Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1856-11-06
Frsm Mrs. Stephens Monthly
THE POWER OF GOLD,
OR
MAUD. THE SORCERESS.
BT J. A. DALLAS.


of lines up to the west porch; the vii
lage green, where bowls and cricket
went on in the summer evenings; the ma
tional school, with its rustic porch hid
den in iessamine and clematis, as befit-
teth an orthodox English village school;
the. low, one-storied parsonage, buried
in the white petals of the Ayrshire rose
till it looked like a mass of snow in the
green summer days; the trim cottages,
herbs; the stately Hall, with its grand old
park stretching round for miles, till it
met the property of young MIR. ROLES
tone, the squire of Oakenden West;
were all so many typical features of an
English village Of the midland counties,
the like Of which no other land upon
earth contains.
The moral elements of Oakenden were
no less characteristic than its physical;
its society was as national as its archi-
lecture. FIRST in dignity, in popularity,
and in wealth, was Squire GRAY of the
Hall, his wife, his son and daugter; then
came the vicar, DIR. Mathison, a fellow
of Magdalene, and an old bachelor;
then in the large white house, without
garden or fence, at the entrance of the
village, with urns and statues on its one
small terrace, and elaborate iron gates
opening into its narrow gravel walk, was
the Hon. Mr.. Domville and his hand
some London wife: then quiet, gentle,
lady ike Mrs. Fortescue, and her four
daughters in waning womanhood, in the
pretty cottage on the road to OakendeG
West, with Il conservatory and Il shrub
berry, and large meadow all attached;
and last of all, young Paul Desprez, the
artist, who had been in Oakenden for
about six months now, and who Was
popularity believed to be the greatest
painter Of the day, and whose health
used beto drunk at the little supper par
ties afterloo and commerce, as the "talent
cd Young stranger whose sojourn amongst
them was to make Oakenken famous"
But thoroughly. English as Oakenden
was, and small, conventional, sitted, and
precise rs was its society, it held one
most unusual, most unconventional, mot
I'M English inhabitant-the gypsy girl liy-
ngin the littlecottage down the sandylane
Maud Of the hollow, as she was called.
Iaud was no vul gar gipsy-no wandering
fortune teller, obnoxious to the stocks; but
merely asolitary ungwoman,w with some
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES for hersupport
Her manner was good-even lady like;
and perhaps she would have passed with
out question, but for the oddly she he
trayed in her choice of an abode, and
her unciviizcd mode of living. Her
ways and habits were SO strange, no
wonder she was an object of suspicion
and dread. She used to spend days and
nights together i'll the depths OF woods
and out III the meadows by moonlight, ON
heaths and by morasses, ponds and riv-
ers, plucking herbs, and chasing insects
and learning many Il secret hidden from
the rest Of the world. Wherever there
were solitude and nature, there was
Maud of the Hollow; and there her heart
contracted by the littleness and preiu-
dice and unkindnesss Of men-learned
peace in the greatness of creation, and in
the love of the Creator. But this mode
of life was so unusual that, added to her
peculiar appearance and unknown histo-
nv. it made her name become in time a
name of dread to the peasant, and she
herself person of doubtful fame to the
educated Of Oakenden. The common
people thought, to be sure, she was a
witch; and picked up horse shoes, laid
straws, and said her prayers with equal
diligence; and the gentry shook their
heads. and though they did not affirm
vet they were afraid there was no good
in her. However, be she what she might
it was certain that Oakenden morality
held its eyes wide open to her, and that
Maud made not single step that was
not watched, commented on, and. alas,
Icondemned. So by degrees she had be-
come lonely, strange, suspected wo-
man, without friend to bear her com
panN through this long wilderness of
/ life, without smile between her and
despair. Even kind Mrs. Fortascue, who
still continued her cottage yisitings, and
charities, as in the days of her legal
pastorship, would not visit Maud of the
| Holow-''she had daughters" she said;
and Paul himself had become so far in
fectcd with the popular superstition,
stronger and artist as he was. as TO,
overlook all the rare mental beauty in
the girl, blinded by the cruel shadow
the world threw over them. Horace
| GRAY never met her but to miscall her,
and Eva-the tall, beautiful, quecnly
Eva-ioined her brother in his sarcasms
and added to them, too. So that of all
the human hearts beating beneath the
blue sky ofOakenden, none beat kindly
for the poor gypsy Maud. And when
| Maud's soul was dark, as she thought of
the heavy sorrows so ruthlessly wrought
her by superstition and prejudice, she
used to 90 out into the broad home of
nature, and forget them there, doing
her best. too. to love those who hated
her, to forgive, pity, and to pray for
them; for underneath all her wild expe-
rience lay rs true womans nature as
ever received sorrow, and gave out
blessing: and if it was nature misun-
derstood and Slandered, ii was SO only
because OF its superiority to those around
her; being stronger in its feelings, and
deeper in its thoughts than others
| And without being vain or self deceptive
Maud could not help acknowledging
this to herself; and so she blessed with
one breath the gift whose consequences
she deplored with the other.
One afternoon the elatter of horses
hoofs startled her from underline bushes
where she had been hidden almost the
whole day, watching her favorite insect
world in some of its mysterious economy
and SPYING out secret Of transforms
ton she had long wished TO know. 1t
was secret by which she hoped to get
the clue to n wide range of entomolog-i
calarcana which hadlong baffiedher. Gu
riosity, at all times prominent feature
in Maud's character, reused her up to