Litchfield enquirer., 1869-12-30
DOUBLY MARRIED.
A ROMANCE or LIMA.

many ye6b ago yOAng En4lSnman, . m edical student named Astley, went to Lii. na. The love of adventure was strong up on him, and all he met with there was too tame to satisfy it. Propd of the profession for which he was studying. and trusting to it for subsistence, strong and healthy in body and mind, he left England with a bold heart, and this was the life he led and what became of it. .,f....,..
 Ing subjects for anatomical study was great, and when to procure them honestly was impossible, and the prejudice against dis ing to submit the body of any one con. nected with him to examination, it is we'll known that there were men who made it their business to obtain, at no small risk, bodies, generally those that were newly buried, which they sold to sur geons, med- ical students, or indee1 to any one who stood in need of the ghastly commodity.
 This class, known as body y-spatchers' and l" resurrection men," has died out, since there is happily now little prejudice against what has been triumphantiy prov- ed to be . necessary branch of scientific study; but at the time of our story, their hideous work was . kissiuing and profitable one. at@ ~45f5 r. r.. - t.r
 Richard Astley, in common with the rest of the profession, availed himself of their services. and many times in tho black night his door was opened to those who did not knock, but vho were expected and waited for, and who. entering stealthily, deposit cd dead burden upon the table prepared for its reception. Old and young men, women and children, all at time lay upon that grim table, and Astley's skillful in- struments cut their way to secrets that were destined to benefit the living. a 4a Though he was not hard-hearted, it was not unnatural that in time he should grow 90 much accustomed to the sight of his subjects" as to feel nothing but a mo mentary feeling of pity, as he put aside the clustering curls of infancy. or uncov- cred the face of man struck down in the glory of his years. IL i~ One night. as many nights before, the stealthy visit was paid, and Astley took his lamp to examine the subject. Neither strong man nor tender child this time, but . young and beautiful woman. The dead face was so lovely that it seemed impossi- ble that the light in the closed eyes could make it lovelier. The fair hair had fallen back, and gave no shade to the white brow, and the long fair lashes lay in thick
 
 | She was very tall and slender, and her hands, one of which hung down as she lay upon the table, were long and perfect ly shaped. As Astley lifted the hand to lay it on her breast, he thought how beau tiful it must once have been, since now. when there was not the slightest rose-tint to relieve the deathly 1pallor of it, it was SO exquisite. She wore one garment, a long flannel shroud, very straightly made, through which scanty drapery her slender limbs were distinctly visible, and below which her delicate feet were bare to the ankle. 7.c-.4. .sg~ -er
 Astley was troubled as he had never been before. The idea of treating this beau tiful corpse as he had all others brought to him in like manner was repulsive to him, and he recoiled from 1t as from the though, \ of sacrilege But how could he rid him. self of the lovely incubus? It was possi- ble that the men who had brought it might i be bribed to take it back again, and if they should refuse e-but he was incapable of dis tinct thought upon the subject, and could only determine that in any case the beau tiful thing before him should be treated with reverence and respect He gently covered it from head to foot with a loae white cloth, and locking the door of com. i.-,rnication between his bedroom and the : oon in which it lay, threw himself upon his bed without undressing, for the night wa nearly gone. =
 But his sleep was broken, and his dreams were feverish. and in some way all con. nected with that which lay in the next room. Now it seemed to him that it of. ded through the locked door, with hands folded on it's breast, and it's eyes still fast closed, and stood by his bedside, and nov the dream was that he had opened a. vein in one of those delicate arms, and that warm blood came from it fast; and finally he awoke with Q cry of horror from a ghast. l ly dream that some one had anticipated him in the work of dissection.
 The horror was upon him when he awoke to find it was dream, and opening the door, he looked upon the table. No change was there of any kind. The long sheeted figure lay in the half dawn as he had seen it before in the lamplght, very straight and still. 3a.-z yi-5&.} . as5 1S '
 It was not until nearly noon that Astley raised the covering to look again upon l that lovely dead face, and when he did so 1t was with wonder not unmixed with ter TOT, that change had cone upon it. He could not tell what it might be; the death. ly pallor was still there, but in some way tho face was not still the aame. He looked into It long and curiously. Surely there za Hs