Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-11-30
A Romance of Lima.

with in his own country was too tame
to satisfy it. Proud of the profession
for which he was studying, and trust
ing to it for subsistence, strong and
healthy in body and in mind, he left
England with bold heart, and this
was the life he led, and what came of
it.
AT time when the difficulty of pro-
curing subjects for anatomical study
was great, and when to procure them
honestly was impossible, and the pre-
judice against dissection was so strong
that no one was willing to submit the
body of any one connected with him
to examination, it is well known that
there were men who made it their bu-
siness to obtain at no small risk, bod
les, generally those of the newly bu-
ried, which they sold to surgeons, me-
dical students, or indeed to any one
who stood in need Of the CHASTITY com,
modify.
This class. known as body snatch.
ers' and resurrection men, has died
out since there is happily now little
prejudice against what has been tri-
umphantly proved to be a necessary
branch Of scientific study; but at the
time of our story their hideous work
was a thriving and profitable one.
Richard Ashley, III common with the
rest of his profession, avaiIed himself
of their services, and many times in
the black night his door was opened
by those who did not knock, but who
were expected and waited for and
who entering silently, stealthily de-
posted a dead burden upon the table
prepared for its reception. Old and
young, men, women and children, all
in time lay upon that grim table, and
Astley's skilliul instruments cut their
way to secrets that were destined to
benefit the living.
Though he was not hard-hearted, it
was not unnatural that in time he
should grow so much accustomed to
the sight of his subjects as to feel
nothing but momentary pity as he put
aside the clustering curls of infancy,
or uncovered the face Of a man cut
down in the glory of his years.
One night, as many nights before,
the stealthy visit was paid, and Ashley
took his lamp to examine the new sub
ject. Neither strong man nor tender
child this time, but young and beau
tiful woman. The dead face was 50
lovely that it did not seem possible
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 a thick fringe upon the violet
tinted underlids.
She was very tall and slender, and
her handsome of which hung down
as she lay upon the tabIe-were long
and perfectly shaped. As Ashley lift
ed the hand to lay it on her breast, he
thought how beautiful it must once
have been, since now, when there was
not the faintest rosetint to relieve the
deadly pallor of it, it was so exquis-
ite. She wore one garment, long
flannel shroud, very straightly made,
through which scanty drapery her
slender limbs were distinctly visible,
and below which her delicate feet were
seen, bare to the ankle.
Astley was in trouble as he had ne
yer been before. The idea Of treat
ing this beautiful corpse as he had
done all others brought to him in like
manner was repulsive to him, and he
rccoiled from it as from the thought
of sacrilege. But how could he rid
himself of the lovely incubus? ? 1t
was possible that the men who bro't
it might be bribed to take it back
again, and if they should refuse-but
he was incapable of distinct thought
upon the subject, and could only de
termine that in any case the beautiful
thing before him should be treated
with reverence and respect. He gent
ly covered it from head to foot with 6
long white cloth, and locking the door
of communication with his bedroom
and the room in which it lay, threw
himself upon the bed without undres
sing, for the night was nearly gone.
But his sleep was broken, and hi!
. dreams were feverish, and in some
way connected with what lay in th'
next room. Now it seemed to hin
that it glided in through the locked
door, with hands folded on its breast
and eyes still closed, and stood by th
bedside, and now the dream was tina
he had opened a vein in one of tn
. delicate arms, and that warm. hvin,
blood poured from it fast; and finall
be awoke with cry of horror from
CHASTITY dream that he had entere,
the room, and found that some ur
known hand had anticipated him i
the work of dissection.
- The horror was upon him after h
woke to know it was a dream, an
e opening the door he looked in upo
a the table. No change there of an
kind. The long sheeted fgure lay
the half light of dawn as he had see
it before in the lamplight, very straigl
and still.
y 1t was not until nearly noon thu
u Ashley raised the covering to look ono
again upon the beautiful dead fac
. and when he did so saw with wonde
not unmixed with terror, that chang
had come upon it. He could not te
what it might be; the deathly pallC
was there still but in some way Il
face was not the same. He locke
into it long and curiously. Surely
= change had passed over the eyes, f
though they were still fast shut, tn
6 looked now as though closed in sic,
) rather than in death. He lifted
eyelid tenderly with his finger: the
rs was not death in the eye; unconscior
ness, trance, there might be, but n
death.
} He was certain now that he W
e. not dead, though he could find no /
ur. in her pulses. For hours he stro
to call back the spirit, until at leng
ess tss color returned and she lay before b
sleeping like child. he had plac
Q her on his bed, and now sat by h
. cidn with a RI rohh;nn baart +o ou,,