Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1853-11-16
CbuirR IitrraturR.
A Ghost Story.

"A OAOcG 0GO1y'
A Paris letter writer tells a good story of
reUenant, (French for ghost,) who turned
out to be a being of real flesh and blood
We translate it:
" Much gossip during former season
took place in the Partisan fashionable world,
concerning certain husband who committed
suicide in order to eounterbalance in some
way the miserable life he had caused his
wife to lead. This husband who finished
his career so we'll, had commenced it in a to
tally opposite manner. Full of bad quail
ties, disspated, gambler, roue, he had
spent all his own and his wife's property, and
rendered her unhappy by every means in
his power The wife, woman who meri
ted better fate, was good and beautfftll
mirable resignation the unworthy treatment
of her unworthy spouse. Her patience and
virtue never failed her for an instant during
this severe trial. She had, as is customary
in French society in certain circles, num-
ber of male worshippers, and among these
was young baron, immensely rich. and of
very amiable and pleasing manners.
Fallen from brilliant position, living
on loans and the wreck Of fortune, and
driven from Paris by his debts, the husband
went with his wife to pass the summer at the
watering places in the Pyrenees. The baron
followed, but the wife obliged him to leave
the spot This conduct touched the hus-
band. For the first time as he looked back
on his career, he was overcome with shame
and remorse. He accused and condemned
himself, and his pity for the poor woman
whose cup be had filled to the brim with the
bitter tears of sorrow and humiliation, sud
denly became even frenzed in extent
Were | dead he said to himself, she
would be happy; she would marry this ex
cellent young man, who loves her, know
and whom no doubt she is fond of. BE
so will make up for the past, and the fu
ture shall be happy. She shall be free =
The sacrifice will cost me little: am tiret
Of my miserable life, in which [ am bur
den to others and 10 myself.
AS soon as he had taken this resolution
he wrote farewell letter to his wife, pray
ing her to pardon him all his faults toward
her in consideration of the total expiation.-
1t is offered for YOU he wrote, it is to IT
move the only obstacle to yoar happines
that am determined to end my life. There
upon, he started out to put his plan into e:
ecution.
The next day his hat and memoranda
book (the letter containing few farewe
lines, hurriedly written and passionately e.
pressed, as might be supposedly were foul
on the bank of precipice in the mountain
He had written and thrown himself into t
sombre abyss, the depths Of which no h
man eye could measure.
What this generous husband anticipat
; took place. His widow shed few tears
q tenderness as a legitimate tribute to so dis
= terested an act had his decease legally p
ven; passed year in mourning, and tn
> became the baron's spouse. She knew tn
i what happiness was for the first time in
= life.
- The tragical erd of the first husband
. came the basis of poetical legend wa
, was all the fashion for yearsin the Pyrene
- The poets, inspired by imagination, enricI
70 the story with many exaggeratlons; but e
u the basis of the poem was exaggeratlon
the real facts were as follows
BY the time the heroic husband
ID reached the summit of the mountain,
es mental exaltation was dissipated by the Fl
II air of the morning and the salutary exer
We of long walk his mind became cali
SO turned to wiser reflections, and the sigh
as the abyss, instead of proving attract
as made lin remember Talleyrand's philosC
es ic axiom: Be suspicious Of first impu
Ia Suspicion seized on him, and reaec
oW gave him counsel. Why kill himself.
M could obtain his object without recours
IN that extremity Was it not absurd to
IN IN up life at thirty years of age for sentil
leu tai exaggeration or a cowardly weakness
Would it not be better to pass himse
Inc for dead, and then commence new CT
I'M, and seek his fortune in distant countl
SEQ His purse, which he had accidentally t
Oy with him, contained sixty louis. With