The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1864-01-16

ger was to grasped the gnarled trunk, and
feel that this thing, that for so many hours
had seemed to mock my endeavors to reach
it, was nc, phantom like that great shadow
lying on. the moor. Quick though l had
been, the creature of my pectre-haunted
brain was quicker. Preached the tree to
see it lying beneath the branches, stretched
on the snow-the shadow of dead man.
1t was impossible to mistake the sharp
outline Of death in the cold profile, the
right position of the limbs, the stony look,
and immovable calm of the rrostrate figure.
A mement bef re it had stood erect, and a
thousand evil lives had been in it, as it
tormented me on the dreary heath; now it
lay beneath the leafless tree-stiff, rigid,
motionless, dead, and yet only like the
shadow Of desth.
With one arm round the trunk of the old
weird tree, stood regarding it till grew
frantic. In my frenzy determined to GOV.
er it up, and hide it from my sight in the
snow. flung arms full on it; gathered
snow around me in shining heaps, and
dashed on it-always in vain. 1t lay there
still, ever on the surface, in immovable
calmness, more hideous Thousand times
than the demon antics with which it had
haunted my path On the moor.
Exhausted, | ceased these strange exer-
tons, and drops of anguish fell from my
forehead as | ceased in vain to leave this
haunted place. Some invisible chain
some horrible attraction-kept me there, in
spite of all the offers made by my will and
my reason to resist the SPELL This strug-
gle between me and the viewless power that
held me was terrible; the sweat stoed on
my brow, and the vieps in my temples
swelled like cords. felt myself giving
way, when little wooden cross standing
just at the head of the shadow arrested my
attention, and in spite of that horrible
presence stopped to regard it more earnestly.
By the light of the full moon l read this
inscription in deeply.cut letters:
TO THE MEMORY OF REGINALD cAERDYDoH.
May God haze mercy ON the ss!f-m~rdsrsr!
started back. stood, then, on the
grave of the suicide. And this phantom
what was it?
was not afraid of such things; from an
early period of my life had been shadow
haunted; but hated the peculiar trance
like, benumbed, -powerless state into which
I was throws, either by the visions them
selves, or by some power which, through
this state, then enabled me to see them. l
wiped the sweat lrom my brow, and, with
one arm cEngln; 10 that strange tree that
had beckoned me on for so many miles to
this grave, I concentrated ell my faculties
in the one sense of listening. A human
sound-the faintest echo of my human life
-reacning me there, would, felt, break the
spell whose horrible chain bound me to the
spot Gradually on my strained ear came
the ripple Of running waters; gratefully
pleasantly, it fell bringing new sense of
power--a feeling of recovered strength. ]
unwound my arm from the deadly tree and
stood upright. 20
Another moment, and the bark of dog,
mingled with the cheerful, hearty whistle Of
some rustic, broke like music on my ear
With cry ofjoy-released, fres!-I bound
ed from the accursed spot--trom that shad-
ow of some unseen dead man, and, rushing
on at headlorg spred, found myself by the
side of that little brook, thesound of whose
ripping waters had come to me like a holy
wsisper of Heaven in an evil place. sprang
across the stream; and whether its clear
springs had power Of their own to change
the current OF that magnetic or spiritual in
fuences that had held me, | know not; but
the moment had crossed felt myself free,
calm and with full power to perform my
own will in anything on which ] might re-
volve;-in a word was master of myself