TWO NIGHTS IN DHE CATACOMBS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 165, 27 May 1862, Page 5

TWO NIGHTS IN DHE CATACOMBS.

(From All tlie Year Round.) i It is rather difficult to obtain access to the catacombs of Paris, simply, I believe, because the Government consider it.is morbid and valueless curiosity which induces people to desire to visit such a spot; but there is an impression more or less prevalent in the French provinces that the reason why so many difficulties are thrown in the way of paying a visit to these gigantic galleries is owing to the fact that there is an entry into this underground worla, from the palace of the Tuileries. The provincials reverently believe that the" reigning potentate, whether king or emperor, is afraid of assassins being able to penetrate into tlie palace by this entry if the catacombs become publicly known, and their intricacies made comprehensible. Say to any one of these provincials that the case .would be met by blockiugup this palatial entrance to.. the'-;vaults, and you will get in return a Violent shake of tlie head. " No, no;" your countryman will answer ; "if majesty is afraid of assassins entering from the catacombs, remember the catacombs would give a meaus of • escaping, if assassins, in the shape of rebels," entered at the open gate. No, ho; they'll not block up the palace entrance to the catacombs. No, no!" Let this be as it may_, it is certain that I and a party of foxir, exclusive of the guide, obtained permission to visit underground Paris. And it is worthy of remark, as illustrating upon w-hat small hinge 3 serious events' turn, Itliat if I had not said the following words to the cabman who' took me to the entrance, I should never, have had to'endure what I afn about to describe. These words were-^" If I do not return . in-half an hour, drive" off." So saying,',l paid the man in advance ;for'";waiting," and followed my party to the entrance do_r;/:which. was of heavy Wood. My '. reason for retaining the cabman was. this: I had been waiting some days for -le'dfficial "permission to visit ■ the catacombs, and oil the very morning when it" arrived, I was preparing to start for London upon business of moment., Now, the train started at twelve, and the written pernlit arrived at ten. I was unde- ■ sirous of losing the opportunity for my underground exploration, and I was desirous of starting by the 12 o'clock train. I. therefore came to the conclusiono that if half an hour in the catacombs (from eleven te half-past) would satisfy me, I could then catch th train by twelve if I had a cab ready ; whereas ,if I found the exploration sufficiently attractive, to occupy. ,i more time,-1-would:defer my, departure until the evening. I found the catacombs extraordinary, but monotonous. Everybody knows -that they were originally the stone mines which supplied the building material of Paris; in fact, it has been aptly said that Paris has been built of her own entrails. Let there be the least volcanic shock below Paris—she lies in a volciinic line—and her stupendous palaces, her whole being, would be swallowed in the tomb she herself has excavated. At the beginning of this century, Napoleon decreed extramural interment, and all the graveyards within the walls of Paris were broken up and built over. The bones of centuries were moved into the catacombs. Millions of the bones of French dead werecarried thither, and fantastically arranged. The visitor passes between two'walls of skulls, which all seem to stare at him with a'ghastly blind stare. Ten minutes were quite enough to satisfy my curiosity, but our guide, true to his trade, kept on making the widest promises of coming wonders, and, as a couple of my. party-were ladies, I need not add that the party's curiosity were stimulated by the assertions of our leader^. We each carried a little lamp, and we looked an odd group. " Well," said J, at last, " I really think I will leave you. to your promenade. I can find my way back I feel sure, and.l have yet time to catch the train." The guide laughed at the idea of my finding.my way. back to the entrance. I looked at my watch., ft: wanted ten minutes to the half-hour; if I did not go back at once the cab would be gone. We had passed many transverse passages in our way; indeed, the catacoriibs, as I saw them, seemed a wide street, intersected at regular intervals by smaller streets,, and courts, and alleys. I was the last of my party, and perhaps, reluctant as I felt to go on, : I lagged behind. "At allevents, I was looking about me from one side to the other when, as the lamp of my companions crossed oneof the tranverse cuttings, I noticed a few steps along this passage, an immense skull, in which all the teeth were singularly perfect, white, and gleaming. 