The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-22

= to have been hewn into the against whic
0 that portion of the castle was built
. After walking about thirty yards he cam
3 to q massive oaken door, and after som
, trouble he succeeded in turning 3 rusty ke
: which stood in the lock, and the door bein
? opened, he found himself at the head of
) flight Of steps, also cut in the rock, at th
7 bottom of which was high vaulted roor
, lighted from the top by small circular apel
ture giving access TO the light of day.
/ This cellar or vault seemed to be furnished
as he could perceive from the distance larg
table and few chairs of antique shape scat
tered around it.
Maudhui let go the door and descended
, into this room, but no sooner had he done 81
than the massive door, as ifmoved by spring
: closed behind him with dreadful bang, ant
the heir of the Black Robber found himsel
caught as in gigantic mouse trap.
At first he did not think much of this, pre-
Stunning it would be easy for him to retrac,
his steps. and by the light of his candle hi
; carefully surveyed the place. The walls had
been roughly hewn with pick-axes, and upor
q table was q Bible printed several centuries
ago. In a corner was an old chest, and neal
it were some wooden stools and two arm
chairs. This was all, except an old black rag
suspended to nail above the chest
Maudhui's curiosity was now excited to the
highest pitch. The chest was locked, but
owing to the dampness of the place its wood.
work had become mouldy, and. taking up an
iron bar which lay upon the ground, he sue
ceeded in opening it at the top, when his
eyes were dazzled by the sight of piles Of
| gold coin and church ornaments made of the
same material and ornamented with costly
gems.
There could not be less than two millions
of francs in that old chest "This is the
| treasure of the Black Robber!" he muttered,
as cold sweat overspread his body-"This
shall give to the poor!
Looking up, he saw the black rig which was
hanging to the wall, and had no difficulty in re-
cognizing the traditional costume OF the Black
Robber. Seized with nameless fear, Jacques
felt desire to leave the place and to return
once more to the room he had left, but he
found that the door could not be opened from
the inside. In vain he tried to shake it, to
force it open by using the iron bar with which
he had opened the chest. The door was
made of thick planks riveted together with
iron bands and bolts, and his frantic efforts
proved totally unavailing.
81 am lost" he exclaimed. " 1t is death,
death by starvation that awaits me. Neither
my servant nor anyone else will ever find the
way to this vault. Like my poor wife, will
be heard of no morew
Looking around again his hopes were re.
vived by the sight of the opening at the top
of the vault He placed chair upon the
table, but found it was still more than ten feet
above his uplifted hands.
He upset the chest. scattering its precious
contents upon the floor, and placed it upon
the table, but still there was no possibility of
reaching the aperture.
Returning to the door, he again exhausted
his strength in useless efforts to force it open.
He beat it for hours with the iron bolt, but
cOald not make the slightest impression upon
it. Giving himself up to despair, he then
looked at his watch and found that twelve
hours had elapsed since he had come down
into that fatal vault. His candle was almost
consumed, but pale light, like that of the
dawn, shone through the opening he had
vaiply tried to reach.
"The table the chairs" he cried-"let
me pile them up as I can. and at the risk of
breaking my neck, endeavor to climb up to
this last chance of escape"
A ray of sunlight that now passed through
this opening made every object more dis
tinct in the room. As he was in the act OF
piling up the furniture against the wall,
Maudhui came to an armchair placed in
dark corner, on the oaken back of which he
saw hanping what looked like long tresses of
human hair.
"Some one herer he cried. "Some one
asleep, after all the noise have made I'm
possible r
With feverish emotion he moved the arm
chair toward the light, when, without utter |
ing another word, he became deathly pale, |
and falling upon his knees he commenced to |
pray.
Upon this chair form was seated-a form
,hrouded in a white satin dress which had
,urned to the color of old ivory. The head
was not that of a skeleton, but was dried up
ike that OF mummy fact doubtless owing
% the preserving power OF many subterranean
,rottoes. The long. loosened tresses hung
behind; the fingers still held the jewelled
ings; one of the feet, in its tiny satin shoe,
)fotruded from the lower part of the dress.
The oranSe-Hower crown still remained on
he head, dried up like the body, whose calm
spect had something frightful as well as i'm
'osing
1t was all that remained Of Marie Maudhui
lie Valsoigne, who had disappeared eleven
ears before on her wedding day.
Overcome by emotion, Maudhui sank upon
he floor in swcon. When many hours after
70 woke up, intense darkness surrounded
i'm. His throat and lips were parched with
ever, and he picked upa mouthful of snow
hat had fallen through the aperture to assu-
&c his burning thirst.
A thousand fears assailed hin-even the
BAR of finding himself in the presence of the
cad body of the woman he had so long and
o bitterly mourned. Suddenly, as he lay |
elpless upon the ground, he heard slight ]
Disc, as if some one had been turn I
1g over the leaves of the book upon ,
ne table. Summoning all the strength he {
ad left, Maudhui stood up, and to his horror 6
aw two cleaning eyes looking at him from i
he arm chair in which he could still perceive {
,e vague outline of his vife's body. He I
led to walk towards it, but his strength '
gain failed him, and he fell utterly powerless !
nd senseless upon the floor.
When he came back to himself, it was again /
aylight; the gold coins were shining upon s
le ground; the dead body was reclining upon t
s arm chair, but to his utter establishment, {
pom the left shoulder of the corpse the old il
eeper's black cat was quietly slumbering. +
Maudhu; at once understood that this was
le mysterious apparition which had so I'M a
erved him a few hours before. This strange t.
,imal had doubtless selected the cave for e
ia nipht ratraat and through aoma upac. Il