The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1877-08-16
CLEVELAND, TENN, AUGUST Is, 1877.

the home Of Florence Albini. She 4
happy I'm her home, her child, and II
the love Of her husband, buta mystery
hangs over the movements of the latter
At stated intervals, always in tn,
evening, he will leave her with som,
flimsy excuse, returning far into tn,
night, though sometimes he is gone fol
days. On these mysterious excursions
he invariably wears the jauDty Italian
suit of green In which he was attired a
their first meeting, and as invariably h'
carries his sword and pistols along.
Poor Florle. No entreaties of herr
win an explanation from Luigi, and NJ
suspicion of the dreadful truth is forced
upon her.
This night she sits up till long after
midnight, alone In the terrible storm
awaiting his return. Wearied, she al
length throws herself upon the couch
in the library, and drawing the baby''
crib alongside, falls into a troubled
sleep. A restless movement from the
child awakens her. He lies with wide
staring eyes, gasping and painting for
breath, while at intervals a hoarse,
choking cry escapes him.
Luigi has not yet returned, and wild
with terror at the symptoms ofthe babe,
she knows not what to do, and does
nothing but hold the suffering little one
to her breast until, an hour later, he
breathes his last; then, mad with grief
and sense of wrong done to herself
and her child, envelOping herself in a
mantle, the young wife rushes out into
the storm to seek her husband.
Mechanically she bends her footsteps
toward the old oak tree. She has almost
reached it, when there is binding
flash, terrific report, which shakes the
earth to its very centre, and when Flor
ence RECEIVERS from the shock, she looks
in bewilderment around, for where the
great oak stood there is nothing but a
heap of seeming rubbish. With that
last crash the storm ends, and day breaks
with streakings of many colored lights.
Still Florence hurries on. Arrived at
the oak tree, what sight meets her eye.
The gray rock, storm riven, had scat
tered its fragments about, while the
tree uprOoted, has cast its length upon
the ground, and under Its heavy weight
lies the body of man.
Florence Albini has found her hus-
band at last.
Powerless, she sinks upon her knees,
while she shrieks and prays for aid. AS
If in answer to her prayer, four men
appear, seemingly springing from the
earth, and, cutting and lifting the tree
away, they raise the body of Luigi AL
bini and turn aside. Scarce needing
what she does, Florence follows in their
footsteps.
The rift in the rock discloses flight
of roughly hewn stone steps, and down
these the sad procession wends its way,
through a short passage, to a great
underground cave.
The body is scarcely deposited upon a
table in the midst of this apartment,
when a young girl, with passionate
cries filings herself upon 1t. This breaks
the spell which had silenced Florence,
and pointing to the girl, she demands:
"WhO is sheg"
The men answer quietly: He was
our chief. She is his wife"
Florie looks about the cavern, hung
about with weapons of almost every
description, and filled with merchandise
of every kind; upon the band of silent
men, each in his hunting suit of green;
upon the beautiful Italian girl, whose
streaming hair covers the face of the
dead. Then, for the.frst time, the awful
truth bursts upon her. Luigi Albini
was the chief of this robber band.
If this fair young girl was his wife,
then what is shep With fearful dis
tinctness comes back the echo of her
fathers last words to her.
"When through him you have
brought disgrace upon the family name,
then to your misery and your shame add
the full measure of fathers curse"
With cry she catches up poniard
which lies on a table near, and raises it
to end her miserable life; but God sees,
and pitying, sends His messenger,
death, who stays the suicidal hand,
while with his own He stills the throb-
bings of that stricken heart.