South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-04-07

and took his hand in mine-he had sof
/, and delicate hand, too; but he rose anC
T mastering himself by great effort, wen
7 up to his room. In the morning he apol
!. ogized for disturbing me by his absurd
ways: he had had bad news from
9 home, he said OF course told him not
to think any more of such trifie; but In
; my own mind wondered where he had
got the letters from which had so upset
him, as was quite certain the postmar
,, had not been near my house all day. AL
!, this time had heard no more of the stu.
alton he expected; but soon after the
, same stranger called again-Mr. Brown
mean. He called very late one night
and went up straight to Lewis room
came down in very short time, and lefl
without word, as before. As had ad-
mitted him, had fair chance of con.
|, firming my opinion; he was q waIder,
was sure. He was tall, big bearded, big
whiskered, and mustached man, who stood
very square when he spoke to you, as a
soldier does; weather Drowned, as all tiI1
Portland warders are, and with q certain
quick, watchful look of the eye, which
they all acquire very soon.
The next morning brought heavy fall
of rain, with gusts of wind from the sea
and, on taking up Mr.. Lewis breakfast, l
noticed that he looked excited, if not wild,
and feared he had taken cold. / told
him so, but he said: "No. The fact is,
Mrs. Gerran, must now tell you little
secret am married; and / expect my
wife from town to-day.
"Indeedl" l exclaimed, for had never
dreamed of such thing.
"Yes," he went on, "she is coming this
evening, and am a little worried to think
what an unpleasant ride she will have"
"She certainly will, poor thing" said; /;
"but | will do my best to make her COM
Portable, Mr. Lewis"
81 know you WILL" he replied. "I
thank you heartily, Mrs. Gerran. We rely
on you very much"
1 l left him his breakfast, and went down
! stairs, considerably astonished by what l
had heard. The weather grew worse
during the day, and by night it was little
short of a tempest. / often thought of
the poor young woman who was coming
all the way from London on such a night;
and what made it worse was, that could
not offer to go and meet her, for, strange
to say, Mr.. Lewis did not not know by
what train she would come, or whether
she would travel by the Great Western or
the Southwestern line. 1t blew harder
|
swept through our little street, and drove
the rain before it, so as to almost blind
you, if you tried to face it. There was not
gaslight which was not blown out, and
need not say the sky was pitch dark. On
such nights always sit and think of my
poor husband, and of the many others
who earn their living on the dreadful sea;
and can hear nothing, attend to nothing,
but the bowling Of the storm. So it was
no wonder that the potman knocked two
or three times when he brought Mr.. Lewis
beer, before l heard him; and when
opened the door it was almost blown out
of my hand by the force of the wind
at is terrible night, Robert" said,
for he was very civil young man, and
had been at the White Lion for years.
at is, indeed ma'am," he said, "there's
a sea on tonight that's a-fying over the
Chesil Bank like yeast. They've been
firing artillery on the island; but, except
now and then lull you couldn't hear the
guns"
Firingl" 1 said; "fringI What is
that for Robert?"
More convicts off, ma'am," was his an
swer; "and hear there is some fellow of
consequence among 'em. Poor chapl
He's sure to be caught such a night as
this, if he hasn't tumbled over the face of
a cliff already"
I bade him goodnight, and closed the
door, still sadder in my mind than had
previously been. 1t always made me sor-
rowful when heard of the poor convicts
trying to escape. Whatever their faults
may have been, liberty is sweet to all of
us, and very few of them ever succeeded
in getting away-hardly any, although
many one had lost his life in trying. /
took the beer up to Mr.. Lewis room, and,
tspping at his door, said, as generally did:
Here is your beer, Mr.. Lewis" !" and, as
usual the door was opened, and he took it
from me. Instead of having his lamp
burning, as was his custom, his room was
in complete darkness, so that / could
hardly see him, to give him the jug, and
in the gloom he seemed to look stouter
and taller than usual. He did not speak,
whereas he generally had little joke; but
now he took the jug in silence l fingered
for moment; but finding that he did not
speak, was going down stairs, when l
thought of his wife. Mr.. Lewis had al
most closed the door, when 1 said how
anxious felt about her getting safely in
through the storm, when, to my amaze
ment, he replied, without opening the
door more than a few inches: al am
much obliged for your kindness, Mrs.
GerrsE, but my wife has been in for this
hour past" l never was so astonished in
my life. had made two or three little
preparations to comfort her, and felt hurt
that should not have been informed of
her arrival. Yes" he continued, she
came when the wind was roaring so loudly
that you did not hear her knock. / let her
in; and as she was tired and wet, /
thought the best thing she could do was
to lie down at once" Well, perhaps it
was, but could not help fancying that,
for all that, they might have treated me
with little more consideration. How
ever, | could say nothing; and so went
to bed, and. as soon as the storm would
allow, to sleep.
The first thing / heard in the morning
from my milkman was that only one of
the convicts had tried to escape, and that
for the present he was still at large 1t
was rumored in the town that it was
Colonel La Troulle who had got away,
but the government people would not say
much about it; the whole place was astir,
he said. All day long i heard the same
kind of tidings repeated; and, in fact,
saw enough to convince me that extraor-
dinary exertions were being made to cap
ture the runaway. The White Lion was
searched by party of officers, and so was
a house in the same street as my own,
where a number of young men dodgers
were taken. heard, too, that the rail
ways were watched, not only at our sta
ton, but that the trains were examined
twenty or thirty miles out, in case the
convict should have got in at some little
station. 1t was supposed, however, that
although these precautions were taken, he
was still on the island, as, from his wear
ing the prison dress, it would be SO diff
cult for him to escape notice.
did not see Mr.. Lewis all day, nor his
wife; but, just at twilight, 1 was startled
by the latter coming quietly into my little
kitchen, and asking me for the milk. She
was retty-looking young woman, wear
ing her hair in short curls it was fair hair,
and she was fair too, quiet and shy in her
manner, speaking in voice SO low that
could scarcely hear her. She explained
that her husband had, unfortunately, taken
severe cold, and would be obliged to keep
his bed for day or so. Ofcourse, 1 offered
any assistance in my power. She thanked
me, and went up stairs. When she had
pone could do nothing for the life ofme.