung back upon its gigantic hinges, to the intense delight of theburglar, who anticipated securing a rich booty.
Nor was he likely to be disappointed; for upon examination he found thatthe safe contained money to a large amount. A small tin cash box wasfull of bank-notes of various denominations; and in a drawer wereseveral thousands of dollars in gold.
'My fortune is made, by G----d!' exclaimed the burglar, as he stoodwithin the safe, and began hastily to transfer the treasures to hispockets. The light of his candle, which he held in his hand, shed afaint glow upon the walls and ceiling of the apartment.
'The devil!' muttered Archer--'my success thus far must not destroy myprudence. If that light were to be seen from these windows, suspicionwould be excited and I might be disagreeably interrupted.'
Reaching out his arm, he caught hold of the door of the safe, and pulledit violently towards him so that the light of his candle might notbetray him. The immense mass of iron swung heavingly upon its hinges,and closed with a sharp _click_; the spring held it fast, and on theinside of the door there was no means of turning back that spring. Likelightning the awful conviction flashed through the burglar's mind thathe was _entombed alive_!
Vain, vain were his efforts to burst forth from his iron coffin; as wellmight he attempt to move the solid rock! He shrieked aloud forassistance--but no sound could penetrate through those iron walls! Hecalled upon God to pity him in that moment of his awful distress--butthat God, whom he had so often blasphemed, now interposed not His powerto succor the vile wretch, thus so signally punished.
No friendly crevice admitted one mouthful of air into the safe, andArcher soon began to breathe with difficulty; he became sensible that hemust die a terrible death by suffocation. Oh, how he longed for someoneto arrive and release him from his dreadful situation, even though theremainder of his days were passed within the gloomy walls of a prison!How he cursed the money, to obtain which he had entered that safe,wherein he was now imprisoned as securely as if buried far down in thebowels of the earth! With the howl of a demon he dashed the banknotesand glittering gold beneath his feet, and trampled on them. Then,sinking down upon the floor of the safe, he abandoned himself todespair.
Already had the air of that small, confined place become fetid andnoisome; and the burglar began to pant with agony, while the hot bloodswelled his veins almost to bursting. A hundred thousand dollars laywithin his grasp--he would have given it all for one breath of freshair, or one draught of cold water.
As the agonies of his body increased, the horrors of his guiltyconscience tortured his soul. The remembrance of the many crimes he hadcommitted arose before him; the spirit of his murdered wife hovered overhim, ghastly, pale and bloody. Then he recollected that an innocent manwas to be hung on the morrow, for that dreadful deed which _he_ hadperpetrated; and the thought added to the mental tortures which he wasenduring.
A thought struck the dying wretch; it was perhaps in his power to makesome atonement for his crimes--he might save an innocent man from anignominious death. No sooner had that thought suggested itself to hismind, than he acted upon it, for he knew that his moments were few;already he felt the cold hand of death upon him. He took a piece ofchalk from his pocket, and with a feeble hand traced the following wordsupon the iron door of the safe:--
'My last hour is come, and I call on God, in whose awful presence I amshortly to appear, to witness the truth of this dying declaration. I doconfess myself to be the murderer of Maria Archer. The young man Sydneyis innocent of that crime. God have mercy--'
He could write no more; his brain grew dizzy and his senses fled. Itseemed as if his iron coffin was red-hot, and he writhed in all theagony of a death by fire. Terrible shapes crowded around him, and thespirit of his murdered wife beckoned him to follow her to perdition. Amighty and crushing weight oppressed him; blood gushed from the pores ofhis skin; his eyes almost leaped from their sockets, and his brainseemed swimming in molten lead. At length Death came, and snappedasunder the chord of his existence; the soul of the murderer was in thepresence of its Maker.
* * * * *
Morning dawned upon the doomed Sydney, in his prison cell; the gladsunbeams penetrated into that gloomy apartment, shedding a glow of ruddylight upon the white walls. That day at the hour of noon, he was to beled forth to die--he, the noble, generous Sydney, whose heart teemedwith the most admirable qualities, and who would not wantonly haveinjured the lowest creature that crawls upon the Creator's footstool--heto die the death of a malefactor, upon the scaffold!
