The Faithful Secret Bearer

I read in a chapter of Italian history of a poor girl in a dungeon, on a damp floor, in a dark room, with scanty fare, her life ebbing out. One year she stays, three years she stays, six years she stays; and after the sixth year there is a corpse on the marble floor. They throw it into a box and bury it in a potter’s field. It horrifies me, but when I turn over a page I read that the girl was sent to prison because she had a secret she would not divulge, and that the first day of every month an officer of the government would come in and say: “If you will give us the secret we know you possess, we will set you free.” But she steadfastly refused. What was the secret? It was connected with the honor and life of her own beloved father; and for his sake she lingered and died upon the marble floor in the dark room. Now I feel that I should like to build a monument to the noble Italian girl higher and grander than St. Peter’s Cathedral. (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #3683).