The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-09-23


of her hand, and Jem cried out again:
al say, missus, can cross the bridge ?'
In another moment he was up beside the coach
man, saying:
FCo on, George; can't hear what she says, but
she mods and beckons to say it's all right" And
we drove on.
| can't tell you how it happened exactly, my
dear boy; but just got to the middle of the
bridge there was a horrible crash and crackle,
and we all struggling for dear life in that
hill-tOrrent. | managed to get one of the doors
open, and dragged Lucy, drenched and insensible,
on to the wreck of the carriage and between us
we got her to shore. Both the horses were killed,
partly by drowning in their traces, partly by
kicking each other to death in their agony,
fancy; but George, Jem and managed to rig up
sort of litter, and made the best of our way back
with Lucy on it, to Morbeck Hail. We got her
in, and the wOmenkind put her to bed, and the
doctor brought; but it was too late Apart
from the shock and the cold, she had some injury
to the spine, believe, and she died just at mid
night without ever moment of consciousness
/ leave you to imagine what / suffered that
next day, which was to have been my darling's
wedding mOTning-and now they streaking
her for her grave / could do nothing but sit
dazed in the library thinking of what might have
been and what was but my reverie was inter-
/ rupted by old Mrs Partridge, the hOusekeeper,
who came in for some instructions. After had
said all that l thought necessary, noticed that
she fingered as if 10th to go, but thought little
/ of il, till she half muttered as she reluctantly
/ turned the handle of the door
"Ah, poor lamb knew how it would be when
l heard her speak of the Broad Terrace ~
]
mean, Mrs Partridge ?n / said. ''What is there
against the Broad Terrace"
! She turned and looked at me with gaze half
/ skeptical, half-apolOgetic, as she said
"Do you mean to tell me, strand you half a
I Gedge, body may say-that you never heard
of the Cold Hand of MOrbeck? Did you never
hear of Mistress Alicia, then, her whose portrait
hangs over the mantel-piece in the oak drawing
/ room ~
There rose before my minds eye picture at
which | had often gazed with a strange, unde-
pf nlq in nr.ffx
/ The face that Of "A proud and lovely woman
! but il bore the expression of one who had passed
/ through some terrible agony, which had hardened
instead OF sOitenlng her nature. i answered that
knew II well, but not of any story specially con-
nected with it.
"And what has that to do with-what did you
call it?-the Cold Hand OF Morbeck >" said /, as
+ there came over me, with rush of unexplained
/ apprehension, that strange assertion Of poor
Lucys just after we had started on our ill-omened
drive.
"Well, sir, it's longish story, but I'll tell it
! you as had il from those who had the right
To know; though the family didn't much To
have il talked abOut-but they're all dead and
gone now, all dead and gone! And you were
nearest to my young lady, for don't count that
/ Mrs Postlethwayte with her naughty prying ways
As II didn't know how the house ought to be
managed-I who had lived here girl and woman
for better than forty years
at was in the old troubles, sir, before the 10
and then, yesterday, there naught but an
heress to Morbeck, Mistress Alicia She a
great beauty, they tell me, and her fathers idol
and half the young gentlemen in the country
were ready to cross swords for her smile. Amongst
all her suitOrs the only two whom she ever seemed
/ To favor were her cousin, Mr.. Arthur Gedge
and a Captain Van Loom, an officer in the Kings
Guards, who had seen her first at the county
ball. and danced with her half the evening; they
were both handsome young fellows, and folks
said they had fought about her the next morning,
but nothing serious had come of IT, and nobody
could say which she favored; or if she had fancy
il thought tO be for her cousin.
''Nou know, sir, there We're great many Of the
hftpfs
the old StuartS get their own again, but the
Gedges had always kept to themselves, and had
never been suspected Of plotting or the like You
know all about the retreat from Derby, sir ? IL
was just after that when Mr.. Arthur came sud
denly to Morbeck Just for a visit, every one
thought, and to court Mistress Alicia, and for
whole week everything seemed to go swimmingly
| between them.
"But one evening there came news to the Hall
that there was a messenger in the village, come
down from the court, with a silver greyhound on
his sleeve; and then Mr. Arthur took Mistress
| Alicia into side room, and he fell his knees
before her. and prayed her, for their loves sake,
that she would help him, for he had been mixed up,
it seems, in plot for Prince Charles, and il was
death if he taken. So she agreed with him
that he should hide till night in a secret i'm
the west wing-that by the Broad Terrace, sir
and then she would come and guide him out by
the postern that he might escape.
''Ihe night came, and she came too, without
light for she said that would be dangerous, and
guided him through the passages, until she opened
the little door; and he grasped her hand and
kissed it, it was cold as death And as he stepped
out on the steps, there was CLEAN of steel out
side, and Mr.. Arthur in the clutches of a
troop Of the Guard with Captain Van Loom at
their head. He was executed sir like many
another brave lad at that time and before year
was over Mistress Alicia was married TO Captain
Van Loom, who got his COlonecy for his services.
'They say it wretched life they led he
turned out "A drunken, gambling brute, and broke
her heart; but none ever knew whether it was
true what folk whispered i'm the countryside,
that she sold her cousin to her lover. Anyway
died miserable childless wOman-rest her
soul But, sir, they say that since that day
any Gedge who passes the posten by night will
feel an ce-cold hand leading them down the steps
as If to destruction, and that there is always harm
comes of it, If Miss Lucy should have felt the
Cold Hand of Morbeck, for the country folk call
it, sir, saving your presence ~