The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-02-03

this, the green hill below the cottage gar.
den was the favorite play ground, and con
tinued so, until one day they all rushed
shrieking down wild and pale with alright
some OF the elder ones positively affirming
that they had seen and heard the devil
himself in the cottage garden, and thai
he was killing the gladly" fact strange
ly corroborated by the unearthly and ter
rible cries that were to be heard proceed
ing from the garden.
1t was not difficult in those days tt
rouse the superstitions of the Welsh, anc
the country round soon echoed with the
children's adventure; the story being pro-
por;ionately increased, according to che
narrator's feelings or passions. So the
villages sent their children to play fal
away from the cottage, and nothing would
have tempted the bravcst man among
them to approach it after night-fall Al
length au old nag fell i'll, and, in her deli
rum, made sundry raving assertions, that
sue had seen the Gladly" dancing with the
witches round the flagstaff on the Beacon
I'LL, and changing into black cat, scale
the steepest cliffs, aud moreover that the
old man had sold himself to the devil fol-
the love of the ''lady'
The consequences of these wild raw
ir2,, working as they did upon minds
us'~ene1 with superstition and ignorance,
were likely to be serious enough when
matters were brought to crisis young,
weak headed girl, frightened by the wo.
mans words, went off 10 fit, and therein
denounced the stranger as having bewitch.
ed 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 in the neighborhood
during the year, was laid at tho stranger
door the people gathered in crowds, ex
citing each other by their mutual super.
stitiou. They rushed up the green hill
to the cottage, mad, infuriated mob
thirsting for vengeance; and demanding
81 The old man to come out aud heal those
he had stricken.
The door, however, resisted their efforts,
and they were surging wildly about seek
ing another entrance, when the owner
himself appeared, and, pointing to the
trampled flower beds, asked what they
meant by it. The answer was yell of
dersion and rage; and some of the mad
dest seized the old man, swearing they
would find out whether the devil was his
master or no. Up the cliffs they scram.
bled, scarcely knowing what the end was
to be, or how the test was to be given,
but ere they had gone far a very spiri,
of hell must have broken loose among
them they pressed round upon the old
man; one wretch made blow at him
with 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 hapless old
man to atoms, bathing and strewing the
cliff with his blood and flesh.
The deed was barely over,-a few were
looking pale and shudderipg at the red
stain upon their guilty hands-when a
terrible cry rang up the bill, and imme-
diatcly after the "lady" was among them
"My father? my father ?" she cried
"What have you done with my poor old
fatker ?"
No one answered, but many grew pale
and shudder ran through the crowd as
the girl stopped down, and lifted a mass
Of grey hair from the blood-stained grass.
80 my God! - she said, in low, fierce
tone, as she turned upon them. "You
call yourselves Christians, and this is a
Christian laud.' Then springing upon a
projecting rock, she went on. "Listen
murderers, and hear what you have done:
the blood that is crying out from the earth
tor vengeance is my fathers he chose
his king, rather than one he called usur-
per; he lost all save life in the cause, so
fed. My husband too was a soldier iu
the kings army he was wounded and
tried to escape, but they hunted him to
worse than dvath, they drove him mad
and It was to give us refuge, and to let
him die in peace, my father came here
When he was ready for US he signalled
across the Channel, and l brought my
poor mad husband over the waters in
the boat you found upon the beach. The
cries your children heard were those of
my husband but they would have trou-
bled you no more, he died to-day, and is
now at the footstool of the great God, and
with the poor old man you have murdered,
is crying for Gods judgments on you -
And hear my curse: o Almighty God,
curse these men may they ask for rest
and find toll and trouble may they go
forth beggars and branded from the land
they have disgraced, driven forth by the
spirits of their forefathers; dying may
they find mercy neither from man nor from
Heaven AS the last words we're upon
her lips, she threw herself from the rock,
down the sheer precipice Into the foamiug
water now raging in a storm, aud her last
curse actually seemed to rise FROM the
ocean itself
The crowd sh' ank away speechless and
stricken, not word was uttered as they
crept buck to their homes, carrying with
them the terrible burthen of the curse,