Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1849-09-03
been poisoned by an adept in the use OF
such destructive agents.
"Mrs. Bourdon?'' s.t

SNosi
"Mrs. Bourdon!' .t
'.No; by her son. At least my suspic
ions point that way. She is probably
cognisant of the crime But IN order tha
you should understand the grounds upon
which my conjectures are principally
founded must enter into Il short explana
tion.. Mrs. Bourbon, woman Of Spanish
extraction, and indeed who formerly occu
-pied a much higher position than she does
now, has lived with Mrs. Armitage from
the period Of her husbands dcalh, now
about sixteen years ago. Mrs. Bourbon
#hus Il SON. son, 4 tafi,s good:foolfng 4sflo@
enough, whom you may have seem"
Gle was with his mother in the library
as entered it after leaving YOU"
"Ah! We'll, hem! This boy, in his
mothers opinion-bul that perhaps is some
what excusable-e exhibited early indica-
lons Of having been born genius.
Mrs Armitage, who had been first struck
by the beauty Of the child, gradually ac.
quired the same notion; and the result was,
that he was little by little invested-wilh at
least her tacit approval-wilh the privileges
supposed to be the lawful inheritance of
such gifted spirits; namely, the right to be
as idle as he geniuses, you know,
can, according to the popular notion, attain
any conceivable amount of knowledge per
saltuns at Il. boupd-and 10 exalt himself
in the stills of his own conceit above the
useful and honorable pursuits suited to the
station in life in which Providence has cast
his lot The fruit Of such training soon
showed itself. Young Bourbon grew up a
conceited and essentially Ignorant puppy,
capable of nothing but bad verses, and
thoroughly impressed with but one impor-
tant fact, which was, that he, Alfred Bour-
don, was the most gifted and the most ill.,
used of all Gods creatures. To genius in
any ntelligible sense Of the term, he has
in truth no prelensioh. He is endowed,
however, with a kind of reflective talent,
| which is often mistaken by fools for crea-
tive power, The morbid iances and mel
ancholy scorn Of. a Byron, for instance,
such gentry reflect back from their foggy
ina aginations in exaggerated and distorted
leebleness Of whining versicles, and SO on
with other lights celestial or Internal.
This, however, by the way. The only
rational pursuit he ever followed, and that
only by fits and starts, and to crafty his
faculty of WONDER fancy was chemistry.
A small laboratory was fitted up for him
in the little summer house you may have
observed at the farther corner Of the lawn.
This study of his, if study snch desultory
snatches at science may be called, led him,
in his examina ion Of vegetable bodies, to a
smattering acquaintance with botany, a
science OF which Ellen Armitage is an en-
thusias,ic student. They were toolishly
! permitted to botanise together; the result
was, that Alfred Bourbon, acting upon the
principle that genius-whether sham or
real, levels all merely mundane distinctions,
had the impudence to aspire TO the hand OF
Miss Arnitage. His passion, sincere OF
stimulated, has never been, have reason
to know, in the slightest degree reciprocal
ed by its object; but so blind is vanity, thai
when, aboutzsix weeks ago, a full .ayowal
took place, and the fellows dream was
somewhat rudely dissipated, the untowarc
rejection Of his preposterous suit was
there is every reason to believe, attributed
by both mother and son to the repugnance
OF Mrs. sArmitage alone; and to this Idiots
hallucination she has, fear, fallen a
sacrifice. Judging from the emaciated ap
pearanee of the body, and other phenomena
communicated to me by her ordinary
medical attendant-a blundering igno
ramus, who ought to have called in assls
tance long before--she has been poisoned
with iodine, which,, administered in certain
quantities, would produce precisely the
same symptoms. Happily there is nc
mode OF destroying human life which sc
surely leads to the detection oil the murder
er as the use cf such agents; and of this
truth the post mortem examination of the
body, which takes place tomorrow morn.
ing, will, if | am not grossly mistaken
supply another vivid illustration. s.
Legal assistance will no doubt be
necessary, and am sure do not err il
expecting that you will aid me in bringing
to Justice the murderer of Mary Rawdon?
A pressure of his hand was my only
answer. SCI shall cali for you at tel
o'clock," said he, as he put me down a: my
own door. bowed and the carriage
drove off. y-a es
- " Oh: Salu Ell, ~ III LeiS xix
Mr.. the eminent surgeon, entered
the library at Mount Place, the following
morning after a long absence.
GAS anticipated replied the docto
with choking voice: "she has beef
poisonedr' 10 @ ir- i
started to my feet. "And the murder
er?'
| ~ --... -,
sour suspicious still point to yount
Boudon: but the persons of both mo'he
and son have been secured.'
"Apart!2
eyes; and have despatched a servan
to request the presence Of neighbor-
county magistrate. I expect him moment
ly."
After brief consultation, we all thre
directed our steps to the summer-hous
which contained young Bourdon's labora
tory. In the room itself nothing Of impor
tance was discovered; but in an enclose'
) recess, which we broke open, we found
curiously. fashioned glass bottle half ful
of iodine.
sThis is it!'' said Mr.; "and in
powdered state too-just ready for mixin
with brandy or any other available dissolv
ent." The powder had somewhat the ap
pearance of fine black-lead. Nothing fur
ther of any consequence being observed