The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-08-19

' A Terrible Revenge.
The following legend, with which the
writer was diverted by travelling &C.
quaintance at an English hostelry one
stormy night in 1866, may also interest
his readers:
In the latter part of the seventeenth CEN
fury Frenchwoman Of extraordinary
beauty startled Florence, in Italy, by the
splendor of her equipage and entertain.
ments: Her husband, the Count, had
been dead some two years, and the brill
liant widow made such attractive use of the
millions he had left her that she soon
ceased to number her courtiers on her fin
gers. One night she discovered man in
the assembly at her palace whom it was
her destiny to love. He, too, was remark
ably handsome, and for time the fairest
couple whom the society of Florence in
those stately days had looked upon were
thought to be destined to life of mutual
happiness But one more puissant than
the French Countess, or more dexterOus at
least suddenly descended from the north
and captivated Adonis. This was Rus
sian woman of high rank, whose resi-
dences and acres were scattered through
every country in Europe. She departed
with her bridegroom at the close Of tri-
umphant season of revels, after inviting
her Gallician rival to become her guest for
fortnight in the course of the approach
ing summer. The Frenchwoman sur
prised the victor by accepting the invita-
ton, and in the brief July of 1892, at a
superb summer residence on the southern
shore of the Gulf of Finland, hard by
the site of the present splendid Porter
hoff, the memory of the antagonism at
Florence was apparently laughed and
whiled away.
The beautiful Countess did not leave her
friends without obtaining from them a
promise to visit her at her own favorite re-
treat the very next year. In the following
July she welcomed them to an immense an
cient country seat on a slope of the western
range of the Carpatllian Mountains. From
the day of their arrival they were treated,
day and night, to succession of pleasures
far surprising any that she had received
at their hands. Her retainers were numer-
Gus, trained perfection, and obeyed their
mistress with the celebrity, silence and hui
mility Of slaves. Her horses were of the
noblest breeds, and the bridle-paths led
through wild and charming scenery. Her
suppers, laid with the glittering display
of that age, offered the dishes and the
wines of three countries. Harpcrs and
singers joined at a distance in giving the
zest of Martini's, Pedestrians, Gasparini's
music to these feasts, which were followed
almost nightly by theatrical representa-
finn, Of
dances by young men and girls, which
sometimes took on a disheveled and be.
wildcring gayety
The last week of the visit was rendered
still more brilliant and delightful by the
presence of a large number of distin-
guished guests from various quarters of
Europe-friends of the Countess who sell
dom let summer pass without accepting
her Bohemian hospitality. And the last
night before their departure was set for an
entertainment which promised to surpass
everything that had preceded it in the re-
spec Is of novelty and beauty.
The Countess had arranged series of
NEUROLOGICAL and Biblical tableaur uira,,ts,
and number of the guests of both sexes,
including her former lover, the husband
of The Russian, had been prevailed on to
take parts in them.
At the close of a magnificent feast and
wassail the company separated. Those
who were to appear in the representations
were conducted to their firing rooms,
while the rest stayed to take seats or lie
at ease as an audience upon the vast
lounges, stuffed leather ottomans and heaps
Of skins by which hundred servants
quickly replaced the chairs and tables at
one end of the great dining-hall. The
Russian bride occupied an elevated seat of
honor in the front of this throng, and
when all was ready the hostess entered and
sat beside her The entertainment met
with enthusiastic acceptance, and no Won
der. The comelicst men and women whom
the Countess could cntice from the circle
of her friends and select from her large
retinue displayed in pastures initiated
from the most celebrated groups of Greek
and Italian statuary and the best known
sacred paintings, likenesses breathing
with vulgar life, yet not unworthy, in the
enraptured eyes Of the company, to be
compared with their classic models.
At last the heavy curtains were drawn
close after splendid allcgorical tableau,
which had comprised more than one hun
dred human figures, and the company pre-
pared to disperse.
Ctdy u lCu IlSIug WIFI
graceful and commanding gesture, "the
last scene ought always to be the best, and
the best is yet to come. l pray you, re-
sumo your scats.'
All obeyed, and an interval of a few
minutes occurred, during which converse
ton gradually ceased, and the great hall
became profoundly silent Then the cur
tains were slowly withdrawn, revealing,
against back ground of torm-clouds and
darkness, an appallingly realistic represent
alton of the crucifxion of Christ. AT the
foot of a rugged cross, whose upright
beam reached nearly to the ceiling, were
clustered in every variety of attitude two
or three scores of hooking Jews, all lift
ing fingers of scorn and hatred, some gaz-
ing in each others faces with looks of
triumphant glce, some gloating on the
spectacle above their heads The figure
against the cross, on which, and on several
of the upturned faces, bright light was
cast from torches behind screen, was
seen to be actually spiked through hands
and feet from which the blood had not
ceased trickling. The body dropped, the
knees were slightly bent, the head fell for
ward with its crown of thorns. The whole
figure, which was that of a man in the
very flower of physical beauty, was ghast-
ly with the pallor Of cruel death.
A shudder and then murmur of horror
infected the spectators of this scene. From
the dais, on which she had been gayly
chatting with her hostess, the lovely Rus
sian was seen to bend forward with a ter
rible cry, and then to rush screaming down
the room to the foot of the cross, scatter
ing the Countess mental mimics who
were gathered there. Reaching up, she
clasped the knees of the man cruciticd,
and called, to ears that were forever deaf,
her murdered husbands name-N. Y.
World.
Women Firemen.