The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-08-16
From the Catholic World.I
NELLIE NETTERVILLE;
OR,
ONE OF THE TRAN SPLANTED
From the Catholic World.I
CHAPTER xv-coNTINUED.

CHAPIEh Af-CoNIiNCEb'
More than a hundred years later than the
period which there is question IN this
tale, the treatment of prisoners in the Dub
lin Newgate was so horrible and revolving
to the cOmmonest sense of decency and hui
mainly as to demand II positive interference
on the part of government. There is moth
ing, therefore, very astonishing in the fact,
that the state in which Nellie found her
mother filed her brimful with sorrow and
dismay The cell in which she was confined
was low, and damp, and dark, and this she
might have expected, and was in some de-
gree prepared for; but she had not counted
On the utter misery of its appointments
and the sight of her pale mother-death al
ready haunting her dark eyes, and written
Enthusiastically on her CHASTITY features
stretched upon the clammy pavement,
heap of dirty straw her only bed, and tat
tered blanket her only eoyerin ~ was suca
q shock and surprise to Nellie that, instead
of ioyfully announcing the fact OF her re-
prieve to the poor captive, as she had in
tended, she fell upon her knees beside her,
and wept over her like child: -,
"Mother! mother!' was all that she could
saw for sobbing, as she took her mothers
hand in hers and covered it with tears and
kisses. Mrs. Netterville appeared for a mo-
ment too much overcome to speak, or even
move, but gradually faint flush passed
over her wan face, and her eyes at last
grew brighter and more life like, wnen
to, command her feelings, suddenly wiped
away her tears and bent over the bed to
kiss her. .har =, other ~, tbe, moor airl could
not refrain from once more sobblng, is IL
thns that see you, after t ALT sospea with
difficulty, 'n'you should rather thank God
fol, It on your Knees. See you not it is an
especial mercyq TIL had not burst blood
vessel: to-day, to-morEow- to-mor,
roW"-a shudder ran through her wasted
frame, and she broke off suddenly.
Ns But have brought you o reprieTe, y
sobbed Nellie, hardly knowing; what She
said, or the danger of sayingit at that mo
ment-Ha reprieve which Is almost par
don. Only a few days more, ana you would
have been free, whereas now-now tears
chbked her uttelance, and, hiding her face
on her mothers scanty covetlet, she sobbed
as if her heart were breaking. Mis-. Net
teryille half-raised herself on her pallet bed.
For one brief moment she struggled with
that desire for life which Turks III every
human breast, and which Na&!les eNciama-
ton had called forth afrcsh in hers. Fol-
one brief moment that phantom of life and
liberty, lost just as they had been found
again-lost Just as they had become more
than ever precious in her eyes-that con-
trast between what was to be her portion
and what it might have been, deluged heI
soul with q bitterness more 1ntolerable than
that of death itself, and her frail body
shook and trembled like an aspen leaf be
meath the new weight of misery thus ialc
upon it, That one urguarded word OF Mel
les had, in fact, changed, as if by magic
all her thoughts and feelings a7d aspira
tions. Death and life, and health and sick
ness, freedom and captivity, had each pu
ON a new and unexpected aspect in her eyes
and THAT very thing which, only minute
or two before, had seemed to her soul as
source of real consolation, had suddeniJ
taken the guise of a. great misfortune. y
was as if God himself had Knocked her Will
feigned iHercy-a weaker soul might 81
have said, and sunk beneath the burden
- .-.-.li -.ss ....... H-.-. .'t ...-..