Some years ago business led me to visit and examine a number of the silver mines of Peru, and at one of these I met with a strange and thrilling adventure.

      I had obtained the usual permission to descend through the narrow shaft down into the dark bowels of the earth, and a miner named Pedro had been sent to me as a guide.

      I merely glanced at the fallow, in his coarse, close-fitting, dirty costume, with the lighted lamp depending from his skull cap, and then told him to lead the way.

      I had visited so many mines in my time that I looked for no novelty in the descent I was now about to make. The mouth of the present mine was only some six or eight feet in diameter, and the excavation was but a few degrees from the perpendicular. For the first two hundred feet our descent was by earthen stairs — or rather by a succession of notches for our heels, cut in the soft, moist earth. Great care had to be exercised to prevent our feet from slipping — for, if the foothold were once lost, it might not be regained, and the death of the unfortunate individual would probably be the result, if not the destruction of all before him.

      On reaching the bottom of the first shaft, my guide, who had not spoken since entering the pit, silently motioned to me to follow him, and led the way through a broad winding tunnel, from which many others branched off in different directions. These were old veins, that had been first worked, and were now deserted, and presented nothing worthy of my attention. At length we came to another shaft, more perpendicular even than the first, and the descent of which was made by means of ladders, but with rounds so old, worn, and rotten that I was fearful every step would give way under me.

      In this manner, by easy stages, for we found a resting level every 50 or 75 feet, we descended to a depth of 500 feet below the surface of the earth, and came upon the miners actively engaged in getting out the ore. The scene thus presented, when witnessed for the first time, has a strange effect upon the beholder, and if he is not reminded of certain regions that shall be nameless, then may truly pronounce him deficient in that species of imagination which is the most fed by superstition. Strange, hollow, creaking, groaning, rumbling noises come rolling in upon his ear from every quarter, while his vision if limited to walls had gulfs of blackness, with here and there a small mysterious light, like an ignis fatuus, moving slowly about, and perhaps faintly revealing what seems a ghost, or a human shadow, with a pale, ghastly face, played upon by the changing rays of the swinging lamp before it, so as to make it appear distorted and hideous.

      Having spent some three hours in exploring and examining the mine, and thus completed the business which took me down, I set out with my guide to return to the world above. During all the time he bad been showing me about from point to point the fellow had been very quiet and polite, speaking only when addressed, and then answering in a brief, civil, pointed, and intelligent manner. On our way up the ladders he cautioned me more than once to be careful of my hold, and pointed out two or three places where the rounds were more than usually weak and rotten. I mention these things to show how little I could have been prepared for what followed.

      On reaching the great tunnel, which wound around to the base of the first shaft, Pedro said, with a polite bow, —

      "If your worship will spare me a few minutes of your time, I have something I would like to show you."

      "What is it?"

      Come and see."

      "Is it far?"

      "Nothing of vast importance should be thought far!" was the equivocal reply. "It is this way — pray follow me!"

      My curiosity being a little excited, I rejoined as I went after him, —

      "Make haste then, Pedro, for I am anxious to get to the fresh air above."

      Pedro quickened his pace, and I kept close behind him. Turning here and turning there, out of one passage into another, the fellow continued walking rapidly for at least five minutes, by which time I had got completely bewildered, and feared he had or would get so. At length, as I was about to remonstrate, he suddenly came to a halt upon the brink of what appeared to be a dry well, the mouth of which was about four feet in diameter, and the sides inclining outward from the perpendicular, so that the bottom was broader than the top, and the entire excavation slightly conical in form.

      "Do you see this?" exclaimed Pedro, turning his black eyes full upon me, with a peculiar, glittering sort of a look of triumph.

      "I see it — yes — a well."

      "Of silver, Senor — of silver! Ha, ha! Perhaps of gold, too, Senor. Who knows? And then speak of the diamonds in a whisper, my friend, lest the walls should have ears."

      "I do not understand you, Pedro," said I, wondering what the fellow could mean.

      "Why, do you not see? I am a monarch — a King!"

      "You?"

      "Ay, me — just as you see me here — although at present I wear no royal robe."

