The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-12-13
accursed hangnlan.

off die by the gallows, me- st rever-
end father" said the young man, q;
great sorrow will some day fall upor
all concerned in my death The rea
murderer is sure to be discovered
sooner or later; and then l shall hav.
been murdered man, and the Just re
tribution of heaven will pursue m,
murderers. Aid me to escape, rattle,
than risk great stain upon your con.
science. Stand upon this chair, which
place upon the table, thus; and then
by mounting upon your shoulder,
can reach the window, and drop from
it," r M .
"But the river below!"
81 swim like an otter; and, at any
rate, it is better to be drowned thar
hanged!"
Convinced of the young mans limo.
cence, Father Allard consented to aid
him in the escape. A moment sufiiced
to carry the plan into execution. The
prisoner gained the window, and dis.
appeared. I'll
Parading in struggling way outside
the building, went one of the minor
officers of justice-a stolid peasant
who had been placed there by way Of
sentry, and who, at this moment, hap
pened to be looking toward the river
wall of the mill. His sight nearly left
him, as he afterward stated, when he
saw a man drop from the gaol window,
strike on to a platform that protruded
from doorway in the second story,
and rebounding from that, fall into the
water with heavy plunge, re appear
ing at intervals, until he was carried
into the rapids below. BASS a
The alarm was at once given. Yell
ing officials rushed to the prison door,
when they found Father Allard alone
seated on the chair, pale, and as if just
recovering from the sight of some su-
pernatural vision. To the question
put to him, he replied that, as he was
administering the consolation of his
holy Office to the prisoner, a voice
sounded through the apartment, ac-
companied by the shadow of mighty
pair of wings, on which the prisoner
mounted to the ceiling of the apart
ms1t aaa yaH Hp no @ als sffeBe haKulhiHm hin the
prisoner innocent, and that the real
circumstances of the murder would
soon be made manifest.
1t was miracle /; and the good coun-
try people, ever ready to accept that
form of interposition, were easily per-
suaded to do so on the present occa-
sion.
Meantime, Laroclle, when he leaped
from the window, had forgotten all
about the platform. AS he fell upon
it, he displaced sack of grain, which
splashed into the dark waters Of the
river, appearing to the eyes of the be-
wildered sentry to be the body of the
man who had dropped from the prison
window. Larcche lay upon the mar
row platform, stunned by his heavy
fall.
Spiride, the miller's daughter, saw
him fall. There was no one else in the
mill at the time. She drew him be-
hind the sacks and great heaps of grain
on the floor, and, having administered
to him such restoratives as her young
experience suggested, threw som e
loose sacks over him, and told him to
lie still.
That night spilide and her lover
Laroche and she had been lovers for
about six months only-made their
way to where boat lay moored be-
low the falls, and embarking in it,
were soon carried far beyond pursuit.
It was supposed by the affrishted villa
gcs that Spiride must have been car
ried from the platform when the body
from the window above had been seen
to strike upon it; and as the whirlpool
below the torrent had never been
known to give up its dead, but little
search was made for her, and her
friends resigned themselves to mourn
lug for her awful fate.
Less than six months after this, Lam
dry was tried for the murder Of a
brother keeper, and was convicted and
hanged accordingly. Previous to his
execution, however, he made clean
breast of it, to Father Allard, confess
sing that he had murdered the farmer
for his money, killing him with the
stake cut from the hedge by young
Laroche, which, as lie stated singular
ly enough, suggested to him the idea
of committing the crime.
Two years elapsed. and Father Al
lard had been promoted to parish at
a distance of some fifty miles from the
one which he had been pastor for so
many years.
Shortly after his arrival there, his
duties led him to take journey on
horseback, scme miles into the interior
of the parish of which lie had charge.
Part of n road Travelled by him wound