Alexandria Gazette

A Strange Occurrence in Venice.
Mr. Locke, formerly editor of the Savannah Republican, in a letter to that paper from Europe, giving an account of a recent visit to Venice, says:
A strange occurrence took place while I was in Venice. On the same evening, in different parts of the town, two young girls nine or ten years old, were enticed away to a solitary abode, where they were blindfolded and conducted to another retired house. Here they were well treated during twenty-four hours, with enough to eat and drink, but they were bled several times almost to the point of fainting, and when they had no more blood to spare, without endangering their life, they were restored to their homes by night, in the same mysterious way. Everybody in town was startled by this singular incident. The most common explanation was, that an old sorceress had recommended to some deluded being bathing in the blood of young and healthy persons, as a method of restoring exhausted nature.