The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-06-07
THE LEGEND OF THE BLOODY
FOOTSTEPS.

was the ODlecI III view.
"You see, the object of the lord of
Hall was to take life from the
course of Nature, and Nature did
not choose to be defrauded; so that
great as vas the power of this scien-
tific man over her, she would not
that he should not escape the neces-
sity of dying at his proper time, ex-
cept uron condition of sacrificing
some orher life for his: and this was
to be done every thirty years that he
chose to ve,-thirty years being the
account of n generation OF man; and
il IN any way, in that time, this lOri
could be the death of human being,
that satisfied the condition, and he
might live on.
"Now, this lord was a just man by
nature, and if he had gone astray, it
was greatly by reason OF his earnest
wish to do something for the poor,
wicked struggling bloody, uncom-
Portable race oil man, to which he be-
longed. He bethought himself whe-
ther he would have right TO take
the life of one of those creatures,
without their own consent, IN order
to proloDg his own; aud after much
arguing 70 and fro, he came to the
conclusion that he should not have
the right, unless it were a life over
which he had control, and which
was next to his OVID. He looked
round him he was lonely and alb
stracted man, secluded by his stu
dies from human affections, and
there was but one human being
whom he cared for; that was a beau
tiful kinswomRn, an orphan, whom
his father had brought up, and, dy-
ing, left her to his care. There
was great kindness and Affection
as great as the abstracted nature of
his pursuits would allow-On the
part of this lord toward this beau
tiful young girl; but not what is call
ed 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
rifice demanded, and that he might
kill twenty others without effect, but
if he took the lie of this one, it
would N AXE the charm strong and
good.
"Well, let us hurry over this part
of the story as fast as we can. He
did slay this pure young girl; he
took her into the 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
a very tender and loving talk togeth-
er. in which he tried to open the
matter tenderly to her, and make her
understand that though he was to
slay her, it was really tor the reason
that he loved her better than any
thing else in the world, and that he
would rather die himself if that
would answer the purpose at ALL
Indeed, he is said to have offered her
the alternative of staying bin, and
taking upon herself the burden of
indefinite life and the studies and
pursuits by which he meant to ben
EFT mankind. But she, it is said,
this noble, pure, and lovely being,
looked up into his face and smiled
sadly, and then snatching the dag
ger from him, she plunged it into
her own heart. J. cannot tell whe-
ther this be true or whether she wait
ed to be killed by him; but this l
know, t. at in the same circumstan-
ces [ should have saved my lover, or
nv friend, the pain of k ling me
There she lay dead at any rate, and
he bnried her III the wood and re-
turned Lu the house; and rs it hap
peued, he had set his right OOt in
her blood, and bis shoe was wet in
it, and by some miraculous fate, 1T
| left a track all along the wood Iath
and into the house, and on the stone
steps of the threshold and up into
his cham Der, all along; and the SER
wants saw it the next day, and won
dered and whispered, and missed the
fair young girl, and looked askauce
at their lords right foot, and TUNED
pale, all OF them, as death.
"And next, the legend says, that
Sir Forester was struck with horror
at what he had done, and could not
bear the laboratory where he had toll
ed so long, and was sick to 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 bloody foot
steps Impressed upon the stone steps
of the Hall. The track had lain ali
along through the wool path, and
across the lawn, to the old Gothic
door of the Hall; but the rain, the
English rain that is always falling
had come the next day, and washed
it all away. The track had lain, too
across the broad hall and up the
stairs and into the lords study; hut
there it had lain on the rushes that
were strewn there, and these the ser
wants had gathered up carefully, and
thrown them away and spread frt sh
ones. So that it was only on the
threshold that the mark remained.
''But the legend says, that where
ever Sir Forester went, In his wan
derings about the world he left a
bloody track behind him. 1t was
wonderful and very inconvenient
, this phenop1enon. When he went in
to a church, you would see the track
up the broad aisle, and a little red
puddle in the place where he sat OF
knelt. Once he went to a kings
court, and there being n track mp tc
the very throne, the king frown %
upon him, so that he never camC
there any more. Nobody could tel
how it happened; his foot was no
seen to bleed, only there was the
track behind him, wherever he went