The Democratic pioneer. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1845-1853, 1849-10-19
around the shades of the forest?'

" around the shades of the forest?'
The maiden's hand dropped palsied
from the arm ofthe hunter.
Black Hubert!' she cried in voice o1
fear, Black Hubert! what know. you ol
Black Hubert? 'Tis he that has swept
over the land in the dead hour ofthe night
spreading terror and alarm among the
peaceful tenements of the peasantry; the
farm houses of the rich have been burned,
the cottages of the poor laid in ashes!-
Murdered corses have numbered the high
way, and crimsoned the verdure of the
green pasturages! Murder has stalked
with rude step into the solemn quietude
of the temple, and assailed with unspar-
ing hand the castles of the great, the pow
.erful! Even the mansion of the lord of the
manor, Baron De Hepburn, has not been
safe from ravage; his lines of guards. his
embattled walls haved offered no security
from the sword and the fame that marks
The path of the ruthless destroyer. And
amid all the midnight ravage, the secret
murder, and the dark assault of the des-
troyer, one fearful form has met the gaze
of the affrighted victim: the form ofa giant
figure, black as death, and girt with flame,
stalking over dead corses amid smoking
ruins, with his darkened face glowing like
that of the Evil One, in the glaring light.
And he is called Black Hubert; Walter
Denys, by the eternal veal of your soul, !
implore ye, tell me, what know you Of this
frightful being? why alright the air with
bis dread name at this solemn hour"
Walter stood regarding the maiden;
while she spoke, with look at once stern,
dark and mysterious. Leaning on the har-
quebus dropped at his side, he marked the
flush of excitement brighten over her
youthful cheek he marked the expression
Of intense fear that paled her features, he
marked the sparkle of her eye, her erect
figure and extended arm.
Marjorie, you never loved me!' he ex-
claimed, with his teeth set togeather and
his lips compressed.
Slowed you, WalterRAaexclaimed the
beautiful girl; never loved you? True
have no words ofsilken speech; with which
to gild the falsehood the lips may utter OF
the heart may prompt; but if ever woman
loved man with every affection of the soul,
wound up to madness; if ever woman died
despisei and degraded, from true, entire
and heartfelt love, then, Walter Denys,
have l loved you, then do love you, and
as the Virgia lives in heaven, then will l
love you, Aye, to the very DEATH
The hunter hid his face in his sunburnt
hands, and tear trickled down his swar-
thy check.
1t availi naught now-it avails naught
now,' he muttcred, as though communing
with himself; 'one month hence these words
might have saved me; now, am lost, for
evcr!Marjorie, he exclaimed, seizing the
maiden by the hand, turn your eyes from
me, turn your face from my gaze, while l
whisper the secret that rises from my brs-
ting heart-I AMI am-Oh, God OF
heavenl | am BLACK HUBERT THE RoBBER!
and Marjorie thou hast made me what |
ami
AS though some dread split had turned
her blood to ice and her face to marble,
mute and mosionless the maiden stood
Not word, not whisper came from her
lips; not a sigh heaved her bosom. Her
eyes, her full dark eyes gazed in wild yet
glance upon the form of the
hunter, her hands dropped by her side,
and Walter Denys looked upon the form
before him and thought he beheld spirit
Of the unreal world.
Hal shouts! they come-the blood
hounds! They are on my path-they
tred in my very footsteps?
He grasped the maiden by the arm, and
hurried along the forest path, while the
oaying of blood hounds and the shouts OF
armed men came booming npon the still
1esss of the air. Deeper and deeper the
desperate hunter struck into the recesses
of the forest, and the interviewer branches
began to cast midnight shade upon the
nossy turf of the wood-path, which the
,eams of the moon might not illumine or
,nliven with single flash of light. The
oar of waters, the deep, the regular sound
If cataract rushing over a lofty steep
II rocks, now filled the air, and for mo-
nent drowned the bay of the bloodhonnds
md the shonts of the pursuers. Marjorie
woke from the spell that bound her sen
es, as she was thus bornes .hurriedly
long into the recesses of the wood; she
woke and felt the arm of Walter encir-
ling her waist, while the maddening flash
# his dark eyes, CLEANED through the
urrounding gloom. A vague feeling Of
error was upon her mind when she thought
{ Black Hubert the rohber; she gazed up
n the face of the hunter, and bcheld with /
apture the face of Walter Denys, her first
we, and the robber, his crimes and his
rrongs were forgotten.
Waller, what mean those shouts? why
o you rush thus hastily along the wood
ath? whittier are We hastening?' 1