Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-11-27
WHOLE NUMBER 100.

Clnus butNth was httt0 0oNh unto tue
cellar. 1t was done with breaking hearts
and uncomfortable tears.
The day passed in silence, for neither
mother nor daughter could speak. An
other night came without bringing the
husband and father. But the wolves
disappeared before daybreak and the sun
rose free from clouds. Marian at length
ventured TO unclose the shutters. The
forest lay still and white. The boughs
Of many trees were broken under their
weight Of snow. A little depression
showed the course Of the stream between
the pines. Nature seemed at rest after
her tempeStuous play, and 10 Marian the
occurrences Of the last few days would
have seemed only the terrible phantasms
Of dream but for the too real sense of
pain which they had le1 in her heart
The day passed-a quiet, starry night
succeeded; and still Henry did not re-
turn. He is dead, said Marian TO her
self-he will not return to me. But to
Marie she assumed a hopefulness which
it made her faint at heart to utter.
As the fifth day drew to a close, Ma
rian grew restless. She would start
from her seat at the least sound and run
to the window, and after long gaze
turn back with a deep sigh. Yet she
could not help thinking he must come a
warm supper was prepared, and the fire
stirred into a rousing blaze. 1t grew
dusk, and the shadows Of the trees min
gled on the white snow into a mass of
gloom. Still he did not return. Marian
lighted lamp and placed it in the win
dow, scarcely knowing why, and resum-
ed her scat at the fire. 1t might have
3 been half an hour after that she fancied
she could hear faint erunching of the
snow; the noise came nearer the door
latch was tried Marian said voice
outside. Til then she had sat still, un-
able for very faintness of heart to move,
' and now, springing up, she could hardly
make her way to the door. But it icdS
opened, somehow, and she was clasped
in the strong arms Of her husband
IS 1t viii not take long to finish my sto.
l. ry; for need not stop to relate how the
= father received the intelligence Of hi.
. sons death, and Of Marian's long anC
L lonely watch, or repeat his account o
d how he was detained by the great storm
= and even at the last might not have founC
y his way home, but for the lamp that sud
'e denly shot guiding ray through the for
t. est. The next morning, search wa
4 made fqS the old Erfurt but nothing
~ could be found Of him. The goat-she,
" door was open; the animals had bee
devoured. When spring came, a skul
Y and q few bones were discovered nea
81 " one Of the grca. pines. Henry burie
'' them on the spot, and planted a youn
y oak above them.
7" Il would not be right to omit the sequC
TO this sad story. Henry drew up a p,
'u tition TO the king, ia which lac gave
" fall account Of all the circumstances
He his Iife, not forgetting Marian's long an
Oy dreary watching, and prayed that for Il
~ sake of his wife and child, he might |
M permitted to return to society. A XIII
o' minister, who had learned his histor
undertook 10 present il and he had Il
w great joy Of returning TO the exiles, wi
II, the news that the king had not on
'u granted a full pardon, but the uncle,
ma whom Henry estate had reverted, ha
lne ing just died svlhout heirs, it had be
Hh' thought no more than right 10 restore
she TO him who had been defrauded Of it
Hef trcachery.
''n Marian was repaid not in the wea
'oa and social pleasures which greeted /
All return from the wilderness, but in
and happiness and new life Of her husba
'nld for which ier devotion and noble L
and had saved him.