      "That is a fact which is quite apparent," returned I, scarcely knowing whether to laugh or look vexed. "Pray, your Majesty, where is your kingdom?"

      "My Silver Halls are here!" he said, pointing down the well. "Listen! what I want is a prime minister — one who can tend to my affairs when I am away. But I am told the chosen one must be a spirit, and not a mortal, and my royal pleasure is that you shall serve me io that capacity."

      As he spoke he sprang behind me, and pushed me so suddenly that, not being prepared for the assault, I went over the verge of the well in spite of myself, and fell heavily to the bottom, a distance of some fifteen feet, but fortunately without breaking any bones. I arose with perfect presence of mind, and as I looked up to the contorted bee of the miner, who was now bending over and glaring down upon me, the whole truth flashed upon me.

      He was a maniac, and I was in his power!

      It was a terrible discovery to make in my situation, and fairly quailed at the thought that the place might be my grave. It would be impossible for me to get out without assistance; I could not expect help from the madman who had put me there; and what chance was there that anyone else would find me, or even think of looking for me, in that out-of-the-way place? These were my first thoughts that flashed through my mind in an instant, and the next were that I should humour the fellow, fall into the train of his insane ideas, and try what I might gain by stratagem.

      "Oh, mighty Monarch of the Silver Halls," I said, "I deeply thank your Majesty for this evidence of your royal favour, and humbly beg to assure you that already have I become a spirit and your prime minister, only wishing to do your royal will."

      "You look the same — we see no change," he replied, now using the kingly plural, "and they told us it would take many days to effect what we desire."

      "Who told your Royal Majesty this?"

      "Our subjects."

      "And is it possible your Majesty can believe your plebeian subjects before your noble minister?"

      "We should not, perhaps; but days are as nothing to a spirit; and as you are now a spirit, we will leave you for a few days, and then let you know our royal pleasure."

      With this he smiled a grim smile, waved his hand majestically, turned and disappeared. I called for him, but he returned me no answer, and I could hear his echoing footfalls slowly receding till they died out in the distance.

      It was useless for me to attempt to describe my feelings when I thus found myself left alone in darkness, at the bottom of a pit from which I could not extricate myself, and in a part of a deserted mine, from which, if I were wholly free, I might never find my way to the world above. Though I felt myself literally buried alive, yet I did not at first wholly despair. A faint hope lingered that my guide might go back without me, his condition become unknown, myself be missed and a search be instituted for me; but then the chances were so many against my ever being found while living that the thought only gave me the feeblest ray of comfort, which finally went out in a horrible gloom that was worse than death itself.

      For three mortal days and nights — the time of which was one rayless, awful night to me — did I remain in that fearful pit; and then, nearly dead from hunger, thirst, and despair, I felt as if I was going mad myself. For a long time I had called and shouted and shrieked for help, and now without the faintest ray of hope I staggered around my prison, beat my head against its earthen walls, tore my hair, bit my flesh and shrieked because of the horrors that seemed to set my head on fire, and when at last I heard human voices and saw lights flashing above me I was in that state when the mind, hovering on the verge of insanity, is not able to distinguish the true from the false — the real from the imaginary — and whether these were beings of earth or demons from another world, I had lost the power to determine.

      My next remembrance is of finding myself in bed, and being tended with care; but it was two weeks from the day I entered that mine before I had sufficiently recovered to relate my story and learn of the manner of my discovery.

      Pedro, it seems, had gone back to his work in the mine as though nothing unusual had occurred; and subsequently, when questioned about me, he replied, in a very straightforward and intelligent manner, that he had conducted me to the upper shaft, and then left me at my own request. It was there supposed I had gone out when no one was about, and departed in a very uncivil way, and no search was made for me. In fact, I owed my life to accident — one of the miners having occasion to visit a distant part of the deserted veins, being startled by shrieks, the mystery of which he had the courage to investigate.

      My narration of the conduct and language of Pedro was the first knowledge any one had of his insanity — though many now remember something curious and singular connected with him. An investigation proved him non compos mentis, and he was removed to an asylum. I learned he had once been a lackey to a courtier, which accounted for his supposing himself a king, and using language becoming royalty itself.