Baffled in all his visits, he now tried a more subtle and dangerous plan. His superior education and polished manners enabled him to ingratiate himself with the Italian clergy, and in particular with a priest who was the confessor to the proprietor of the silk works of Leghorn. Doubtless he bribed this unworthy man very lavishly, for he very soon appeared before the directors of the silk works in a new disguise, that of a poor youth out of employ, and produced a recommendation from the priest for his employment in the works. The youth was engaged to attend a spinning engine called a filatoe; and, by a singularly fortunate arrangement, he was allotted a sleeping-place in the mill. Great was his danger in this position, for had his disguise been penetrated, death was certain. But he played his part with cool fearlessness, and night by night he stole out from under the stairs, from the dark hole in which he lay, and where he had hidden a dark lantern, tinder-box, candles, and mathematical instruments; and, whilst others slept, made drawings of the different parts of the works. There he was, night after night, amidst the mysterious and complicated machinery, in the dark, spacious, silent mill, with the light of his lantern turned on just that piece of the works that he was drawing, his hand rapid, skilful, sure, although his heart beat with the consciousness that death-a fearful death-hovered in the gloom ;-hark!—was not that a footstep behind him? did not something stir in the empty space? No. All was safe. Drawing after drawing was secretly handed to the priest, who came now and then to see how the poor boy got on. These precious drawings were handed to the agents of the Messrs. Lombe, in Leghorn, and transmitted to England in bales of silk, with the additional precaution of sending them in fragments. Every part of the secret machinery was thus made known to the brothers of John Lombe, and from the drawings thus obtained was constructed the first famous silk mill at Derby. John Lombe stayed in the mill at Leghorn very quietly until a ship was perfectly ready to convey him home,--then he fled for his life. An Italian brig was sent after him, but the English vessel proved the better sailor, and the bold youth arrived in England, joyful and triumphant. But his life was short,-he died at the age of twenty-nine; poisoned, it is supposed, by one of the Italians whom he had brought from Leghorn, because they were accustomed to the silk manufacture of that city. The Italians had, it is said, sent over a woman with a deadly poison, to destroy the discoverer of the cherished secret; and through her means John Lombe perished, one of the heroes and martyrs of British commerce. |