The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-04-03


in the streets, and one reading the news
paper. There were three or four other
journals on the table, aud Ashton took
up one of them. AS usual, he turned to
the record of three great things in life,
and read, first the marriages-then the
deaths and, as he did so, he saw-''Sud-
denly, at his house in Portland Place,
William Anthony Herbert, Esquire"
The paper did not drop from his hand,
although he was much moved and sur
prised; but his sensations were very
Mixed and although, be it said truly, he
gave his first thoughts, and they were
sorrowful, to the dead, the second were
given to Alice Herbert, and he asked
himself, els it possible that she can
ever be minep She was certainly much
agitated when left her ~
Here's bad business |" cried the
man who was reading the other news
paper. The Herberts are all gone to
smash, and / had six hundred pounds
there You are in for it too, Ashton.
Look there They talk of three shil-
lings in the pound"
Henry Ashton took the paper and
read the account of all that occurred in
London, and then he took his hat, and
walked to head quarters. What he said
or did there is nobody's business but his
own; but certain it is, that by the be-
ginning of the very next week, he was
in the gulf of st. Lawrence. Fair winds
waited him soon to England, but in st.
Georges Channel all went contrary and
the ship was knocked about for three
days without making much way. A fit
of impatience had come upon Henry
Ashton, and when he thought of Alice
Herbert, and all she must have suffered,
his heart beat strangely. One of those
little incidents occurred about this time
| that make or mar mems destinies. A
coasting boat from Swansea to Wiston
came within hail, and Ashton, tired of
the other vessel, put a portmanteau, q
servant, and himself, into the little
| skinner of the seas, and was in few
| hours landed safely ut the pleasant
watering-place of Wiston super mare.
1t wanted yet an hour or two of night,
and therefore a post-chaise was soon
rolling the young officer, his servant,
and his pertmanteau towards Bristol, on
their way to London. He arrived at n
reasonable hour, but yet, some one of
the many things that fills inns, had hap
pened in Bristol that day, and Henry
drove to the Bush, to the Falcon, and
the Fountain, and seveaal Others, before
he could get place of rest. At length,
he found two comfortable rooms in %
small hotel near the port, and sat down
to his supper by warm fire, when an
Irish sailor put his head into the room
and asked if he were the lady that was
to go down to the St. Lawrence the
next day? Henry informed him that
he was not lady, and that, as he had
Just come from the st. Lawrence, he was
not going back again, upon which the
man withdrew toseek further.
Ten, eleven, twelve O'Clock struck, and
Henry Ashton pulled off his boots, and
went to bed AT two O'Clock he awoke,
feeling heated and feverish and to
cool himself, he began to think of Alice
Herbert. He found it by no means a
good plan, for he felt warmer than be-
fore, and soon suffocating feel came
j over him, and he thought he smelt a
strong smell of burning wood. His bed
room was one of those unfortunate inn
bedrooms that are placed under the i'm
mediate care and protection of a sitting
room, which, like a Spanish Duenna,
will let nobody in who does not pass by
their door. He put on his dressing
gown, therefore, and issued out into the
sitting room, and there the smeN was
much stronger; there was considerable
cracking and roaring, which had some
thing alarming in it, and ne consequent
ly opened the outer door. All he could
now see, was Il thick smoke filling the
corridor; through which came a red
glare from the direction of the staircase,
but he heard those sounds of burning
wood, which are not to be mistaken and
in IL minute after, loud knocking at
doors, ringing of bells, and shouts of
Fire! firel" showed that the calamity
had become apparent to the people in
the street. He saw all the rushing forth
of naked men and women, which gener-
ally follows such catastrophe, and the
opening all the doss of the house, as il
for the express purpose of blowing fire
into flame. There were hallooings and
shoutings, there were SCREENINGS and