The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-05-02

in something more startling still-the
sound of gToans proce6 ding from they
knew not whence, CllOwcd by clSnking
of metal and heavy fall.
Immediately a servant rushed IN,
seized Father PedTo's robe and drew him
TO the outside OF the house. There, de-
tached from the window, lay one Of the
Men in Armor,' leaving q CHASTITY open
ing in the wall of the house. A few,
bolder than the rest, drew ne9r and dis
covered the horrible truth. Within tho
Man in Armor,' WAS the body OF Viii
liam, stifled in his own ingenious contriv-
auce. Poetic justice could not have de-
manded a more fitting termination to
such a career. The tastenings OF the
mouth piece of the c7sque, made to fly
open at q touch, had grown rusty with
the dampness, and had resisted all efforts
to open it.
The confessions of a Spaniard shortly
after apprehended for some crime or
other, supplied the deficiencies in this
story. William had designed this hiding
place to afford him a refuge in that day
when Tetribution should find him. 1t
was q suit OF armOT. painted to match
the stone effigies which ornamented the
house, and ingeniously fitted to small
closet in the wall of the house. He had
used it successfully on the night of his
escape, remaining quietly in 1t while his
guards were in the house, and letting
himselfout when they were all gone. 1t
was true that he had escaped in a boat TO
one of the lesser islands, where be was
not known, returning sometimes in the
night, and always determined TO be re-
veuged on his brother and Father Pedro.
i L.
knowledge, he determined TO use his
internal hiding place on that occasion, to
issue from il at nightfall, to bury his
murderous knife in the heart OF his
unofending brother and to escape the
invention, and this same agent of his who
revealed the story had charge of them.
While the people were gone to church
he crept to the house and shut himself
in his hiding place. His horrible death
from sufIocation kad caused such
convulsive struggles that the Man in
Armor' was torn from its fastenings and
fell with its still palpitating inmate to
the ground. 1t never was returned, and
a stone was plainly fitted in the place
of it.
"Aununciata, her husband and brother
departed for England. The house has
never been inhabited since"
My friend paused and looked ont
upon the land we were just approaching
in the gray dawn.
al am the inheritOr of this estate
through my relationship to Annunciata's
husband. T ey died childless. Phillip
died young and unmarried. All this
| happened fifty years sgo, but | feel as il
| it were yesterday when | see the place. "
After landing We stepped into a car
riage and drove over one of the finest
hard roads ] had seen for many years,
through the unsurpassed luxuriance of
the tropical verdure. After an hour we
approached the Man in Armor." A
noble gateway commanded my attention.
NV friend drove in. Grounds which
might have adorned the place of grand
! duke opened to my view. Artificial
rivers wound through the garden, Trees
and flowers, planted with much taste,
/ aisrned the lawn. Before me rose a
noble facade. The Man in ATmoT" was
gilded by the morning sun. Under each
window [ observed the characteristic
efigy save one O1e of the Men in
Armor," marshalled by some dntimely
resurrection, had left his brothers in-arms
awaiting their turn.
AS we took our coffee IN the once
grand saloon, and were waited upon By
a dusky old woman who might have
been Santa herself. l felt powerfully
the melancholy influence of the place,
aud did not wonder that my friend had
grown pale under the weight of such an
inheritance