Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1860-08-21
Misrellann.
T He BRITT SH DRAG COON
ALEGEND OF THE HUDSON.
BY WIN. II. PECK.

A dark and tempestuous night had
closed rapidly IN, after bleak and stor-
my day, when The bronze clock upon the
the mantle In the sitting room of the rich
and loyalist widow Nallame struck ten.
|. was during the war of the revolution,
when the British lines extended far
ADORE New York, on both sides of the
Hudson, and the Nallame mansion was
two miles within them. From the very
beginning of the war, Mrs. Vallame had
sided with the English, for she was of
English birth, and prided herself on the
noble" blood that flowed in her veins.
Her husband was native of New
York, had flown to arms as the the toe
sin of war rolled up It's sonorious sum-
mons 10 the field, from the hills of Lex
ington and Concord, and true 10 birth
and breeding, had rushed into battle
shoulder to shoulder with the patriots OF
the Palisades.
George Vallame was a widower with
one child a daughter. and had married
Alice de We're, a widow with one child,
a son, in the year IVA. With no for
tune save remarkai lie beauty of person,
she had fascinated the heart of George
Nallame, melted TO the match by mer-
ceuary soul that yearned to share his
great wealth
Al that time Rudolph de We're was in
his twentieth year; and Cora, the daugh-
ter Of Nallame, in her sixteenth. In be-
coming the wife of the American, Mad
anne de We're secretely contemplated a
a future marriage between her son and
step daughter, being poisoned by tha,
selfish passion, common 10 the "uobllIty
Of the old world, which labors to secure
wealth and station 10 lis own offspring
regardless of all the ties of humanity
and nature.
George Eallame had not long been
her husband when he discovered that no
passion warmed her bosom, no sentiment
spurred her action save a cold and un-
bending pride. She had welded her
first husband because but one life stood
between him and an eardom; and she
had seen that husband sink into an ear
lv grave while that hated one life, had
by Its offspring, increased 10 five. Had
de We're followed her advice, her sup
plcation, the earldom might have been
his; for Alice was as unScrupulous as the
Thane of Cawdor. Opportunity never
placed tina, one destined life beneath her
roof, or the coronet of a countess would
have encircled her criminal brows.
Widowed she came to The colonies, where
the royal George had already begun to
sprinkle his dazzling titles, and sought
the hand of George Fallame, lured by
the hope that his vast wealth By land and
sea, might, with her keen spirit, pur-
chase al least a baronetcy or a knight
hood But she found Naliame 4 noble
man by birth, a scorner Of all titles save
that of an honest man; and then the war
burst forth, the American secretly wei
coined il as refuge from the ceaseless
opportunities and icy sarcasms Of his
wife. At the bloody battle OF Long Isl
and, where Washington wept over the
slaughter of his troops, Capt. NalIame
had fallen. and even his grave could not
be pointed out among the hundreds that
studded the battlefield. The widow,
yet in matronly prime, was seated before
The cracking fire when the clock struck
ten. Haughty, passionless and beauli-
ful, her falT face was turned toward the
hearth, and the ruddy light of the mer-
~ flames seemed 10 grow chill and dark
some as the black eyebrows grew rough
and wrinkled above the cloudy and PEN
siye eyes. No lgh, save that of the fire
ilIumined the spacious chamber, and the
tall erect form of the widow. clad in the
sable velvet, was as motionless as If
carved In marble.
As the dial ceased TO vibrate with the
las, stroke, the door opening from the
hail wa. tapped thrice from Without, and