Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1859-08-11

sue uaS received cnleHy from ner 4ranQTnotn-
er an honest, simple-ninded native of Prov
ence, who has peopled the chd'S mind with
the thousand andone legends of fuiries, de-
MONS witch charms, potent alike for good and
evil, received as gospel-truth in that part OF
France and in which her granddaughter be-
lieves as firmly as in the ogre-like instincts Of
the dreaded relative to whose abhorred com
panionship or custody her fathers last com-
mands have doomed her Childhood's common
dreams, it may be said. Yes, but will they,
as such illusions usually do, exhse and pass
away in the expanding light Of reason, or re-
main hidden, latent in the miud of Adrienue
Beaudesert, till, under stimulating conditions,
they start into fatal life and activity? This
is the yet unsolVed enigma of the story Of the
Poudre Rose.
The prayers are done the holy oil has dried
upon the forehead of the anointed, tenartless
clay, by the side whereof Adrienne BeaudeSert
is lying in stupor of despair, which the nurse,
gliding noiselesSly about the room, does not
think it prudent to disturb. We also will de.
part, following the able, who goes straight to
the Chateau d. En-. The face of Madame Ia
Baronne de Vautpre whitens visibly through
the thick rouge, as she listens to the reverend
mans tidings and the moment his voice ceases,
she haStenS to place in his hands large sum
to be expended in masses for the dead mans
soul As to the funeral of the last male heir
of the Beaudeserts, who is to be entombed in
the catacombs of the Church Of the Assump-
ton, Madame de Vautpre desires that no ex-
pense shall be spared thereon aud the child
Adrienne is to be assured that the heart of her
too long estranged relative is yearning to EN-
brace, to love, to cherish her Monsieur Nor
Iaix, moreover, who is shortly going to Paris
on business, undertakes to be the bearer of one
years pension in advance, with the donors
good wishes, to Madame and Cla:sSe Beau
desert at Clichy.
The chief facts just related having been
through worthy of more than one paragraph in
the local papers, and being skiIfully marveiz-
ed to suit the public taste, had the effect of
attracting q numerous concourse of curious
spectators to the funeral-one of the most i'm
posing, it was on all hands agreed the PrompeS
Funebres had got up for many years. The
catafalque, especially, was magnificent SO
much so, that the crowded congregation were
divided in opinion as to which was most solemn
and effective-it the catafalque, or the Abbe
Morlaix's funeral Grafton, grounded upon the
scripture verse, Whose breaketh q hedge,
serpent shall bite him" The abbe's eloquent
illustrations of his theme were also variously
Interpreted Some held that they applied to
the relentless cruelty of Madame la Baronne
de Vautpre, punished by the untimeIy death,
without male issue, of the heir to her houses
hOnors Others, that preacher bad in mind the
neDhew'S sin of ingrattude and disobedience
towards his guardian and benefactress, result
ing in misery and an early grave. OF this last
opinion was Adrienne BeaudeSert upon whose
heart the words of the abbe smotc like so many
swordstabs aimed at her dead father, exciting
in the mind of the wounded, sensitive girl
feeling of resentment towards the reverend
orator, not, unhappily, to be soon or easily
elfaced. Of all the obSequoUs attendants sur
rounding her, there was not one who felt, or
successfully assumed to feel. the slightest
sympathy with her bitter grief IL vas the
less surprising, therefore-terribly lndecorous
in the heiresS of Madame de Vautpre as it
might be-that upon recognizing Jules Del
pech in the crowd, as she was leaving the church
MademoiSeIIe BeaudeSert darted away from
her cntourage, and threw herself sobbing
violently into the gray-headed mans arms
She was of course, promptly pucked back to
her proper place in the procession, and few
minutes afterwards driven rapidly of to her
future residence, the Chateau dem. Jules
Delpech seemed to be not little discohcerted
as we'll as astouiShed, at so sudden and public
a demonstration OF the young lady'S regard
but the first furry over the emotion it eXcit
ed, coIored, shaped, by an elastic sanguiue
nj brilli bna
as those telescope eyes Of his, piercing, as |
have said, far into the dim future. deserted the
yet distant possibilities suggested 10y such preg-
nant facts as MademoiSele Beaudesert's par
tlity or respect forIhimself so openly manifest
ed the well-remembered and marked partali
ty eyHced towards Paul his young and hand
some son, by the unsophisticated heireSs of an
ailing lady long since passed her grand climac
teric, when she, the hereSs, was domiced with
her father at his cottage, furnishing, with minor
facts or fancieS, ample material for
castle building. The subtle brain of Jules Del
pech was glowing, palpitating with the crowd
ing images it had corjured up by the time he
reached his own door whence, looking up
wards in the direction of the Cateau dem, it
seemed to him that the central tower of the
splendid pile, high overlapping the intervening
belt of forest trees, looked haughtiy and con
temptuou>ly down upon the lowly hut whose
habitant dared to lift himself even in imagina-
tion to that lordy eminence For all that, "
muttered the white lips of Jules Delpech, as
he entered his cottage and closed the door,
" worse cards than we hold have won as great
a game. What" said the great orator Of
the Mountain, =" is the secret and condition of
an else impossible success de raudao', Ct en-
core dc raudace and moral audacty, where
failure incurs no peril, niggard nature has not
denied me-"
Jules Delpech was a copitains de douanss en-
retraite, or, as we say superanuated officer Of
customs. His retiring pension was small one
but the cottage in which be lived, and about
three acres of adioininn land WHO'RE his own