The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-05-29
THE YELLED PORTRAIT.
BY JAMES GRANT.

IL has DcCA dbSCIttu tudt OuG CdDuO
hold intercourse with that which i:
generally called the unseen world, OF
behold anything supernatural, and
live; but these ideas, from my OWL
experience, 1 am inclined to donht.
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 grapeshot
wound received at Lucknow, that it was
completely changed, and 1 became
cognizant of many things SO utterly
new to me, and SO bewildering, that
until L had read Baron Richenbach' s
work on magnetism and crystslism l
feared that l 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, my
room became filed with light but the
Baron holds that darkness is full of
light, and that to increase the aepsi-
tiveness of the visual organs is to
render that rare and dissipated light
susceptible with all that it may con-
tain.
L was now compelled ia 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 Qe-s.ek-the
understanding that pe-vades all things.
But to my story. Nearly year had
elapsed since the mutiny. The masoa
ores at Delhi Lucknow. Cawppore and
elsewhere had been fearfully avenged
by that army retribution which marched
from Unballah, and found my self in
London, enfeebled, enervated and, as
the saying lis, "weak as child" The
hustle of the great capital stunned and
beyldered me thus gladly accepted
hearty invitation which I received
from Sidney Warren, of "ours," but
lately of the Staff Corps, to spend
few weeks-months if 1 chosc-at his
place in Herts fine old house of the
Tudor times, approached from the Lon
don road by an avenue that was grand
triumphal arch of natures own crea-
tion, with lofty intersecting boughs and
hanging foliage.
Who, thought I, that was lord of
In India-of sweltering in the white
washed barrack at Dumbun, or the
matched environments Of Delhi or
Meerut
M friend came hurrying forth to
meet me.
Glow goes it, old fellow? Welcome
to my new quarters, he exclaimed.
well, Sidney, old man, how are
Then we grasped each others hands
as Only br.ther soldiers do.
q Z found Warren, whom I had not seen
since the commencement of the revolt,
nearly as much changed and shattered
In constitution as myself; but I knew
that he had lost those whom he had
loved most in the world amid the mas
sacre at Meerut. He received me, how
ever, with all the warmth of an old
comrade, for we had a thousand topics
IN common to con over, while the reei-
ment, 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 cider. His
once dark hair and coal black mustache
were quite grizsled now. The expires.
sion of the face was one of intense sad
ness, as If Some secret grief consumed
him while there WIS weird and far
seeing expression that led me to fear
that he was not fated to be long for this
world. Yet he had gone through the
storm OF the Indian war without receiv-
ing even scratch ! Why was this
Before had spent two days with Sid
Dey, he had shown me all the objects of
interest around the place end in 1.-THE
portrait gallery, with its courtiers in
high rufTs, and DANES in the long stom-
achers of one period and decollette
dresses OF another, his collection of
Indian antiquities, amassed at the plnn-
dering 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 a
torn pennon unfurled by Warren's troop
of horse, "for God and the king" at
Naseby.
But there was one object which he
would neither show nor allow me to
look upon, and which seemed to make
him shlver or shudder whenever it
caught his eye, and this was a picture
of some kind in the library-a room he
very rarely entered 1t was the size of
life portrait, but lowered closely with
green baize hanging. Good taste COM
PEELED me to desist from talking to him
on the subject, but resolved to CRAFTY
my curiosity on the first convenient
occasion; SO one day when he was alb
sent at the stable court I drew back the
hanging of this mysterious picture.
1t proved to be the full length DOR
trait of very beautiful girl-a proud
and stately one, too-bordering on
blooming vomanhood. Her features
were cieaily CIT and classic; she had
an obTe-colored complexion that seemed
TO tell of another land than England.
der forehead was broad and low; her
dark eyes, that seemed to haunt and
me Al
brows 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 |
wavy. Her attire was a green riding |
habit, the skirt of which was gathered |
in her left hard, while the right grasped |
the bride of her horse.
1t was not portrait of his wife, whom |
remember t0.have been a fair haired |
little woman 30 who was this mysteri- |
Gus lady? 1 cannot describe the emo
ton this portrait excited within me ; |
but started, and let the curtain fall W tn |
a distinct sensation of some one or
something could not see being close |
beside me as / hurried from the shaded !
library into the sunshine. Lovely |
though the FACET can see it yet in all |
'to uct@is-it Ddunttu me WIFI dH uu-
pleasant pertiDacity, impossible either |
10 analyze or portray. But 1 was a
creature of fancies then.
Herein" thought /, ''lurks some
mystery, which may never bo cleared |
up to me-" But in the surmise L was
wrong, for one nighttime night of Sun
day, the 10th of May, the first anniver-
sary of the outbreak at Meerut-a after
we had discussed On excellent dinner,
with bottle or two of Moselle, and be-
taken us to iced brandy raWnee (for so
we still loved 20 call it, AID to the
soothing weed " on the sofa of the
smoking room, Warren became suddenly
seized by one of those confidential fits
which many men unaccountably have at
such times, and, while he unsparingly and
hiffaxIu ronxoached himself for tha narf |