71 turned into tlie passage, meaning to inspect this skull more narrowly, when, as I moved my head towards, it, a horrible rat, frightened at my presence, leaped in its fright against my cheek. I fellas though I had been shot. We all have antipathies more or less, and my antipathy is rats.' I abhor then_ • I aril almost.ashamed to say it, but the shock of the sudden appearance, and touch.of that rat caused me to faint. I must, have lost my senses for many riiiriutes; When I: knew myself again, I was utterly in the dark. The blackness seemed absolutely to hit me. I heard not a sound at first: then a rumbling; it- was a passing carriage rolling above my horrible tomb. For a few moments I think' I lost my consciousness once more. lam not sure, however, on this point. Having again recovered it, I endeavored to grasp the full truth of my position. My friends were not near me, that was certain. Now, had they left the catacombs, or were they searching for me 1 • That they discovered they had lost me; almost immediately after' I had fainted, seemed to me certain.. Then how was it they had left the spot near which they had last seen me? It was certain that, in looking for me, they would take the line we had traversed. Then, why had they not found me? Suddenly the awful truth flashed upon me. They had thought, after calling to me many times and receiving no . answer, that I had tried to make my- way to the., en r trance. When they reached it the half-hour was ended, and, the driver being gone,.they.had believed him to have taken me away, and so supposed me on my roiid to England. It was a terrible Knowledge to gain, but I. did not utterly despair. I felt sure that.the alarm would be taken before I had been long enough in my living' tomb to die of starvation. But, to pass over four or five days underground, without food or water, in a darkness which was positively; maddening—l could riot remain inactive; I must : What could Idol. 'My .first Westion'was, should I rejaairi: where I lay;?" In-the first place, such inaction ..'would kill me; in the second," it was needless: for,- as when the alarm should be taken, every inch of th_subf«rrarieari world.would be searched till I should ■lie'found, it mattered hot' whither I might have wandered—l should be equally safe anywhere. " I got up, stretched my hand, and touohed.the wall of skulls. "I shrank to the ground again. A few^moments, and' I conquered my cowardice.:;^- declare to you, that within a few moments, arid purely by dint' of gravely and kindly reasoning with myself, X was: able to touch the dead about me with absolute calmness; nay, I could .run my hand over the shape of the skull with a kind of curiosity. My lamp was shivered,into a thousand pieces. I cannot tell to this day how it was my'companions did not hear the crash. J-can only suppose'that a carriage' was rumbling: along the;road overhead when I fell,■ Suddenly I thought of the' rati"' _f -the horrible

thing .- came, towards me, what should_ I do? The thought was parent to' the belief that the execrable thing was there. I struck out instinctively, and, my hand coming upon some of the broken glass of the lamp, it was cut, and I felt blood flowing from the wounds. I bound my handkerchief, ray glove 9, my cravat, round and round the wounds, rather than a drop of my life's blood should fall, to become food for the horrible creature that had brought me to this pass. But I felt I must move—-I must seek to free myself while help was coining. Which way should I turn 1 I remembered that I had entered the passage on my right, and that tho skull . was on the left; then, to leave it, in order to reach the road by which we had come, I must let it be on my right hand, and when I had reached the road I must turn to the left. I soon discovered the inordinately large skull, left it on my right, and groped my'way the few steps to the roadway. I knew when I reached it by the angle of bones. Immediately, my highly-pitched senses perceived a change. My right cheek experienced an increase of temperature. -Mind —my right cheek. I asked myself to what this 'change could be attributable? I soon answered myself.: It' was a current of *nir from the outer world.' Now, thought I, this current of air—for current it was, though I rould detect no. movement in the atmosphere—must come from an opening; that opening must be at or near .a door;'then ill follow up against this current, I shall ultimately reach the spot at which it enters. Next moment,, I know I must have turned pale, for, when I turned full face towards the current 1 could detect no difference of temperature, vlt required a contrast between the two cheeks, as it were, to ascertain the difference. I have since been told by a scientific friend that this can be accounted for. The nerves of the face, when I stood sideways, were struck by the current laterally, and therefore, not so naturally as when the face was set towards it; because, as. all