The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-10-26
81 have a modest fortune in my own


right" interposed Antoine.
"a modest fortunep' she exclaimed,
almost scornfully. "How happy you,
the petted child of opulencs, would be
with slender income.n
II would be with you. Bat tell me,
Sephronia, ia your decision irrevocable p
She hesitated. Then she passioDately
drew him to her heart.
"Nol mol" she cried "Only give
me a weeks time. I have a strange
foreboding that startling events are
going to happen"
One startling event has already
happened" said NJ. De Couras. 1.-THE
plague has broken out in Marseilles."
The plaguef' she echoed, with dis
tended eyes.
Yes; everybody is alarmed"
And well they may be-" she said,
solemnly. Few cures can be effected
where the plague appears in its most
malignant FORM"
Many people have died this after
noon, Sephronia."
"Then God have mercy upon Mar
settles. You must forthwith leave the
city, Antoinel"
He laughed.
Why9 am not afrsid," he said.
q Do not laugh, Antoine. ] was born
and brought up in Aleppo. and my
whole family would have been swept
away by the plague if my father, who
was a very learned man, had not pos
sessed an infallible remedy for the
epidemic"
" Have you got that remedyT' An
tome asked, eagerly.
| have" she replied.
Why, then, do not you give ii to the
authorities, SephroniaP'
And be broken on the wheel as a
!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "No!
mol And what good would it do2 They
would never apply it,"
must 60, then, Sephronia," he
said. 'I shall be back in week and
get your final answer"
"Stay a minute; shall give you some
of my fathers plague arcanum."
She went into an adjoining room and
returned soon afterward with a large
crystal bottle, a jar, and two small empty
walls.
One of these walls she filled with the
yellow fluid which she poured from the
crystal bottle. The other vial she filled
with an oily substance, a soft salve,
which she took with an ivory spoon from
the jar.
IF you should get The plague" she
said, Grub your body with this salve,
and drink few drops of the fluid. You
will speedily get we'll"
They parted most tenderly, and An
tome left the house.
He had passed ON but a few steps
when he was attacked by two desperate
fellows, who knocked him senseless.
Is it not curious that, when all good
people shut themselves up in their
honses in order to escape the pestilence,
desperate criminals prowl about fear
lessly, bent on murder and robbery?
They rifed the pockets of the mani
mate young man. They found in them
a well-filled purse and two walls. The
latter they flung away CONTEMPORARY.
Then they hurried away.
M. De Couras awoke ten minutes later.
The night was very dark, but he CROPPED
his way to thoroughfare, and speedily
reached his fathers palatial mansion.
There terrible news awaited him-his
father, his mother and his two lovely
sisters had been attacked by the plague.
All their cowardly servants had fed
from the house.
Antoine bethought himself of the two
walls Sephronia had given him. He
was bitterly disappointed when be found
that they were gone.
Suddenly he felt that his own head
began to reel, and he sunk senseless to
the floor.
He, too, had the plague,
Twentyfour hours later he reawoke
to consciousness. At his bedside sat
sephronia.
I" / heard that you and your whole
family were down with the plague; so
| came to your house. Your parents
and your sisters were dying, You will
live?b
he did recover, and week later was
able to be about. He persuaded Seph-
roma to let him have QUANTITY of the
panacea.
She remained at the house, while he
went into the streets, and he effected
numerous cures.
Marseilles was in truly horrible con-
dition. Of the one hundred and twenty
thousand inhabitants, sixty thousand
succumbed in three weeks to the pitiless
scourge.
Everybody was in despair. The ply
sicians did not know anything about the
plague. A stupid rumor had been cir
culated that the wells were poisoned.
So people refused to drink water. The
good Bishop of the diocese, Monseigneur
De Belzunoc, made superhuman efforts
to relieve the suffering, but all 10 no
purpose
There were no hearses, no cofins.
Vast numbers of corpses were piled up
in the streets. In front of one of these
CHASTITY piles Antoine De Couras one day
met the Bishop. The noble prelate's
courage was evidently giving way.
Antoine saw at once that the epidemic
had singled him out as fresh victim.
The young man poured few drops of
the elixir down the Bishops throat.
:" 1t revives me-" said Monseigneur De
Benzunoc, heaving deep sigh.
=" Let me rub your hands and your
face with this ointment, Monseigneur
1t will save your precious life."
" A thousand thanks, young mani
How can | reward your"
" Will you stay here a minute Mon
seigneur? will be back presently"
In a few minutes Antoine returned
with the blushing Sephronia.
Marry us, Monseigneur? Let that
be my reward"
And they were married in front of all
those dreadful corpsesl