Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1840-11-13

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suspicion might rest upon her father, that she
'prang to her feet with a shrek of horror
her small hands clcnchcd, and her eyes on
ire with indignation and surprise. "Thc
black villain " exclaimed Annie passionate
y: "Donald Bane would as soon steal the
from heaven as one of those glittcring
stones from his masters house. 1t is to
screen his own foul decd that he has stolen
my fathers skean. knew he was a villain;
The spirit within me rose against him. And
is it of him they would make a farmer in Gle
more Is il to him that my father opens his
heart and his home ?-he that will make me
turn my back on Eichen Dhu 7" and SEEM
ing to have forgotten his presence in her
violent excitement, after another burst Of
passionate indignation, she turned flushed
and painting with some unspokcn purpose to
descend the cliff.
Eichcn sprang before her, and wilcd her
back with words of reasoning and cntrcaty.
He trcmblcd for the consequence her pre-
cipitation, and excrtcd his utmost efforts Of
persuasion to soothc her natural anger, and
cngraft prudence and discretion on its youth
ful violence. 1t was long before Anne could
be induced to defer her appeal to her father
till it might be made with more effect. She
would have sought him out on the instant. in
the face of the whole community-would
have brought him TO the spot where lay the
evidence of his favoritc's treason, and hidden
him proclaim himself an honest man, and his
secret enemy a thief and a villain. But
Cichen prevailed at last, and she promised
that her father should hear her strange news
in privatc-tlat the name of the discoveror
should be supprcsscd-and that beneath the
pine shadow of st. Annc's Eichcn should
meet her in tho cleaning to hear the milIer's
opinion of the discovery, and the course he
intended to pursue in regard to it. /. was
the best arrangement which Annc's uncxpcc-
ted admission in the fatal secret would per-
nit; and the young people parted with an
additional tie TO each other, and a sort of taclt
understanding that Hugh's place at liner
Veolan might not long be vacant.
Eichcn proceeded slowly and tl,oughtfnlly
about his mornings occupations; and if the
labor ofthc youthful mountainccr had been
often as imperfcctly performed, the rcpu,a-
ton of his superiority would have stood but
on feeble ground. His very consciousness
seemed absorbed by the anticipation of his
meeting with Annie, and the possible results
Of her interview with her father and he
turned up his face again and again in the lazy
sun, will, the most impatient glance he had
ever cast upon its onward progress. At las,
the rcd orb of the lingering autumn least hi.
fry disk upon Skian Var-thc still wave lay
crimsoned by his glancc-and before the
| uIpu,pr rlo,,J. rs oh, ,,oo. Lol -. 49, 81 -
their transitory, glory Eichen took his way
to the trysting place of St. Anno's, and cas-
his keen and earnest glance along the wind.
ing pathway that led to the mill of line,
Veolan.
The eve was wearing on, and Eichcr
would have thankfully exchanged a portion
of his scanty hopes for the certainty that sht
would come at all;-night was at hand-tl,
stars grew clearer and more intense in thu
deep blue heavens, and the dim twiligl,
darkencd into approaching night-thc las
note Of the hlackbird had died away, and cvcl
the melancholy booming of the cushat cam,
at intervals of more heightened distance
By and by the dull ominous hooting of tn
owl and the startling croak of the raven wcr
all the symptoms of companionship left t
Eichen, and his heart grew heavy with tn
GREATNESS solitude and the dim vague inlu
encc OF superstition. He would not lcav,
the spot, however, while it was possible 70
Anne still to reach it, and he walked up an
down within the shade ofthc ~ir-trccs longin
Tor even a moon beam to SCARF the tho
darkness, but the moon was hidden by
bank of heavy clouds that curtaincd tn
eastern sky, and the free and shadc!css azur
was occupied alone by the inferior light q
the twinkling stars. At last the convic,io
) forced itself upon him that she would no
come; Annie was too timid to venture eve
thus far from home by the starlight only, an
slowly and sadly he turned his face toward
the path that led to his home in the hamlet
Some invisible influence was upon him
for he could could not seek his pillow wi,hou
once more assuring himself of the safety o
the fatal caskct upon which curious eye
might fall with and effect so deadly. He lci
} the homcward path, and sauntered on to tn
kelpic's ~craig-that fated spot, to which, i
a moment of madness, he had linked himsc1
by a tic so hateful. Eichcn gazcd upon tn
fatcd spot, something white and nut,crin
was distinguishablc in the darkness; he fan
cied it might be an eagle lurcd by the whit
! l@leeccs ofthc valley, and was about to scar
him by a whooping cry, when the motion c
! the object, which appeared to steal along tn
surface of the ground, convinced him that h
was mistaken, and that the appari,ion was n
bird, but the likeness at lcas, of a huma
being.
E'chcn Dhu stopped short, and his brcat
came fast and ftfully,as the image of the wa
ter spirit como to redeem his treasure flitte
dimly across his brain; but the rccollectio
that his was not after all the doomed caldrol
caused him to smile at so groundlcss an ar
prchcnsion, and the suspicion that this migi
be some more substantial ~visitant whom |
, should find itof importance to intercept, il
Z duced him to quicken his pace in thc directic
! of the craig itself. 4 few moments longc
however, and he stopped invo!untarily
watch the singular motions of the s~olita,
, wanderer. The figure had quite surmount,
the cliff, and stood perfectly defined even