The Kanzas news., 1858-07-31


looked at him I perceived unmistakable in
dieations of the near approach of deathups
on his features. He was free from pain his
mind perfectly clear; but his life was eb-
bing away, with every feeble breath, like
the slow burning out of an exhausted lamp.
Meanwhile the storm rose to tempest,
and the gloom grew black as death in the
wild night without. The wind swept in
tremendous gusts through the adjoining for
ests, rafting the icy branches of the trees,
and came wailing and shtieking through
every crack and Granny of the building.
| Within, there was yet wilder commo6oIi.
All that had been said or sung, written or
dreamed, of ghostly ,yisitations was then
and there enacted. There was the ringing
of beliss moving of furniture, crash Of
dishes, whispers. howls, crying. laughter,
whistling, groanipg, heavy and light foot
steps, and wild music, as if In very mock
cry of the internal regions. All these
sounds grew wilder with the rising gale,
and towards midnight they were almost in
sufferable. s.ss p ae9s z 90 f5i-s
AS for us three-the patient, Mrs. Green
and mysel-we were as silent as death it
self. Not word passed our iips after nine
O'Clock. AS for the state of our minds,
God only knows. Mine, in the wide whirl
of thought and event which followed, for
got all the past, save whatiI have recalled
and penned, bit by bit, above / remem-
Der only looking for the final catastrophe,
which grew rapidly nearer, with constant
endeavor to concentrate all my faculties of
mind and sense upon the phenomenon
which |, at least, had began to believe would
herald the loss of my patient. !,
AS it grew closer upon twelve O'Clock,
(far al pom the striking of that hour had my
thoughts fixed themselves for the expected
demonstration,) my agitation became so
great that it was with extreme difficulty l
could control myself. -
Nearer and nearer grew the fatal moment
for fatal I perceived it would be, to the
patient, at least; and at last, the seconds
trembled on the brink of midnight; the
clock began to strike-one-two-t
counted the strokes of the hammer. which
seemed as though they never would have
-ten--eleven-twelve I drew M
breath again. The last lingering echo 5f
the final stroke had died fairly away, and as
yet there was no token of any presence save
our own.
iAll was silent. The wind had lulled for
a moment, aand not a sound stirred the air
within the House. The ghosts. had fed. -
I arose and approached the bedside. The
patient was alive-drawing his breath very
slowly-dying The intervals between his
gasps grew longer-then he ceased to breathe
altogether-he was dead! % ~
Mrs. Green was sitting in her place, her
elbows resting on her kness, her face buried
in the palms of her hands.
closed the open mouth and pressed down
the eyelids of the dead. Then [ touched
her on the shoulder M
s'It is over, whispered
Thank God!" was her fervent reply.
Then we both started There was rust
ling of the bed clothesl Mr. Hayden was
sitting erect, his eyes wide open, his chest
heaving in mighty effort for one more in-
spiration of the blessed air. Before could
reach the bed he spoke:
"My God! she is coming!'
At the same instant the wind came back
with sudden and appalling gust, and a wild
shrek, as it swept through the creviees OF
the building Then there was crash of the
outer door-then staggering and uncertain
step in the outer room! 1t approached the
sick roomi the latch lifted the door swung
openI and then,T my God! what a horrid
spectacle!! - .ae4s7 sesssa e .
wonder, even now, that dare describe
Iit-think of it-remember it. I wonder
believed it then, or do now-that did not
go mad, or drop down dead! SOC
Through the open door there stepped a
figure--not of Mrs. Hayden, not of eher
corpse, not of death-but thousand times
4 r n
decay, Of worms and rottenness! :
The features were nearly all gone, aad
the skull. in places, cleaned thronghs white
and terrible. Her breast, abdomen and
neck, were eaten away, her limbs were pu-
trid. green and inexpressibly ioathsome.
And yet to those putreseent jaws there
was born ayoice-smothered, indeed, and
strange. but distinct: zss4s 81 ,sasis ~
"COnae, Wiltiqnat they s'Oai for goa! 4
wAIrr' -
dared not turn my eyes from the intrn-
deE-I could not. if dared, though heard
a groan behind me, and fall. se 2.
Then tt-tks thing before me-sank down
upon the floor, in heap, dark and loath-
some-a heap of putresence and dismem-
bered fragmentsi
remember that did not faint, that I
did not cry out. How long stood trans
fixed, fascinated. know not; but. at last.
with an effort and prayer, turned to the
bed. Mr.. Hayden had fallen upon the floor.
face downward. stone dead. I raised and
replaced him; 1 composed his limbs: clos
ed his eyes; bound up his chin; / crossed
his hands upon his breast, and tied them
there. Then | bore out the body of his
sister insensible but not dead, into the pure
air-out of that horror and stencil into the
storm and darkness-out of death into life
again sssesz -
County of Grand Trarerse, Michigan, s.:
Mrs.sJosepha H Green, being duly sworn, de-
poses and says, that the letter of Dr. John Morton.
dad rrhioh -h. Ia.