Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-23

loved. Twill come to you when your
life seems brightest. will come be-
tween you and all that you hold fairest
and dearest. My ghostly hand shall
drop a poison in your cup of JOY My
shadow form shall shut the sunlight
| from your life. Men with such iron
will as mine can do what they please,
Hector de Brissac. 1t is my will to
haunt you when / am dead"
All this in short broken sentence he
Whispered into my ear. / had need to
bend my ear close to his dying lips; but
| the iron will OF Andre de -Brissac WIS
strong enough TO do battle with Death,
and / believe he said all he wished to
say before his head fell back upon the
velvet cloak they had spread beneath
| him, never to be lifted again.
AS he lay there y 5u would have fan
cied him fragile stripping, too fair
and frail for the struggle called life; but
there are those who remember the brief
manhood of Andre de Brissac, and who
can bear witness TO. the terrible force
of that proud nature.
/ stood looking down at the young
face with that foul mark upon it.; and
God knows was sorry for what L had
done. .v
OF those blasphemous threats which
he had whispered in my ear took no.
heed. Twas a soldier and believer
There was nothing absolutely dreadful
to me in the thought that l had killed
this man.. 4 had killed many men on
1 the battlefield; aud this Que had done
me cruel wrong.
NV friends would have me cross the
/ A L. Il
my act; but was ready to face those
consequences, and remained In France.
I kept aloof from the court, and re-
ceived hint that l had best confne
myself to my own province. Many
masses were chanted in the little chapel
of Puy Verdun for the soul of my dead
cousin, and his coffin filed niche in
the vault of our ancestors.
His death had made me rich man;
and the thought that it was so made my
newly acquired wealth very hateful TO
me. I lived lonely existence in the
old chateau. where / rarely held con
verse with any but the servants of the
household, all of whom had served my
cousin, and none of whom liked me.
1t was a hard and bitter life. 1t gal
led me, when / rode through the vii
lage, to see the peasant children shrink
away from me. have seen old women
cross themselves stealthily as L passed
them by. Strange reports had gone
forth about me; and there were those
who whispered that 1 had given my
soul to the Evil One as the pr ce of my
cousins heritage. From my boyhood
had been dark of visage and stern of
manner; and hence, perhaps, no wo-
mans love had ever been mine. re-
member my mothers face in all its
changes of expression; but L can re-
member no look of affectionahat ever
shone on me. That other woman, be-
meath whose feet laid my heart, was
pleased to accept my homage, but she
} never loved me; and the end was treach-
cry.
| I had grown hateful to myself, and
had well nigh begun to hate my fellow
creatures, when feYerish desire seized
upon me, and ]. pinned to be back in the
press and throng of the busy world
once again. / went back to Paris,
where / kept myself aloof from the
court, and wheTean angel took compass
sion upon me. @
She was the daughter of an old COM
rade, a man whose merits had been
neglected, whose achievements had
/ been ignored, and who sdlked in his
shabby lodging like a rat in hole,
while all Paris went mad with the
Scotch financier, and gentlemen and
lacqueys were trampling one another to
death in the Rue Quincampoix. The.
only child of this little cross-grained
old captain of dragons was an incar-
nate sunbeam, " hose mortal name was
Eyeline Duchalet.
4 She loved me- The richest blessings
of our lives are often those which cost
us least. wasted the best years of
my youth lie the worship of a wicked
woman, who Tilted and cheated me at
last. / gave this meek angel but few
courteous words-a little fraternal ten
derness-and 10, she loved me. The
life which had been so dark AMI DESC
late grew bright beneath her influence;
and / went back to Puy Verdun with a
fair young bride fer my companion.
All, how sweet change there was in
my life and IN my homel The village
| children no longer shrank appalled, as
the dark horsemsn rode by, the village
crOnes no longer crossed themselves,
for a woman rode by his side-a wo-
/
of all those Ignorant creatures, and
whose companionship had transformed
the gloomy lord of the chateau into
loving husband and gentle master. =
| The old retainers forgot the untimely
fate of my cousin, and served me wi h
cordial willingness, for love of their
young mistress. sa &
There are no words which can tell
the pure and perfect happiness OF that
time. felt like a traveller who had
traversed the frozen seas of an arctic
region, remote from human love or hu-
man companionship, to find himself on
a sudden in the bosom of verdant
! valley, in the sweet atmosphere of
home. The change seemed too bright
to be real; and strove in vain TO put
away from my mind the vague9uspi-
cion that nay new life was but some fam
tastic dream. 'i'
So brief were those haleyon hours,
that looking back ON them now, it is
scarcely strange if / am still half in
cl1ned to fancy the first days of my mar
ried life could have been no more than
dream. sa
Neither in my days of gloom. nor In
my days of happiness had been trou-
bled by the recollection of Andres
bias phemous oath. The words which
with his last breath he had whispered
in my ear were vain and meaningless
TO me. He had vented his rage in those
idle threats, as he might have vented
it in idle execrstions. That be viii
haunt the footsteps of his enemy after