The Shasta courier., 1865-02-11

But lis sleep was broken. and his dreams
were f5verish. and in some way all connected
with what l;ly III the riexr room Now it
seemed to him that it gided in through the
locked door with hands fnlded on is breast,
and eyes still fast closed, and stood hy bis
bedside: and now the dream vas that lie had
opened vein in one OF the delicate arms,
and that warm, living ll I'd poured fast
from it and finally he woke with cry of
horror from Il gtastly dream that he had
entered the room, and found that some un.
known hand bad anticipated him i'll the work
of dissection. The horror was upon him
after he awoke to know it was dream, and
opeuing the doorhe looked in upon the table.
No change there of any kind. The long
sheeled figure lay in the half light Of dawn as
he had seen it in the lamp light, very straight
and still.
1t was not until nearly noon that Ashley
raised the covering to look once again upon
the beautiful dead face, and when he did so
he sa,sy with wonder. not unmixed with ter
ror, that change had come upon it. He
could not tell what it might be; the deathlv
pallor was there still, but in some way the
face was not the same. He looked into it
long and curiously. Surely 2 change had
pass ed over the eyes, for though they were
still fast shut, they looked now as though
closed in sleep rsher than in death. He
liftsd an eyeld tenderly with his finger there
was not death in the eye; inconsistencies
trance there might be, but not death. He
was certain now that she was not dead,
though he could find no life in her pulses.
For hours he strove to call back the spirit,
until at length color returned and warmth,
and life, and she lay before him sleeping
TRANQUILITY like a child. He had placed her
on his bed. and now sat by her side with a
throbbing heart to await Eer awakening.
She sleptso long, and in the waning light
looked so pale, that he feared she was again
about to fall into the strange deathly trance
from which he had with so much difficulty
recovered her. In his terror of that he cried
out for her to awake, and the sound of his
cry awoke her with start. He had pre-
pared speech that was to calm and re- assure
her when she woke bewildered to find her
self so strangely clothed and lodged but
she no mrre ne .ded calming and re-assuring
than an infant too young to know its mother
from any other woman. She looked around
with a wondering gaze that was almost in
fantine. and her eye resting upon Ashley, she
sat up in the bed and asked him in his own
language for food. It was evident she had
no recollection of illness, and neither ankle
nor curiosity with regard to her present
position. She ate the food which was brought
to her with appetite, and would have risen
from the led apparently unconscious that she
wore no garment but a shroud, had not Ast-
ley persuaded her to lie down and sleen
again.
he left her sleeping. and went to another
room profoundly puzzled. Here was this
beautiful woman, ignorant, and almost belp-
less as a child, thrown upon him for protec-
ton, as 1t was clear that she did not remem-
Der anything which would lead to the discov.
cry of her friends. 1t was possible that be,
senses had left her altogether, never to return
again the lovely creature might be 4 harm.
less idiot all the rest of her days. Her sneak.
ing English was another puzzle. She nigh,
ne an Engilshwoman-her beauty was Ger
tainly OF the Saxon type-or she might only
have learnt the English language but if 40.
how came that knowledge to be retained when
all else seemed gomez