The day wore heavily on; Frank, composed and resigned, was ready to meethis fate like a man. He had heard the deep voice of the Sheriff, in thehall of the prison, commanding his subordinates to put up the scaffold;he had heard them removing that cumbrous engine of death from anunoccupied cell, and his ear had caught the sound of its being erectedin the prison yard. Then he knelt down and prayed.
His hour had come. They came and removed his irons; they clothed him inthe fearful livery of the grave. His step was firm and his eye undauntedas he passed into the prison yard, and stood beneath the black andfrowning gallows.
The last prayer was said; the last farewell spoken; and many ahard-hearted jailer and cruel official turned aside to conceal the tearswhich would flow, at the thought that in a few moments that fine youngman, so handsome, so talented and so noble to look upon, would bestrangling and writhing with the tortures of the murderous rope, andsoon after cut down, a ghastly and disfigured corpse.
The Sheriff adjusted the rope, and there was an awful pause; a man wastottering on the verge of eternity!
But oh, blessed pause--'twas ordained by the Almighty, to snatch thatinnocent man from the jaws of death! At that critical moment, a confusedmurmur was heard in the interior of the prison; the Sheriff, who had hishand upon the fatal book, which alone intervened between the condemnedand eternity, was stopped from the performance of his deadly office, bya loud shout that rent the air, as a crowd of citizens rushed into theprison yard, exclaiming--
'Hold--stay the execution!'
The Mayor of the city, who was present, exchanged a few hurried wordswith the foremost
of the citizens who had thus interrupted the awfulceremony; and instantly, with the concurrence of the Sheriff, orderedSydney to be taken from the gallows, and conducted back to his cell,there to await the result of certain investigations, which it wasbelieved would procure his entire exoneration from the crime of whichhe had been deemed guilty, and his consequent release from imprisonment.
It appeared that an officer connected with the ---- Insurance Company,on opening the safe that morning at about half-past eleven o'clock,discovered the dead body of the burglar, the money scattered about, andthe writing upon the door. The officer, who was an intelligent andenergetic man, instantly comprehended the state of affairs, and hastenedwith a number of other citizens to the Tombs, in order to save aninnocent man from death. Had he arrived a few moments later, it mighthave been too late; but as it was, he had the satisfaction of rescuingpoor Sydney from a dreadful fate, and the credit of saving the Statefrom the disgrace of committing a judicial murder.
A dispatch was immediately sent to the Governor, at Albany, apprisinghim of these facts. The next day a letter was received from HisExcellency, in which he stated that he had just perused the evidencewhich had produced the conviction of Mr. Sydney, and that evidence,besides being merely circumstantial, was, to his mind, vague andinsufficient. The pressure of official business had prevented him fromexamining the case before, but had he reviewed the testimony, he wouldassuredly have granted the prisoner a reprieve. The dying confession ofthe burglar, the husband of the murdered woman, left not the slightestdoubt of Mr. Sydney's innocence; and His Excellency concluded byordering the prisoner's immediate discharge from custody.
Sydney left the prison, and, escorted by a number of friends, entered acarriage and was driven to his residence in Broadway. Here he wasreceived with unbounded joy and hearty congratulations by all hishousehold, including honest Dennis, and poor, dumb Clinton, who couldonly manifest his satisfaction by expressive signs.
'I will avenge thee, poor boy,' whispered Frank in his ear, as hecordially pressed his hand.
A tall man, wrapped in a cloak, had followed Frank's carriage, andwatched him narrowly as he alighted and entered his house. This man'seyes alone were visible, and they glared with a fiend-like malignityupon the young gentleman; turning away, he muttered a deep curse, and amomentary disarrangement of the cloak which hid his face, revealed thehorrible lineaments of the DEAD MAN!