The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-05-28
THE YELLED PORTRAIT.
BY JAMES GRANT.

AILStp l. all IlCAluEu 10 uCuDbs
In the year subsequent to the great
Bengal mutiny, l found myself home
on sick leave. My health had been
injured in the service in India, and by
our suferings consequent on the revolt;
while my nervous system had been so
seriously shaken by the graDeshOt
wound received at Lucknow, that it was
completely changed, and / became
cognlzant of many things so utterly
new to me, and so bealdering, that
until [ had read Baron Richenbach's
work on magnetism and crystalism /
feared that 1 was becoming insane. l
was sensible of the power of the mag
net over ne, though it might be three
rooms distant, and twice, in darkness
which seemed perfect to others, nv
room became filed with light but the
Baron holds that darkness is full of
light, and that to increase the sensi-
tiveness of the visual organs is to
render that rare and dissipated light
susceptible with all that it may con
tain.
was now compelled 20 acknowledge
the existence of that new power in
nature which the Baron calls the Odic
Light, and Of many other phenomena
that are described in "Der Geisi in
der Natur, OF Christian Oerstek-the
understanding that pervades all things.
But to my story. Nearly year had
elapsed since Che mutiny. The massa
ores at Delhi Lucknow, Cawnpore aud
elsewhere had been fearlully avenged
by that army retribution which marched
from UnbaIl8h, and l found myself il
London, enfeebled, enervated and, as
the saying Is, "weak as a child" The
IL. ~,F IL I I
bewIldered me thus l gladly accepted
hearty invitation which l received
from Sidney Warren, of "Ours," but
lately of the Staff Corps, to spend a
few weeks-months if | chose-at his
place IN Herts fine old house Of the
Tudor times, approached from the Lon.
don road by an avenue that was a grand
triumphal arch of natures own crea-
ton, with lofty intersecting bOughs and
hanging foliage.
Who, thought ], that was lord OF
such place, could dream of broiling
III India-Of sweltering in the white
washed harrack at Dumbun, or the
matched environments Of Delhi or
Meerut!
My friend came hurrying forth to
meet me.
"How goes it, old fellow? Welcome
to my new quarters" he exclaimed.
you?"
Then We grasped each others hands
as 0pty br ther soldiers do.
found Warren, whom l had not seen
since the commencement of the revolt,
nearly rs much changed and shattered
IN constitution as myself; but | knew
that he had lost those whom he had
loved most IN the world amid the mas
SHcre at AleeTUt. He received me, how
ever, with all the warmth of an old
cOmrsde, for we had thousand topics
IN common to con over, while the regi-
Enent, which neither of Us might ever
see again-he certainly not, as he had
sold oUt-would prove an endless source
of conversation,
Sidney Warren was in his 40sh year,
but looked considerably older. His
once dark hair and coal black mussacde
were quite grizsIed now. The express
sion OF the face WIS one of intense sad
ness, as II some secret grief consumed
him while there was a weird aud far
seeing expression that led me to fear
that ne was not fated to be long for this
world. Yet he had gone through the
storm OF the Indian war without reCeiv-
ing even a scratch Why was this?
Before I had spent two days with Sid
ney, he had shown me all the objects of
interest around the place and in 1.-THE
portrait gallery, with it's cOurtiers in
high rutfs, and danes in the long stOm-
9chers OF one period and decOllette
dresses of another, his collection of
Indian antiquities, amassed at the plum
derIug of Delhi and these which were
more Interesting to me, ponderOus suits
OF mail which had been hacked and bat
tered in the wars of the Roses, and
torn pennOn unfurled by Warren's troop
of horse, "for God and the king" at
Nascby.
But there was one object which he
would neither show nor allow me to
look upon, and which seemed to make
HIM shiver or shudder whenever it
caught his eye, ard this was a picture
OF some kind in the hbrary-a room be
very rarely entered. Ii was the size of
a life portrait, but covered closely with
green baize hanging Good taste COM
PEELED me to desist from talking to him
on the subject, but I resolved to CRAFTY
my curiosity on the first convenient
occasion; SO one day when he was alb
sent at the stable court l drew back the
hanging OF this mysterious picture.
1t proved to be the full length por-
trnt OF very beautiful girl-a proud
and stately one, too-bordering on
blooming wOmanhOod. Her features
were clearly ct and classic: she had
an OlIve-colored complexion that seemed
TO tell of another land than ENGLAND.
Her forehead was broad and low her
dark eyes, that SCENE to haunt and
follow me, were deeply set, with black
ErOws we'll defined her chin was rather
massive, as If indicating resolution OF
character, yet the soft, ripe lips were
full of sweetness while the gorgeous
coils of her dark hair were crisp and
wayy. Her attire was a green riding
habit, the skirt of which was gathered
In her left hand, while the right grasped
the bride of her horse
1t was not portrait of his wife, whom
4 remember to have been a fair haired
little woman so who was this mysteri-
Gus lady | cannot describe the emo
ton this portrait excited within me
but started, and let the curtain fall with
distinct sensation of some one or
something l could not see being close
beside me as ] hurried from the shaded
library into the sunshine. Lovely
though the faCe-I can see it vet in all
its details-it haunted me with au I'M
pleasant perJinacIty, impossible either
TO 8nalyze or portray. But | was a
ccestUre of faucies then.
Herein. thought l, turks some
mystery, which may never DO cleared
mp to me-" But in the surmIse l was
wrong, for one uight-the night OF Sun
day, the lOIh of May, the first anniver-
sary Of the outbreak at MeeTut-after
we had discussed an excellent dinner,
with bottle or two of Moselle, and be-
taken MS to iced brandy pG5Ucs (fOr so
we still loved to call it) and to the
soothing weed on the sofa of the
smoking room, Warren became Suddenly
seized by one OF those confidential fits
which many men unaccOuutably have at
such times, and while be unsparingly and
bitterly reproached himself for the part
he had acted in it, L drew from him,
little, the secret story of his life.
Some ten years before those days of
which | write, when IN the guards, and
deeply dipped in debt 10y extravaganza,
he had, unknown TO his family, married
secretly a beautiful girl who was ronni-
loo az tho ,-sryy tgTlt, Inns friends yypra