Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-05-22

in SO fine a manner that the defrauded
fair ones forgot their losses in admira-
ton of the charming despoiler, and
Richard, in both his phases, drank
deep draughts of pleasure, till he
drained the Circean cup to it's veriest
dregs. just as even pleasure becomes
wearisome, when festive and high bred
delights palled on his sated passions,
and the lower extremes of Hcentious-
ness and hard drinking, roughing and
fighting, diversified by the keen excite
ment and threats of danger which dis
tinguished his predatory existence be-
gan to satiate, new light broke on
the feverish atmosphere of life. He
loved.
Yesl Richard Mowbray, the ruined
patrican-De Montmorency, the gal
liant highwayman, who had hitherto re-
sisted every good or civil influence, pure
or earth stained, offers to its votaries,
succumbed to the simple charms of a
young, unlearned and unambitious
girl-so youthful that even her tastes
and habits, childish as they were, could
scarcely be more SO than suited to her
years. Flayia Hardcourt had just at
tanned her sixteenth year, had never
been to boarding school, and loved
nothing so much, even her birds and
pet rabbits, as her dear old father, an
honest country gentleman and worthy
magistrate. Flavia had never been to
London, for Mr.. Hardcourt resided at
Aveling, q retired village about twenty
miles from the metropolis. Barring
hard drinking and fox hunting, the old
gentleman himself on his side took
pleasure only in the pretty, gentle girl,
who, from the hour of her birth, which
aryoDt fo,.,,oiDotad bar m otbar'S ayistanoa
had made her his constant companion.
And it was to this simple wild-fower
that the gay man of the world, naughty,
reckless, unprincipled, impudent, ire
igious and rash, presumed to lift his
eyes and elevate his heart and, oh
strange yet to this being, the moral an
tipodes of her pure self, did Flavia
Hardcourt surrender her youthful, mod
est, inestimable self-love It must have
been her very childishness and purity
that attracted the desperate robber, the
ibertine, now about to
commit his worst and most inexcusable
crime.
As he accidentally met Mr.. Hardcourt
at country hunt, had, with others of
his companions, been invited by the
honest gentleman to rustic fete in hon
or of little Flavia's natal day, a day he
was wont to observe, remarkable to him
as commemorating his greatest misfor-
tune and intensest happiness, and then
and there the hghwaymen vowed to win
that pure bud of innocent freshness and
rare fragrance, or perish in the attempt.
Mr.. Richard Mowbray : unscrupulous
De Montmorency, will relate how you
kept your vow.
He haunted Aveling Grange till the
chaste young heart, the old fathers be-
loved darling, surrendered itself into
the .highwayman's keeping. Perhaps
Mr.. Hardcourt was not altogether best
pleased at his dear Flavia's choice, but
She was his life, his hope, and he trust
ed, even when he gave her to hus-
band, that her love and doting would
still be his own. Besides, Mowbray
was well connected, boasted of his
wealth, whereas moderate portion of
it would be hers. He was received into
moderate circles, in which the good
magistrate never pretended to partici-
pate, and what with higher bearing, his
handsome person and lnslnuatlng
tongue, Mr.. Hardcourt had irrevocably
promised to bestow his treasure into the
keeping of the profigate, who mum bered
himself near enough to have been the
father of the girl, whom he testified the
It was during the time that Mr.. Now
bray was paying his court to Aveling
that the neighborhood began to be
alarmed by series of highway robber-
les, which men said could not have, been
perpetrated but by that celebrated
knight of the road, Captain de Mont
morency. No one could stir after night
fall without an attack, which numbers
certainly were not wanting.
"Cudgel me, but wen have him yet,
said old Mr.. Hardcourt, 81 should
glory myself, in going to Tyburn to SEE
the fellow turned. All, and I should
take my little Flavia to see him go BY
in cart with parson and nosegay-
eh, my little girl ?''
" Oh, no, father" said Flavia, Sc
could not abide /; though he is such {
daring, wicked man, whose very name
makes me actually shrink with feal
whenever hear it, could never beal
to see such dreadful sight-it would
haunt me till the day of my DEATH
Does the gift of prophecy, involun
tary though it may be, lurk within u
yet? Sweet Flavia! unsuspecting limo
cent grill your lips then pronouncet
your own doom as irrevocably as thougl
you had been some stern sibyl deliver
ing inscrutable, unquestioned oracles
not fair child in a girlish frock an,
sash, your brown hair curling softl,
over your shoulders, and your soft eye
shining through your bushes.
The betrothed pair were together t.
| visit London.
"But I shall not dare" said the gin
as walking together in the fashionabl
Dutch garden she leaned her head upol
her guilty lovers breast-I shall no
dare to take such a journey, for fear O
the highwayman, De Montmorency."
"Fear not, my sweet Flavia thi
breast shall be pierced through er
Montmorency shall cause one fear @
thine"
Richard, sweetest, why do you leav
us so early every day? At sunset,
have remarked. These are not Londo
habits. All, does any other than poo
Flavia attract you? Oh, L must die
it be SO. I could not live dear RicI
and know you were false"
"Sweetest and best my purest love
could any win me from you? We're it
queen, think not 1.-the truth il
Flavia, I have poor sick friend not fa
from here. He is poor, i'll and II
"Say no more, dearest. Oh, no
much more do I love you every da,
How good, how noble thus to sacrifice