Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1859-08-11
TOWANDA:
Thursday Morning, August II, 1859
CFrom Chambers Journal.l
POUDRE ROSE.


A dark wntry day, in the year OF grace
1889. was closing upon the final scene OF one
of those tragedies of real life which would be
affecting, were they not, in France at least, OF
such every day occurrence. Eugene Beaude-
sert. the direct representative OF long line OF
courtiers, warriors dplomatiSts, commencing
with the Merovingian kings, and now for some
time schoolmaster in Lyon, was dying in
mean apartment az trOiSienae of a house In an
obscure street of that wealthy and splendid
city +: not, however of want, of physical des
ttution, as the wine, cordals, and various
tempting Gecacies 10y his bedside the heaped
Nd blazing fagotS on the hearth, the presence
of an unexceptonabe nurse, and, above all,
of NJ Vermont, a physician Of eminence, whose
minutes were Napoeons, fully testified. Nor,
still Judging by its surroundings, ought unsat-
isGed soulcraviugs, hunger of the spirit, to
have been felt at that death,bed, since two
ministers to spiritual needs, one oficiouS, the
other official, were in attendance there. The
first. a stout, somewhat rustic-lookng man,
DaSt middle age at the entrance Of the Able
Morlaix, the famous preacher at the Church of
the Assumption, had hastily returned his balm
for hurt minds, Plato'S Dirlne Dialogue, to his
pocket and shrunk back to a corner of the
room where the fire-blaze revealed him with
but ftful indiStinctneSS. |, however, from
knowing Jules Delpech so well, can easily iden-
tify through the flashing gloom, that large
head fairly developed intellectually, and that
face every way ordinary save for d pair Of
glittering gray eyes; which, from under cover
of the penthouse browS, pierce to a very long
way off-further, deeper, indeed, than it is de
sirable to follow, even in imagination. The
countenance withal has not what is usually
termed a malignant expression. The most
timid person, girl would hardly be scared at
confronting it upon lonely road in the even
ing of such another dark day as this for
nIainly. vividly, as that unbleSt, bastard wis
dom called cunning, caution, timidity, are writ
ten thereon for duest eyes to read there is
also a certain air of bOuhOmie, assumed it may
be-but, if so, habitually assumed-which does
much to neutraiize the yulpiue craftiness Of
aspect which familiar observers were wont to
say faithfully mirrored Jules Delpech's vul pine
crafty soul A rash Judgment, let US, hope, in
submission to the divine injunction of charity
the charity that thinketh no evil, believeth no
evil, with which NJ Morlaix a few minutes
since, just before the arrival of the physician,
rebuked the moribunds glare of rage, called
Madame la Baronne de Vautpre the person
age albeit to whom Eugene Beaudesert is i'll
debted for the lay an1 clerical ministrations
which console, or embitter-fOr there is no in-
terpreting the changeful lights and shadows
which fit across that constrainedly calm white
face-theSe last supreme moments OF parting
life
There was no warning of how few those
moments were in the suave tones of DR.. Yer
mont as he felt the pulse and looked steadily
into the eyes of his patient. He merely Oh
served, addressing the nurse, that M. Beaude-
sert must be kept as quiet as possible {; and
then turned away with a slight gesture to the
able, who followed him to the door, where a
few whispered words passed between them
The look and manner Of the abbe, as he again
turned towards the sick man, revealed, cleary
as speech, the significance of those whispered
words and Jules Delpech starting up, hur-
riedIy embraced, aud bade his friend adieu as
if for q brief time only, pressed one of the
cold hands of girl sitting by the head of the
bed, in both his own, softly suggested hope
and courage, and glidcd from the apartment.
The nurse, at a sign from the abbe, did the
same, and then the reverend gentleman request
ed The girl 10 permit him TO speak for few
minutes with her father alone The answer
was an bathurst of convulSive grief-pasSion-
ate excamatons of refusal, which the able
could only partially calm by conSenting that
she should remain whilst be administered the
last rites of his church TO the now avOwedly
dying sufferer whose thoughts, whilst fully
comprehending, as he seemed TO DO, the abbe's
meaning and purpose, were nevertheless-if
one might Judge by the feeble demonstrations
permitted by his fast failing strength-with
his child, with the earthly future of that young
life; and but slightly impressed by the immi-
nence of his own death, and the judgment TO
follow, announced by the symbolic ceremonial,
and the solemn words of the priest.
And now, whilst the abbe is fulfilling his ap-
pointed function may briefly pass in review
the previous and determining incidents of the
life-career thus prematurely closing closing
prematurely, there can be no question, as far
as life is reckoned by length OF days, for it
was no longer ago than the autumn Of 1903,
that the birth o! Eugene BeaudeSerl, the first
born of distinguished general of that name,
and EsteIle, his wife, nee Bresson, a rich heIress
of Paris, was celebrated in that city with
much pomp and ectGt. Clouds quickly over,
grew and darkened the brilliant future that
seemed to await the child. General Beaude-
sert was killed at Marengo and his widow,
to whom, by the provisions of the ante-nuptial
contract, her whole fortune reverted, soon
married again, became the mother of a numer-
ous family, and gradually so estraDged from
her frst-born, that after his tenth birthday,
she never again beheld him, and died without
expressing wish to do so. 1t is probable
that this unnatural feeling was excited and
confirmed by the civilly eontemptuous treat
ment which the plebian wife of enera Beaude-
sert had met with from her husbands family
one Of that section Of the Quarter St. Ger
main, which, always with an Grrtyspsnsss,