Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-09-25

and their cheeks were rose-red; and each jostled
the other so as better to see the wedding pro
cession of the fair Agatha and her gallant love,
on Its way to the altar of st. Fantasmos.
Presently the marriage cavalcade came by,
1t was like page from painted book. Agatha
was so fair and modest, the bridegroom was Sc
manly; the parents were so venerable with their
wnite locks, and their faces Lit with the beau
utui sunset Of departing life
As the procession passed beneath the win
dows, punches of ribbons and flowers and bit.
oil gray-colorsd paper, on which amorous de-
vices were written, were flung to the bride an
bridegroom by the bystanders; and a Ions
murmur swelled along the street of ''God pro.
tect them, for they arc beautiful and good -
And this lasted until they entered the gates of
the church, where it was taken up by the poor
people OF the town who awaited them there.
30, with benedictions falling upon them thick
as the falling leaves of autumn, they passed
into the Church of St. Fantasmos but as thew
gained the threshold the bride looked I'D to the
belfry, and there she fancied she bebeId n
man head glaring at her with two fiery eyes,
so that she shuddered and looked away. The
next instant she looked up again, but the head
was gone.
The people who were not invited to the cere-
mOny loitered in the yard without intending
to accompany the bride homo when the sacred
rite was concluded, and cheer her by the way
with songs composed in her honor While thew
waited, the chimes in the belfry began to peal.
How now '" cried one. 4" 1t is too soon for
the chimes to peal. The couple are not yet
married."
What can Jubal be dreaming of?'' said a
second.
Listen y cried third "did you ever hear
such discoTls? Those are not wedding chimes
1t is the music Of DEVILS"
"A terrible fear suddenly foil over the mul.
utude as they listened. Louder and louder
swelled the colossal discOrdS of the bells The
clouds were torn with these awful diSsonances:
the skies were curdled with the groans, the
shrieks, the unnatural thunders that Issued
from tho bclfry.
The P ople below crossed themselves, and
muttered to one another that there was devil
in the turret
There was devil in the turret, for Jubal
was no longer man. With his eyes fixed on
.ne crack In the vaulted coiling, through which
&c sa" the marriage ceremony proceeding
ana his sinewy arms working with superhuman
strength the machinery that moved the bells
ne seemed the incarnation of a malevolent
hend His hair stood erect; his ewes burned
Ike IRE balls; and white foam rose continu-
ally to his lips, and breaking into flakes fioated
to the ground.
Still the terrible peals went on The tortured
oeils swung now this way, now that, yelled
VI SOu0Q tldt ekOOk
tne very earth. Faster and faster, Jubal tolled
their iron tongues Louder and louder grew
the bIazen clamOr The huge beams that sun
ported the chimes cracked and sroaned. The
ar, beaten with these violent sounds sweIIed
into waves that became pillows, that in turn
became mountains, and surged with irresistible
force against the walls Of the turret The cock
on tse summet shivered and shrieked, as if the
equlnoxes OF ten thousand years had been let
loose on hlm at the same moment. Tho stones
IN the walls trembed, and from between their
creyices vomited forth dust and mortar. The
whole turret shook from base to apex
Suddenly the people below behcld vast
cloud OF bats issue from between the stones of
the belfry and fly toward the west
Then 1T appeared as if the bells spent their
last strength In one vast accumulated brazen
howl, that seemed to split the skies The tur-
ret rocked twice, then toppled. Down through
the Vauited arch, crushing the incensed air
that hlled the aisle, on priest and bride and
bridegroom, and parents and friends, came a
white binding mass Of stones and mortar, and
the next instant there was nothing but a cloud
OF dust slowly rising, splash of blood here
and there, that the dry stones soaked in, and
one battered human head with long hair, half
Visible through the mess Of ruin. 1t was Jubal
dead, but also Jubal avenged.
When, on the ensuing October the wild eoui-
noxes came, like horde of Cossacks, over the
hills to make their last assault upon the golden
COCK, they found neither bird nor belfry, and
the mischief they did that night at sea- out of
mere spite, was, the legend says, incredible.