The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-11-01

aswheuce. whence, Horror = he Easped.
"The next moment with countenance
deadly white. he reclosed the wihaoW, ana re-
afn hat instant, the Horror. the q host, had
revealed itself 10 him, as he had desired.
.ButC Charles would have further proof, and
~rhe following morning, after pretending to
eat some portion of the breakfast he found
comfortably prepared for him in the library >,
Charles summoned old Charlotte TO confer
eDce.
"She came, so changed, that her master coula
scarcely recognize in the hale. respectsp'e,
! looking natron before him, the wretcneu o.a
outcast of the previous day. But nase sn.u
that Charlotte had. In common with otheI
humble creatures 1 have met with, way "a
Frightening and expanding under certain IN
Iluences which revealed quaiities hitnerso
q. ran, il, shade The trou bies she had unuer-
gone aboy e all the foul stigma under whicn she
Inhnred, had had purifying ana vivifying Ell
feet SO apparent in her manner ana language,
Thai Charles secretly congratulated himself on
biS ally.
sHe began by tracing as infinitely as posi-
HE the history of the later illnesses and deaths,
beginning with that of his mother, which event
occurred during his absence abroad. In this
he received most material assistance from Mr..
Mawry, for whom he sent during the morning,
and VINO, after overcoming his astonishment
at finding old Charlotte member OF the
council, inferred with all zeal into the inquiry.
"The result proved that the same extraordi-
nary symptoms had been evolved in every case
namely, severe nervous, semi-cataleptic at
lacks, prostration of strength, mental depres-
sion, decay of the vital powers, and death
Mawry declaring himself utterly unable TO &C.
count either for the origin OF the disease, or Tor
the rapidity and certainty with which, once
conceived, IL hurried the victims TO their end.
"Ou receiving the information he had gath
cred Annesley was struck with one singular
feature in the case-the prediction eYinced
by every patient in turn for the Angel-cham-
Der. 1t seemed fatal fancy for. certainly,
hat "a tsfi Ya va
on the IN inds of the inyalids, was not reflected
in their bodies. On the contrary, every one
became rapidly worse, and the mysterious
Terror-thougn its recurrence grew more and
more frequent-seemed gradually To lose its
in tensity. in proportion as physical health de-
clined, till it left the last days of the sufferer
wholly urdsturbed.
"'N0lc,' said Charles, as with deep sigh he
raised his pale face from his hands, after min
ute's meditation, come with me, and Will
show you the Horror in the House
"He walked, followed ny the others. straight
to the Angel-room. There il shone, with its
regal couch, it's superb mirrors, its glowing
cabinets, its purple curtains. Charles threw
up the window, admitting the soft fresh breeze.
docs this he asked, look like pestilence
palaee-a house of pain and death 7
"He struck upon one OF the gilded panels AS
he spoke; 1T returned hollow sound, like an
echo OF the last word, 'dedth.'
THE next moment, Charles caught mp
poker from the fireplace, and dashed in the
panel.
"'Stoop down. he said to Mawry.
The latter did SO, but started back In hor-
roy as sickening, loathsome odor perVaded
the apartment. as from newly Opened grave.
There lay indeed the secret OF the Horror
Out of that panel crept the unseen estroyer
that had sucked away the BREATH the life OF no
less than five victims.
From the Angelo hamber, which had been
originally intended as a luxurious bathroom,
Il pipe had been prepared, the other extremity
of which had vent in the sloping bank OF the
ad jacent cemetery, long since become one mass
of corrupting human clay. Thus, this fatal
conduit, itself decayed, winding among broken
vaults and Wondering mausoleums, ga hered
up the noxious exhalations, and poured them
into the golden room. BY what atmospheric
changes, or movements in the earth, the
amount of miasma thus transmitted was
governed and modified, cannot OF course be
known but that the poison varied in quaint
ty and strength, was sufficiently proved by the
fact, that attention was never attracted To the
vitlated atmosphere of the spacious and SEEM
ingly Well-ventilated room.
The parel which concealed the mouth OF
the pipe was low doWn-eXactly on level
with the head of one sleeping In the Angel bed,
and probably distant from it but three or four
feet An almost impercepuble creyice in the
thin panel must have projected that baneful
breath into the sleepers face as certainly, and,
as it proved, as fatally, As the juice OF cursed
hebenon dropped from the phial OF the DAN
ish regicide No marvel that the end was
rapid To turn the face 10 that wall, was IN
deed to bid adeu to life its hopes, It's troubles,
and its cares.
"Those most remarkable symptoms have
had to relate, can only be referrable TO nervous
temperament, or TO the mysterious trouble act
ing almost in the nature of disease, until dis
ease was positively ehgendered.
when, on the previous night, Charles
threw up the window, some slight odor elimi-
mated from the burial ground. connecting it.
self with the loathsome sense from which he
had just escaped, at once revealed TO him the
latter origin.
u gave you to understand, children, that
this story was true; l now repeat that it is
based on actual and melancholy fact.
"Many chiids bang uet have shared in that
ia tai cham Der with my pretty May