CURIOUS VAULTS. 
59P> 
only a quarry, according to the former ; and the ancient labyrinth, 
according to the latter, whose opinion 1 have followed.” 
Curious Subterranean Vaults or Maestricht. 
By Colonel Bory de Saint- Vincent. 
Petersberg, or the Hill of St. Peter, is situated between the Jaar 
and Meuse, and extends along the distance of nearly a league. The 
earth which is contained in the cavities in the interior of the hill fur- 
nishes materials for building, but principally for manure; and for 
this double purpose it has been excavated from the most remote ages 
of antiquity. In the symmetrical galleries of Petersberg, the Roman 
pickaxe has imprinted a kind of monumental character, and the feudal 
spade has left its Gothic traces. Workmen have from time immemorial 
been employed in excavating the bowels of the earth, to fertilize its 
surface. For ages the pickaxe and wheelbarrow have worked passages 
in every direction, and the traveller in this subterraneous labyrinth is 
happy, if, with the aid of his torches, he can return the way he entered. 
Streets, squares, and cross roads appear on every side ; in short, the 
vaults of Pet^'rsberg present the appearance of a town, in which there 
are only wanting houses, inhabitants, theatres, carriages, and gas 
lamps. M. Bory de Saint-Vineent draws the following picture of this 
gloomy region : — “ If any thing,” he says, “can add to the horror of 
thetperfect darkness, it is the total silence w'hich reigns in these dismal 
vaults. The voice of man is scarcely sufficient to disturb it ; sound 
is, as it were, deadened by the thickness of the gloom. Echo itself, 
which the bewildered traveller may interrogate in the desert, dwells 
not in these silent cavities.” 
It may naturally be conjectured that superstition has peopled these 
subterraneous vaults with demons and hobgoblins. Tradition has 
even allotted a hell and a paradise to the cavities of Petersberg. The 
huge pieces of coal, which an equal temperature has protected from 
the ravages of time, imagination has converted into monsters with 
claws, long tails, and horns. In various places, names, inscriptions, 
and remote dates, record the history of the origin of the excavations, 
and relate numerous adventures and unfortunate deaths of which 
Petersberg has been the theatre. In one part of the vaults a work- 
man, whose torch became extinguished, perished amidst the pangs 
of hunger and the horrors of darkness ; his hat and some fragments 
of his clothes still remain, to attest his melancholy fate. In another 
part the walls present the history of four friars, who proposed to erect 
a chapel at the remotest point of the cavities. The thread by wdiich 
they were to trace back their w^ay to the opening of the vaults, broke; 
the unfortunate men perished, and their bodies were subsequently 
found at the distance of a few paces from each other. However, 
catastrophes of this terrible kind presented fewer horrors to the con- 
scripts of the Lower Meuse than the pursuits of the gendarmerie, and, 
according to the testimony of the author, many preferred these dismal 
retreats to the laurels of Wagram> and Jena. 
^The interior of the hill of St. Peter has given rise to anecdotes 
worth collecting ; the Austrians, having possession of the fort of 
