The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-06-06
THE LEGEND or TIE BLOODY
FOOTSTEPS.

to tax. advantage of them, groat as
was tho object in view.
"You sec, the object of tho lord o.
Hall was to take II life from the
course of Nature, and Nature did
not choose to be defraudcd; so that
great as was the power of this scien-
tifc man over her, she would not
| that he should not escape the neces
sity of dying at his pr per time, OK
cept uron condition of sacrificing
somo other life for his: and this was
to be done eyory thirty years that he
chose to live, thirty years being the
account of n generation OF man; and
ii i'll any way, III that time, this lori
could be the death Of n human being,
that satisfied the condition, and he
might live on.
"Nov, this lori was II just man by
nature, and if ho had gone ostray, it
was greatly by reason of his earnest
wish to do something for the poor,
wicked struggling bloody, uncom-
Portable race OF man, to which he be-
longed. He bethought himself vhe-
thor he would have Il right to take
the life of one of these creatures,
without their own consent, in order
to prolong his own; and after much
arguing 10 and fro, he came to the
conclusion that he should not have
the right, uni SIS it wcro II lie over
which he had control, and which
was next to his own. lie looked
round him ho was Il lonely and alb
siractcd man, secluded by his stu
dies from human affections, and
there was but ore human being
whom he cared for; that was II beau
tiful kinswomrn. IN orphan, whom
his father had brought up, and, dy-
ing, left her to his care. There
was great Kindness and affection
US greet as the abstrActed nature OF
his pursuits would allow on the
part of ,his lord toward this beau
tilul young girl; but not what is call
cd love,-a least, he never acknow-
lodged it to himself. But looking in
to his heart, he SAW that she, if any
one, was the person whom the sac
rifco demanded, and that he might
kill twenty others without effect, but
if he took the lito of this one, il
would make the charm strong and
good.
"Well, let us hurry over this part
of tho story as fast as we can. He
did slay this pure young girl; hc
took her into tho wood near the
house, an old wood that is standing
yet, with some OF its magnificent
oaks; and then he plunged dagger
into her heart, after they had
very tender and loving talk togeth-
er, in which be tried to open the
matter tcudorly to her, and make her
understand that though he was TO
alay her, it was really tor the reason
that he loved her better than any
thing elso in the world, and that he
would rather die himself if that
would answer tho purpose 1T all
Indeed, he is sud to- have offered her
the alternative Of staying him, and
taking upon herself the burden Of
indefinite life and the studies and
pursuits by which he meant to b1n-
eft mankind. But she, it IS sud,
this noble, pure, and lovely hcin@,
locked up into his face and sml He'd
sadly, and then snatrhing the dag
ger from him, she plunged it into
her own heart. J. cannot tell wire
ther this be true or whether sDc wait
ed to be killed by him; but this l
kuow, IL AT in the same circunstau-
css | should have saved my lover, or
my friend, the pain Of X ling me --
There she lay dead at any rate, and
he buried her IN the wood and re-
turned to the house; and us it hap
pened, he had set bis right foot in
her blood, and his shoe was wet in
it, and by some miraculous fate, 1t
left track all along the wood l"th
and into the house, and on tho stone
steps of the threshold and up into
his chamber, all along; and the $ =
wants saw it the next day, and Won
dercd and whispered, and missed the
fair young girl, and looked askauce
nj their lords right foot, and turned
pale, all OF them, as death.
"And next, the legend says, tn 1t
Sir Forester WAS struck with horror
at what he had done, anl could not
bear the laboratory where he had toll
ed o long, and was SICK t. death OF
the object he had pursued, and was
most miserable, and fled from his old
Hall, and was gone many day.
But all the while he was gone there
was the mark Of the blooiy foot
steps Impressed upon the stone steps
of the Hall. The track had lam ali
along through the woot path, and
across the lawn, to the old Gothlc
door of the Hall; but the rain, the
English rain that is always falling,
had come the next day, and washei
it all away. The track had lain, TOO
across the broad hall and uP the
Il
stairs and into the lords study; but
there it had lain on the PUSHES that
were strcwn there, and these the ser,
wants had gathered up oaresnlly, and
thrown them away and spread lrsSh
ones. SO that it was only Oh the
threshold that the mark remained
"But the legend says, that wieie
ever Sir Forester went, III his wall
derings about the world ne LETT +"
bloody track behind him. IL was
wonderful and very involvement
this phenomenon. When he went IN.
to church, you would see the track
up the broad aisle, and a little req
puddle in the place where he sat or