Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-17

| Li1AA4o LO4 AiIO W w ASoIc ohiy WIN oSAl.
He would have departed without another
word, but was not permitted. The chief
men in the isle had formed themselves
into tribunal, and they demanded that
he should appear before them. For mo-
ment he debated whether he should obey
the order; assuredly it depended upon
himself, for it was scarcely likely violence
would be offered him if he refused; but
he attended without resistance, and fold
I ing his arms, stood before the chiefs of the
Silver Isle, erect as of DID, with steady
eyes and naughty demeanor. They were
assembled on platform built in the center
of an open space Of ground, within which,
at stated times of the year, athletic games
were INDUCED in by the youth of the
isle. On those occasions the platform was
occupied by the judges of the games.
Around the platform were gathered at
least couple of hundred of the islanders,
men and women.
8" Have you constituted yourselves my
judges?" asked the brother; "and if so,
for what am to be judged?"
e We are your friends, said the oldest
man there "ag we have ever been, and we
desire to soften, not to harden. We know
your iron will, and how indomitable you
are in your resolves. But no man is infal-
lible and immaculate. Human judgment,
under the influence of passion, is but a
will-o -the-wisp, leading us too often astray
ia matters of great moment; and if, suf-
fering as you are sutfering-for it is plain
to all OF US that your soul has been
wrought-you have resolved to depart
without word of explanation regarding
the events which have thrown the isle into
mourning, l ask you, in the name of justice,
to pause and reflect. You and your brother
were ever Just You have lived among us,
honored and revered. We have submitted
ourselves to you in matters of life and
death, and your will was law. We look
now for justice at your hands. .
Chow shall l render it ?"
"By satisfying our reasonable demands
Evangeline was our daughter, and her
homer is ours. y
| "She is pure and stainless"
| "Who dare believe otherwise? Our be-
lief in her purity comes not from our
hearts; it is in our conscience fixed
| faith-as is our faith in God. But our
hearts are also bound to her by a feeling
more selfshly human than our belief in a
Hereafter and in the greatness of the SUI
preme. Look around you upon the women
who have followed you with eyes of love
and devotion as the embodiment of what
is noblest and best in our erring natures.
| There are some more than old enough to be
your mothers who often in their hearts
have thought how full their cup of happi-
ness would be if Heaven had given them
son like you. Your name was ever upon
our lips; you were held up as an ex-
ample. Shall you now, by an act which |
reason cannot justify, destroy the heroic |
standard You have created and set up in
! the isle? You will see how closely |
it touches us, whose aim it is to live honest !
lives. You will shake our faith in human
justice and manly honor if you depart in
silence from amongst us. Evangeline, an
orphan, was left to our care she was our |
daughter, our sister, our precious flower,
who grew to womanhood in our midst with !
heart as pure as the heart of lily She
drew us nearer to Heaven by her sweetness.
There is not a house, there beats not a
heart in the isle, that is not in mourning
for Evangeline. We seek knowledge of
her, and you alone can give it, If, as many
suspect, there is between you and her a
secret which may not be divulged, we do
not press you to divulge it. We stand
only within our rights.
Demand them"
"Where is Evangeline -
"She is dead
Prepared as they were for it, the answer
came upon them like new grief. Tears
streamed down their faces, and sobs burst |
from many bosom. Among them all the
brother alone stood outwardly unmoved.
"Where is your brother 2" they presently
asked
"He is dead"
This news also shook them, and it was
many moments before they asked,
"Lived he on the morning he was to be
united to Evangeline?"
"He died, " was the reply, before we
met together in the church."
''And Evangeline knew it not-had no
forewarning of it?
"She knew it not. She had no fore
warning of it. Think of her as she was on
that fatal morning, radiant and beautiful,
animated by hfe's sweetest promise, and
ask yourselves whether it were possible
she could have seen the cloud that was
hanging over her"
By the manner of his answer he shifted
certain responsibility from his shoulders
to theirs. The question had been hastily
dshCo, anu was iiiiiiiSui1CSly iSPShscu oi'
They derived sad satisfaction from the
knowledge that Evangelines lover had not
been false to her. Their faith in him was
restored he had played no base. part.
7 1--WE sought Evangeline," said the
spokesman of the tribunal, "and could
not find her. We feared that she was
dead, and desired to give her Christian
burial.
SIT is impossible. She died for love,
and cast herself from the nights into an
Questionable abyss. Her body is lost
Only her spirit remains"
son the altar of the church we found
these tablets. They are yours. Knew you
what she wrote on them
81 did not know"
They gave them into his hands, and he
read Evangeline's last words to the island
ers, and, as he read, his forced calmness
| forsook him. In voice shaken by passion |
he said
"She accused herself falsely. 1t was
the only false action OF her life. No sin
L. - ba- door Ra euro Of 4bat T /