Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-10-08

ana suddenly, as If some barrier had
given Way before her she felt that she
had conquered and attained, she was
resting buoyant on eternal floods of
power, great currents from an al
mighty source flowing and beating
through her.
There came 4 long sigh shivering
through door and Wainscot of everv
room in the house, sharp, Kissing,
terrible sign, as if the central fires had
Whis6led up through some cleft of the
earth on which the house was standing.
It was followed by a grOan-a loud and
swelling groau that was presently a
veil. A storm of cries aud curses.
Scream after scream. And then silence.
That silence was broken by a sound
where agony and exhaustion wrestled
"a strange Sounn, a horrible, revolving
sound. neither shrieking nor groaninR,
but bark, hOarse, swift bark, another
and another, as if manhood were de-
stroyed, and only the animal were left
alive and writhing.
It was more than Hortense could bear
to love, to listen, and live. She stood
up, aud went swiftly into the hall, and
through the ante-rOum, not pausing till
she reached her husbands side.
Nothing of the friRhtful scene did she
see, neither bleeding vein nor CULVER
ing flesh, nor the leathPTn thongs
which had been burst asunder by the
force of the eXcruciating pangs. She
Hung herself upon III bed, cIasptng her
arms around the convulsed form there,
hut with uplifted head gazing upon the
distorted eOuntenance of the wretch
who writhed beneath-not, as 1t We're,
upou the cOuntenance, but possibly
uoon the soul itself. The surgeons,
wiping their foreheads which, wet be-
fore, now were purple with the spurG-
ing streams, had not SO much as glanc-
ed at her when she entered but at this
moment they paused amazed.
The man whom their leathern bands
had failed to hold was lying su bmissive
as droWsy child in her arms, now and
then long tbrOe passing YER his body,
diving gently away into stiffness, and a
smile creeping slowly round his mouth
as his eyelids fell and he slept.
She was gazing at him with fixed
intentness, her face as white, as shining
as a star. On her lips the love OF all
humanity protested against the pain he
strOve to annihilate it, the strength of
heaven to destroy il. 1t was no earthly
face, but one of supernal beauty. IL
shed lustre round It, and, in locking
at it, it was suddenly to be understood
hoW-made in the image of God
Will alone the power of the whole uni
verse might flow. She had demanded
it, obtained it, ii filled her it overflow
ed her and uplifted him; she chose
this man should cease to suffer pain,
and he Law there in a happy rest with
out tremor while the scalpel of the
swifG-handed surgeons raised chord
and muscle, while their saws labored
through tine bone, while their pincers,
cropping at the root of the live nerves,
held them up like haccid threads and
they neither shrAnk nor tortured. 1t
was a tremendous hour, the operators
wrought as if their own lives hung in
the balance /; they had passed the Pc
riod where every other sufferer had
given up the ghost, and this one yet
lived If they but succeeded, It was
triumph over death and disease never
won by mortal man before. Nor won
now by man--it was this woman's viii
that was doing it, her abnegation, her
sacrifice, her devotion. They scarcely
breat ned their hearts had hardly time
to beat lightning ran in their fingers,
one might say. #..
vibrated through all the length of the
patients frame, and he opened hiseyes,
gazing forward in a blind, unconscious
way. At the same moment the eyeltds
of Hortense lowered, the lumiaous
eyes were bidden, the long black lashes
lying heavy on the cheeks no longer
lustrous as before, but dead-Whlte a
look of total and extreme torment
twisted all the features of her face, and
ali her body rose and fell as if in one
creeping SpaSm OF anguish linen her
head dropped downward on her breast,
aud gently, quietly, unnoticed, she
sank beside the form whose spirit was
reawakening to its old intelligence.
The surgeons paid her no heed, they
sped on their work, and the last BAN
dage was bound, the patient well ar
ranged, his cordials gwen, his falterinR e
rPassured. He had felt no pain since
Hortense had entered that room with
the strength borrowed from Omnipo-
tence shining out Of her face. "See TO
my wife," he gasped. "She has saved
me! 90
They lifted her. Too late to love her
then, Mr.. Everard Knight She had,
indeed, saved him. She had accamu-
lated the whole force of her lifetime in
to one hour She had taken his pain
upon herself. She had suffered his
death agony. Greater love hath no
man than this. She had given her life
for his-the fame she had invoked had
consumed her-Hortense wOulu never
see her smile strike anOther's into joy,
would never hear loves burden break
ing rough voice into music, would
never feel the beating of a heart that
| only beat for her-cOlder than clay, she
! was already dead.