the provisions of nature exhibit preservation of forces, the nerves of the face in meeting the wind naturally—that is, whenthe man is walkini; —are so placed in relation to the wind, as to offer the least possible amount of nervous surface to its influence. As suddenly as I had been struck with the cause of the current I obtained another means of ascertaining my way. T turned to the wall of skulls which flanked the main road, and against which my right hand still was. Now, I thought, that side of each skull which receives the warm current precisely as my face received it, will, from its action, be drier than the other side, which has been infinitely less open to the influenc eof the comparatively drying influence of this external atmosphere. It was as I thought. The right side of the skull— that is, the side which was right when I stood with my back to the wall—-was smoother than the left; so it was with twenty other skulls. I'was not in error, and my heart beat wildly. It, was clear, let me follow this clue, aud sooner or later it must lead me to the entrance. But there was a fault 1 I knew that we had come along the road; which lay to my left; the current blew from the right. One of two causes accounted for this; ' Either I ~had become confused in my memory of "the locality, and the right was my road, or there was more than one entrance to these vaults. I decided to move to the ri^t. I never learnt afterwards how many miles I reany did travel; to me it seemed hun-; di'eds. I went on and 'on. Sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly, but always surely. I knew that sooner or later I must come to a door. When I came to one of tho tronsveise cuttings, of course I hod to make several steps ot random. The duration of these steps 3eemed years. My fingers trembled with agony until they touched once more the reassuring line of skulls. Sometimes I missed the clue both of the drier side of the skull and the test of heat on my face by turning it sideways, but I soon regained it by continuing on. I suppose that at those times I was skirting curves. How many hours I spent in that won Jrous walk, that logical deluction, it so I may call it, I only knew when I was once more in the open air. If I had'sat down arid waited for help, I should either have gone mad or idiotic, or have killed myself. Depend on it, reader, no matter how bad your condition, in what fix you may be placed, there is no help like your own. I used to hear—l am speaking of my incarceration as though it lasted months—l used to hear the rumbling'of the carriages overheard more or less distinctly,' according to the depth of the stone above me. Yet it was company. That was the only noise which broke my silence—for I seemed to have gained the faculty of walking without souud— except On one dear occasion, when my heart beat "so fast that I almost feared I was going to die. This was when I heard a voice—a brave, brisk, human voice—singing ablithe French chansonette. I,saw no light, but I felt sure I must be near an aperture from the catacombs, or, at least, a hole made for ventilating purposes, opening in sonic yard'or workshop. And them, to think that I had to leave the spot at which I heard the pleasant sounds; and continue my journey till I found the Origin of the current I Idid not quit it, however, till long after the song had ceased. -I called and holloaed, hut no reply came. Reverting to that current once ■more, it was astonishing how easily I learnt its growing force, for I concentrated my whole mind upon the lesson. Ultimately, I could almost calculate-the increase in its motion and temperature which so many hundred steps would yield. At last, suddenly, any • warning, the line of skulls ceased,, and I- touched wood! It was a door ,of open lattice-work. All looked dark beyond! But I knew I was at the exit. I 'had known that, for many thousands of steps—many; '. and yet, when I touched the door, how I started! , What a celestial glory, the day had, as it broke upon :my eyes, streaming in exquisite blue, rays through ' the chinks of the outer door, which was beyond the '. lattice-work. I have no occasion to tell how I broke that lattice-work, how I hammered at the outer-door, how 1 was at last released in the presence of half-a- ; . dozen gendarmes (who had drawn their swords), and ': of a senre'of- wondering workmen. This was not the gate by which I had entered. If I had been immured forty-two hours (as they told me), I liad passed two nights in the catacombs, and all that time I had never once sat down. I.found my friends in a great fright. They had only just learnt, by telegraph, that I had not reached England, and that nobody in London knew anything about me; I was ill for some time, of course; but I recovered to claim the distinction of having touched more skulls than any other man : living. ~ ' ' ''■■'"