The Red Cloud chief., 1877-06-28

An veaged slas flung himself 1t HI
feet
Mercy. my lord.mercyr he exclaimed
piteously. 4 have served you faithful
~ for years-my beard ID grey with
time and my Life has been one Of hard
ship. Have mercy upon me. for be few
upon me and would have torn mi, had
I not defended myself against his fury,
I might have destroyed him. but ]
sought only to preserve myself. Have
mercy upon my weakness!
The angry chieftain. however, Needed
not the anguish Of his gray hairs, and
pointing to q low balcony. which ex.
tended across the window Of the apart
ment and hung over the precipice. he
commanded that the wretched old psn
should be flung from thence into the
river which flowed beneath as an ex.
ample to those caitiffs who valued their
own worthless lives above those Of his
noble hounds.
As the miserable tools Of an imperi.
Gus will were dragging the unhappy
victim to his fate, he raised his voice
and cursed the tyrant whom they
served; and having done 50. he sum
moned him to appear before the tribu.
nal which none "a escape, to answer
for this his last crime on its first ami.
versary. But the powerful chief needed
not his words.
Away with him. he said, sternly, as
he lifted his goblet to his lips-and
there was a struggle-a shrek Of agony
and then a splash upon the river
wave, and all was silent!
A year went by in festival and pride
and the day on which that monster
crime had been committed returned un-
needed. There was a feast in the castle
and StibOr, who month after month
gave himself up yet more to self-indul-
gence, gradually became heavy with
wine, and his attendants carried him to
acOuch beside the same window whence
the unfortunate slave had been hurled
twelve months before. The guests drank
on for a time and made merry at the
insensibility and ~helplessness Of their
powerful host; and then they departed,
each to his business or his pleasure, and
left him there alone.
The easement had been flung back to
admit the air freely into the heated
apartment; and the last reveler had
scarcely departed, when a raven-the
sombre messenger of Nemesis-few
thrice round the battlements of the
castle, and then alighted on the balcony.
Several of the guests amused their idle
ness by watching the evolutions of the
ill-Omened bird; but once having lost
sight of it, they turned away and
thought of it no more.
Meanwhile. a work of agony and
death had been delegated to that dark
winged messenger. It rested bat an
instant from its flight ere N more it
lowered over the couch of the sleeping
Stibor; and then, darling down, its sharp
beak penetrated at one thrust from his
eye into his brain!
The agony awOke him. but he awOke
only to madness from its extent. He
reeled to and fro. venting imprecatiOns
to which none were by to listen, and
writhed until his tortured body was one
CONFUSION. At length, by a mighty eff
fort, striving to accomplish he knew
not what. he hurled himself over the
balcony, at the self-same spot where the
slave had been flung by his own COM
mand; and as he fell the waters of the
Waag for a time resisted the impure
burthen, and threw him back, shrek
ing and bowling, from their depths.
But he sank at last, and when his
parasites sought him on the morrow
they found only the couch on which he
had lain and a few drops of blood to
hint that he had died a death of violence
and vengeance.
They searched for him carefully on
all sides, and then, when they were
quite assured that he had passed away
never to return, whispers grew of the
gray headed slave and the mysterious
raven, until. by degrees, the fate Of the
famous Stibor was fashioned into form
and grew into a legend throughout the
country, soaring the village maiden in
her twilight walk and the lone shep.
herd in his watch upon the hills.