The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1867-03-14

1 r.,
:; When her approaching betrothal was
announced to Ginevrs, she made resolute
resistance, and coujured her imperious
| father not to add this new affection to the
one which had already bereft her of her
happiness. His reply was to hasten the
| preparations for her nuptials. When
| Ginevra found her struggles fruitless, she
| fell into state of deep detection and list
! less apathy. She no longer seemed to
| notice what passed around her, and was
| led to the altar INTERESTINGLY, as though
her faculties had become torpid-as if
she was no longer capable even of the
sensation of pain.
After her marriage, this inert and pas
sive condition became confirmed. She
| moved about like being whose soul was
absent, and went through the ordinary
routine of life mechanically, almost un-
consciously. She seldom spoke and never
smiled. Soon, she was attacked by an
hysterical affection, which induced long
swoons of frequent occurrence. The
physician who attended her pronounced
| her disease consumption.
At the end of four years, she one day
fell into a swoor, from which all efforts
to revive her proved Intellectual. The
| medical men, after having exhausted their
skill to that end without result, declared
her dead.
AT sunset on the evening of the same
| day, she was carried with great pomp,
upon an open funeral car, to the family
| vault of Agolanti, in the cemetery of the
! cathedral. Here, according to custom,
her fair body was laid upon shelf among
| the mouldering skeletons Of her husbands
ancestors. The month was October. The
| moon was shining brightly that night
The stone placed at the mouth of the
tomb had not been re-cemented. The
| masons were to perform the work on the
| morrow. Through the aperture left by
the loosened and Hitting stone, the
| moonlight streamed in aud lighted up the
| dismal vault.
Ginevra from her long swoon had sunk
into deep trance, but lie was not ex-
| tinct.
| In the middle of the night, she feebly
| stirred, end slowly recovered conscious
ness. At first, in her half awakened
state, she thought herself oppressed by
frichtful dream.
| Bat, as her senses fully returned, she
/
| was holding gcompanionship, and attempted
| to start up, but tell back powerless, and
| in great alright, tor she now discovered
| that her hands and feet were bound
Then for the first time she beheld the
grave clothes in which she was attired,
| and knew by them and her baudaged feet
| aud hands that she must have been sup
posed to be dead and had been buried
Fear lent her new strength, and, after
many despairiag efforts, she succeeded in
IooseniGg the bandages, and disentangled
herself from the swathing iolds Of her
long shroud. She stood up, trembling
and appalled,. But, guided by the moon
light, she staggered 10 the five steps
before the entrance and crept up to the
stone which barred her exit. To remove
it with those delicate and feeble hanGs
seemed impossible; but at such moments
the fIaiiest natures are endowed with
superhulnau strength. After several fu-
tile attempts, which with every failure
increased her horror, the stone was rolled
over, and she stood in the moonlight, iu
! the open cemetery, treed-saved from q
living tomb, probably from a death oe
maddeDing terror.
With feeble steps she hurried through
the streets, her long shroud trailing on
the ground, her white drapery floating
4 around her, and her ghastly face booking
unearthly in the moonlight. She was
seeking her home-the home from which
she had that evening been borne a corpse /;
what wonder that the midnight stragglers
who met her thought that they saw an
apparition, aud fed affrighted. aE
At last she reached francesca Agolan-
lis house, aud, knocking, sank upon the
threshold, crying cut TO her husband to
admit her quickly. The window of
Asolanti's chamber opened upon a balcony
which commanded the front entrance
He heard the, knock and the pleading
cry, and hastened to the balcony. Gil
uevra looked up and called TO him with a
feeble, imploring voice. He recognized
I the grave-shrouded form, the white face,
the plaintiye tones, aud was seized with
frantic alarm. for he believed himself
visited by the ghost of his buried wife.
Making the sign of the cross repeatedly,
and with great rapidity and vehemence,
he bade her depart and leave him iu
peace, promising that abundant masses
should be said for the rest Of her SOUL
Ginevra, in an agonizea voice, replied
that she lived, and entreated to be admit
ted. Her husband, more terrified than
ever, rushed into his chamber, closed the
window, sprar @ into bed, and covered his
head with the bed-clotbes to shut out the
] terrible sound of that low, piteous pisint,
reciting his praye until all was silent