The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1868-02-27
CHAPTER XIV.
CON CT u S I o y.

! The morning came. Ellmount Hall
was in gloom, and everybody, sad and
thoughtful, moved about in silence. Ca
militia retired to her chamber at an early
hour the previous evening, and still re-
NAMED in seclusion; the revelations
made to her by Austin chiefly troubling
her; together with shame and regret In
considering the awful end of her father.
Costardo and Austin had conferred with
her on the contents Of the papers found
in her solitary prison, and concluded that
as the latter was the universally acknowl-
edged son of Gonsalvo Camcon, he could
legally inherit his property, without pub
fishing a crime of murder committed by
him on his brother Silvio Marmanduke: !:
thus preserving his reputation unsullied,
aDd affording ample satisfaction to all who
were otherwise interested. The papers
identified enormous wealth as possessed
/ by Silvio at the time of his death; to-
gether with legal advices, that In case of
sudden or unprovided death, it should be
distributed between his two children
Austin and Costardo; with sundry an
nuities settled on his wife Guisappa, and
provisional matters in regulation of the
whole, till the children should arrive at
maturity Gonsalvo had always secreted
these papers; they had cost him much.
Three years before his fight from the
island of Cuba, he sought the life of his
brother for the sake of his wealth, and
soon a found hireling to accomplish his evil
purpose Arnold Gascomber cruised the
/ tropical seas in 1910 under the black flag,
and committed depredations on many of the
! islands under the dominion of Spain. He
readily consented to murder the innocent
Silvio, and from that time to the outbreak
| of the war in the United States, he held
the whip-hand over Gonsalvo. 1t was
aboard his ship that GoDsalvo escaped by
night from Cuba, when Admiral Brazos'
squadron were blockading the island aud
it was he that purloined the papers from
Gonsalvo's study on account of some in
Jury received. He was detected in this
last act by the negro Nance Holk, and
compelled to reveal his secret, and enlist
her sympathies for Austin. Too willingly
did she enter upon his services. She it
was who gave him the letter on the night
after the battle of Slaughter Mountain,
and then turned to New Orleans as di.
rected by Gascomber: finally, she con
trived to admit him privately into Ell
mount Hall when he returned, and under
the darkness of the night conducted him
to the lonely chamber where Camilla sat
in sorrow. All these things were re-
vealed to Camilla, the parchments exam
ined, and every doubt renewed. She and
Austin were not brother and sister alter
J all, they were lovers. Her father was
consigned to the grave on the following
day, and the order of mourning was OBJ
, served for some time afterward. Three
months passed away, and one evening in
sunny June, Camilla stood before the al
tar with Austin; and lovers labor wa.
won as he placed the token on her finger
while pronouncing the solemn Y Yes. .
] She turned with bushes and tears from
, the scene, aud leaned on his bosom a,
they entered the carriage.
Sigh not, my love-" he said, sooth
; iugly, "such devotion as yours shall never
be blighted with sorrow, but shall bright
en- as it decays with years."
5 We know not where Costardo met hi:
5 fate, or whether he met it at all. Nc
doubt she is somewhere around, and we
hope she may be happy when he takes
t her for veal or woe.
) Silas Edgerton decamped from Ell
} mount. He was about to come in for al
entire fortune, but the right owners KEEP
him out. He Instituted no legal proceed
Jugs.
x
, The " Lovers Lake formed an item
in our story. 1t lay embosomed on ths