The weekly union record., 1865-05-13
The Bleeding Cave.

bloc waters ot SSrmart1e1 Day, Tue NlsltOf :
somewhat startled By finding huge drops of
what has all The appearance Of clotted blood.
/ Looking upward, be sees the crimson fluid
oozing out Of the stone roof, sometimes trick
/ ling down the side of the cave, sometimes
/ dropping, bespa,iering the stones with so ugly
stain. OF course there is legend connected
With it, sad enough one too, aud not much to
the credit Of the inhabitants 10 the days OF old.
/ The story runs thus
During the days of the Commonwealth, and
just when the Protector had began to breathe
after his fight for the liberty of his country,s
strange old man msde his appearance at Pen
dine, and established himself 10 vacant cot
/ tsge upon the side Of the hill. This cottage
( be repaired, and 6naly furnished, on scale
OF grandeur utterly unknown to the primitive
inhabitants. The garden began to bud and
/ blossom in manner unheard of in those parts.
and, BY the time autumn came, had become
such marvel of beauty, that the country folks
came from far and near. just TO get peep al
the blooming mass of flowers. More than a
peep they seldom had, as the inner garden was
completely hidden by the hedges OF creepers !;
but although curiosity is strong characters
tic 10 the Welch character, 1t is restrained and
modified BY an innate courtesy and Difference /;
Q
and only talked that you may be sure they
did, las all Welshmen do,) with will, filling
up the gaps in the story by drawing largely
upon their remarkably fertile Imagination.
! No one could say any harm of the old man,
simply because nobody really knew him; and
yet be was not liked The only servant who
was admitted was an old woman, who went to
clean, scrub and cook, and, being deaf aud
dumb, she could give her neighbors no salts
faction on the score of curiosity.
Nothing could be quieter or more inofensive
than the life led by the mysterious old gentle
man, and be rarely showed himself beyond the
will of bis garden, until September came,
when be erected flagstaff upon what was
called the Beacon" He passed almost every
hour of daylight at the place, now hoisting one
coored flag, now another. all the while watch
ing the distant horizon (where lay the Devon
COAST with a telescope.
One night q party OF fishermen noticed
boat lying eff Morvy bachen Bay ; but, dark
ness coming on, nothing more of it was seen
until next morning it was found lying upon the
sands, left, as it was said. by the tide. Where
it had come from was mystery, and served
the people TO talk of for many day.
A bout month went by, and thea a young
and sad looking woman was seen in the cot
tage garden. After time, she extended her
walks to the beach and morning or evening,
sometimes even at midnight, she might be
seen pacing slowly along, never looking at or
speaking to any one, but keeping her beautiful
face, SO hopeless in its misery, turned TO the
sea.
At first the little children, with that instinct
of pity inherent in their innocent hearts, would
creep up 10 her but when they heard their
mothers talking mysteriously OF the lady,
they began to look at her with shy, wondering
eyes, and keep far away grouping together
for protection as she walked by yet, in spite
of this, the green hill below the cottage garden
was he favorte playground and continued so,
until the day they all rushed shrieking down,
wild and pale with atfright-some of the older
ones positively affirming that they had seen
and heard the devil himself 10 the cottage
garden, and that be was killing the lady"
fact strangely corroborated by the unearthly
and terrible cries that were to be heard pro-
ceeding from the garden.
Ii was not difficult in those days to rouse
the superstitons of the Welch and the country
round soon echoed with with the childrens ad,
venture the story being proportionately in
creased, according to the narrators feeling or
passions. So the villagers sent their children
far away TO play from the cottage, and nothing
would have tempted the bravest man among
them to approach it after nighttal. At length
an old bag fell in, and, in her delirum, made
sundry raving assertions, that she had seen the
" lady " dancing with the witches round the
flagstaff on the Beacon Hill, and, changing
into black cat scale the steepest cliffs, and
moreover that the old man had sold himself to
the devil for the love Of the lady"
The consequences of these wild rawlings,
working as they did upon minds darkened with
superstition and ignorance, were likely to be
serious enough when matters were brought
to crisis young, weak headed girl, fright
ened by the womans words, went of in fit,
and therein denounced the stranger as having
bewitched her, for selling him butter with
cross upon it.
This news spread like wildfre, and the credit
of every illness, loss, or misfortune that had
occurred 10 the neighborhood during the year,
was laid at the strangers door; the people
gathered in crowds, exciting each other by
their mutual superstition. They rushed up the
green hill to the cottage, mad, infuriated
mob thirsting for vengeance, and demanding
of the old man to come out and heal those be
had stricken.
The door, however, resisted their efforts, and
they were surging wildly about seeking anoth
er entrance, when the owner himself appeared,
and, pointing to the trampled flower beds,
asked what they meant byit The answer was
a yell of derision and rage and some of the
Oldest seized the old man, swearing that they
would find out whether the devil was bis mas
ter or not. Upthe cliff they scrambled, scarce
" knowing what the end was to be, or how
the test was to be given, but ere they had gone
far very spirit of hell must have broken
loose among them they pressed round upon
the old man one wretch made blow at him
with a stone and knocked him down; then,
like wild beasts at the sight of blood, they
grew drunk with it, and literally stoned and
beat the helpless old man to atoms, bathing
ard strewlDg the cliff with his blood and flesh.
The deed was barely over-a few were look
ing pale and shuddering at the red stains upon
their guilty hands-when terrible cry ran.up
the hill, and Immediately after the lady =" was
among them.
MY father? my father ?" she cried. What
have you done with my poor old father p