Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-08


lows by bribipg the Judge only to break bis
neck in the hunting-feld few months alter |
wards, at a place still known as Darrell's |
stle Aubrey placed Littlecote in Wiltshire,
makes the unhappy mother the waitDg-maid |
of Darrell's wife, and concludes his narra- |
ton thus This horrid action did much |
run in her (the midwife's) mind, and she had
desire to discover it, but knew not where |
twas. She considered with herself the time |
that she was riding, and how many miles
she might have ridden at that rate IN that
time and that it must be some great person g
house, for the room was twelve feet high.
She went to justice OF the peace. and search
was made-the very chamber found. The
knight was brought to his trial and, to be
short, this judge mad this noble house. park
manor and U think) more, for brIbe to
save his life. Sir John POpham gave SEN
fence according to law, but being great
person and favorite, he procured nolIe
prose qm.'
In SIR Walters ballad the midwife be-
comes a lriar of orders gray, compelled to
shrive as dying woman
A lady as lily bright,
With infant on her arm;
and when
The shrilt is done the friar is gone,
Bndfoided as he came
Next morn ng all Iu ILttlecote Hall
Were weeping for their dame.
II was hardly fair to make Darrell worse
than he was, by laying a second murder at
his door, merely to give local habitation
and a name to a Scotch tale of murder that
might have been an adaptation of the Berk-
shire tragedy. Somewhere near the beginning
h,,r oto
was called out of his bed at midnight, on the
pretext that he was wanted to pray will, p
person at the point of death. The good man
obeyed the summons without hesitation. but
wished he had not done so, when upon his
sedan chair reaching an out-of-the-way part
of the city, its bearers insisted upon his
being blindfolded, and cut his protestations
short by threatening to blow oct his brains
if he refused to do their bidding. Like the
sensible man be was, he submitted without
further parley, and the sedan moved on
again. By-and-by, he felt he was being carried
up stairs; the chair stopped, the clergyman
was handed out, his eyes uncovered, and his
attention directed to young and beautiful
lady living in bed with an infant by her side.
Not seeing any signs of dy ing about ber, he
ventured to say 80, but was commanded to
lose no time in Offering up such prayers as
we're fitting for person in the last extremity.
Having done this Office, he was put into the
chair and taken down stairs, a plstOl-shOt
startling his ears on the way. DE soon
found himself sale at home, purse of gold
in bis hand, and his ears still ringing with
the warning he had received, that If he said
one word about the transaction his life would
pay for the indiscretiou. At last he fell of
to sleep, to be awakened by . servant with
the news, that a certain great house in the
Cannongate had been burned down. and the
daughter of its owner perished in the flames.
The clergyman had been long dead, when q
fire broke out on tho very same spot, and
there, amid the flames. was seen q beautiful
woman, in an extraordinarily rich night-dress
OF the fashion of half a century before. While
the awe-struck spectators gazed 10 wonder
the apparition cried d" Anes burned, twice
burned the third time II scare you all !!
The midwife of the Littlecote legend and the
divine of the Edinburgh ono were more fortu-
nate than the Irish doctor living at Rome 10
l743; this gentleman, according to Lady
Hamilton, being taken blindfolded to u house
and compelled to open the veins of young
lady who had loved not wisely, but too we'll
In the year 400, Gnevra di Amiera. 6
Florentine beauty, married, under parental
pressure, a man who had failed to win her
heart, that she had given to Antonio Rondi
nelll. Soon afterwards the plague broke ou
in Florence; Ginevra fell i'll, apparently sue
cumbed to the malady, and being pronounced
dead, was the same day consigned to th'
family tomb. Some one. however, blunder
ed in the matter, for in the middle Of th,
night, the entombed bride woke out of he
trance, and badly as her living relatives ha'
f behaved, found her dead ones still less to he
liking and lost no time in quitting the sileu
, company, upon whose quietude she had un
: willingly intruded. Speeding through th
| sleep-wrapped streets as swiftly as her cling
: ing cerements allowed, Ginevra sought tn
e home from which she had 90 lately bee
borne. Reused from his slumbers by
knocking at the door, the disconsolate wild
over of day cautiously opened an uppe
window. and seeing a shrouded figure wall
ing below, in whose upturned face he recoa
nized the lineaments Of the dear departed
If be cried: F" Go in peace, blessed spirit" an
: shut down the window preclpitasely. Wit
a sinking heart and slsckened step, the repul
e ed wife made her way to her fathers dool
d to receive the like benison from her dismay
}. ed parent. Then she crawled on to an NJ
J.. cles, where the door was indeed opened, bg
p only to be slammed in her face by the frigh
{, ened man, who. in his hurry, forgot even |
70 bless his ghostly caller. The cool night .
ts penetrating the undress Of, the hapless Wal
" derer, made her tremble and shiver, a. 81
/, thought she had walked to life only to
q, again in the cruel streets. 50 All :" 81
is sighed, +" Antonio would not have proved
A. unkind." The thought naturally suggest'
ID it was her duty to test his love and coursg
ID it would be time enough to die if he prov,
e. like the rest. The way WAS long. bus ho
=, renewed her limbs, and soon Gineyra "
70 knocking timidly at Rondinelli's door.
IN opened it himself, and although startled
the CHASTITY vision, calmly inquired what :
spirit wanted with him. Throwing
shroud away from h@ faoe, Ginsyfa esclai
ed: 81 am no spirit. Antonio; am th
Glnevra you once loved, VII, Vas buried y
terday-bQrled alive!" end tell ssnsel(