Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1854-11-02


nose; she could not be mistaken in the calm,
firm, half smiling lip, which gave the world
assurance of a Points But who was this
young wife whom he presented to her ?-Had
the unhappy man tarnished his blood with a
naesalliancc? /? Had he brought so'ue obscure
foreigner the state of the Countess de Sainte
Helene? No. The noble heir of the Points
assured his aged relation, that even in exile be
hal been too proud of their common name to
share it with cne meaner than himself. This
lady, though their marriage was unsanctioned
by her family till his claims should be estab-
lished, was of the highest blood of Spain
she was daughter of the Viceroy of Mala-
ga This was enough almost too much. The
old lady wept with pride and delight and she
ended by making the whole town weep with
her An act of notoriety, as it called in
French law, was readily obtained, recognising
the birth of the returned enigrant and this
being transferred to the existing registers of
Scissors, Pierre Coignard, the escaped felon,
found himself transformed, as if by magic,
into Points, Count dc Sainte-Helene.
We have not ascertained that the peeuniary
resources Of the adventurer were much inn
proved by this recognition of his nobility !;
indeed it would seem from the context that
this was not the case 1t is far more difficult
to obtain an estate than title: and perhaps
the count may have thought it imprudcnt to
refer his claims to the searching abitrement
of the courts of law But his grateful prince
would not suffer the scion of the noble house
to laneuish in poverty apd obscurity; and,
indeed, the talents of the count offered the
f;lirest opportunities for his advancement, or
rather made his advancement duty on the
part of the court. He received successfully
the knightly decorations of the Legion of
Honour and Saint Louis, became member
of the order of Alcantara !; and rose to be a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Legion of the
Seine. On his part, he repaid the loyal favor
with unbounded devotion; his loyalty was
without reproaeh, and he was esteemed one
of the most rising and respectable characters
in the French court
The expensive manner III which the count
lived, might have afforded, but for one cir
cumstance, some suspicion that he enjoyed
still weightier fayors of government than
crosses and decorations The pay of Lieu
tenant Colonel, with any fragments he might
have recovered of his hereditary possessions,
was not enough to account for a liberality as
unbounded as it was unostentatious. The
inexhaustihie fund on which he drew was
neither squandered nor spared; he had money
for all legitimate purposes and when other
men had recourse, ON extraordinary emergen-
cies, to loans and mortgages, the Count de
Sainte-Helene had nothing to do bat write
check. His marriage accounted for this. His
noll wife was the mine, on the produce of
which he lived and her Spanish gold was
daily Transmitted III any quantities into French
silver
It was supposed at the time, however, that
other men had recourse to more disreputable
means of supply; for the wholesale robberies
that were committed ON ali hands had become
as alarming as tliey we're inexplicahle. No
precautions were sufficient for the safeguard
Of valuable property. In the reeesses of pa
laces, thefts were as common as in the shops
of the citizens and it was obvious that there
had been established a system OF brieandage,
whose organization comprehended much
higher class than usual Even nobleman
was not safe from suspicion whose habits ex-
hibited anything of the mysterious but as
for our Count and Countess, they lived so
much in public, they belonged so completely
to the court and to society, that the suspicion
must have been wild indeed which could at
tach itself to them.
One day the Count was at the head of his
regiment in the Place du Carrouzel, assisting
at a splendid military parade. On one side
of the square were the garden and palace of
the Tuileries on the opposite side the Ave
nue. du Neully, extending as straight as an
arrow along the Champs Elysees, to the verge
of the horizon, now terminated by a triumph
al arch, on the third the Place Vendome,
witn It's noble column and on the fourth,
the Seine, spanned by bridge, loaded with
statues. This magnificent scene was crowded
with spectators, even to the trees of the
Champs Elysees; and as the Count de Sainte
Helene felt himself to be one of the great
actors in the pageant, Wild throb must have
hcaved the chest of the escaped forcat. But
the word he hardly now considered to apply
to him; fer his fourteen years sentence was
expired if not fulfilled Some days ago he
had celebrated in his own mind the fourteenth
anniversary of his condemnation, and declar-
ed himself to be free man 1t is no wonder
that on this occasion he should revert exult-
ingly to his escape from the bagne, as an
event which had turned the current of his
life, and given TO him his fortune; but as his
thoughts lost themselves in the recollection,
he leaped suddenly in the saddle, as if trans
fixed with a spear.
At first he hardly knew what it was that
had affected him, or knowing it, he set it
down as delusion growing out of his waking
dream. An eye had rested upon his for a
moment, as his face was turned towards the
crowd-a phantom eye, doubtless. such as
sometimes glares upon US from the abysses of
memory, for he never could meet with it
again Yet the count could not help re-
peating to himself. nor avoid a sensation Of
sickness as be did so, that the comrade he
had abandoned to his chains, spurning him
with his foot while he did SO, was now a free
man like himself, and by more legitimate
title In the case of al,orot 49,, ~ 1 -. L :.