New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1881-06-08

life. That my chila Is dead ana tho
Spanish woman's son has Larchton
Mere will never benefit you. You will
not be here to see it; you will pay the
penalty for your crime
"Leam," cried Ross, In agony, "you
did not do i'll am surc you did mott"
"You are the chief witness against
her," said Lady Gunner. "You sent
the child to her;;" and Ross trembled
as he recalled what he had said. .You
will have to give evidence against her.
I appeal to all present you not say
that when you placed the little one on
the bank you told him to run to auntie
Leamp You cannot deny 1t; you said
SO, masked"
HE need not deny it, said Lean;
.there is no occasion to say more. Lady
Viola, you have been very noble and
true; do not fear for Ross; he is safe.
|. and | only, am to blame for the death
of the child. / have no more to say"
! Despite her avowals of guilt and the
plausible motive ascribed to her, there
were many who, touched by her youth
and loneliness, would have defended
her, believing her to be innocent; but
Lady Cumnor would allow of no inter-
! ference.
"Speak once more," she said. II
ask you, before give you in charge.
are you guilty or not?"
II, and alone, am guilty." replied
the girl: D.
ment of you,' cried Lady Cumnor, upon
hearing those words. '*Alas, VIII ~ did
I ever trust my beloved child to
strangers hands? Oh. wretched day
that this daughter of a treacherous race
made my house her home! I know now
how | loved my little Hugh, and
would not have lost him for hundred
Larchton Meres. Oh, my murdered
darling, wanting you, what is all the
world to me?'
She wrung her hands, she cried aloud
in her anguish, and Sir Austen, who
was still overwhelmed with grief, inn
| plored her to be calm. She refused to
be- comforted, and she would not allow
the body of her dead child to be re-
moved until she herself had given Lean
Dynevor in charge.
Ross would not leave Lean. Once he
drew near to her, and said:
''Trust me, Lean, trust me-" And
she looked at him with pity in her beau
tiful eyes.
II do trust you implicitly" she re-
piled.
"But, Learn he said, "you did not
do it. You could not have doneit You,
so gentle, so sweet, SO good; you could
not have done it. If all the world be-
lieved it, would not
"You know BEST" she answered; and
there was something of reproach in her
eyes that he could not understand.
| Sir Austen, in his distress and alarm,
asked his son to ride quickly to Mars
ton Abbey in search of his great friend,
Lord SnarestOne. who lived there.
Il shall not be long, Lean, my
darling said Ross; ''keep up your spir-
its. l will come back to you as quickly
as l cam
| Meanwhile Lady Cumnor knelt by
the dead body of her child. The crowd
broke up into groups. At last-and
those who watched her had expected it
for some time-Lady Cumnor fell, al
most without life, and was carried
senseless into the house, where so short
a time before all had been festivity and
mirth. Then the servants bore the lit
tie body away.
Ross rode hard, in accordance with
his fathers wish. His very heart
seemed on fire. He was quite sure that
Lean was innocent; it could not be,
as his step-mother said, that she had
committed the crime for his sake. He
was almost mad with anger, pity and
pain. 1t had stung him sharply for q
few minutes, the fact that his father
had made another will and had given
away Larchton Mere; but he would have
got over his disappointment, he would
have lived it down. Larchton Mere and
all his fathers money besides were less
than nothing compared with the life of
his half-brother.
He rode as he had never ridden be-
fore. Lean in danger--his bright,
dear, beautiful love! In his abstrac-
ton he forgot how dangerously low the
trees met overhead at one part of the
high-road. Suddenly, without a mo-
ment's warning, a bough struck his
head with such terrible force that it
was wonder he was not killed on the
spot. AS it was, he fell from his horse;
and the animal, terrified, rushed on
wildly, dragging him until stopped by
passer-by.
Three hours after he had left home,
Ross was carried back, a wreck of the
hale, vigorous man who had left it full
of life and energy. The occurrence
added to the horror of the day. The
doctors, who were summoned in hot
haste, looked doubtfully at him. They
thought he could hardly survive such
injuries. One arm was broken, one of
his wrists terribly injured, and severe
wound on the head rendered him
quite insensible. The doctors knew
all that had happened on that day; and
they said that he would most probably
have brain fever. And they were right.
When he would have most wished to
be up and doing, when the very life of
the girl he loved was at stake, he was
lying at death door.
The gloom did not pass away from
the house even when little Hugh,
whose loss every enc deplored, was
buried; for, on that very day, when the
bell was tolling for one son, the doc
tors told Sir Austen that all hope was
at an end for the other. But in this
they were mistaken; Ross time had
not yet arrived.
CHAPTER K.
The trial of Lean Dynevor for MUIR
der was the sensation of the day, and
people came from all parts of England
to be present, for the story was a most
romantic one, and it had gone the
round of the newspapers. The result
was as many had foreseen. The jury
came to the conclusion that the pris-
oner was of unsound mind; and she
| was ordered IN ha co,, f,,o6 d,,,;nn. hon
Majesty's pleasure.
The verdict gave general satisfaction.
1t appeared terrible that, even if
guilty, she should be punished with
death. Lady Cumnor, however, was
not well pleased. 10 her it seemed
that the one who had taken her child s
life ought to atone for it with her own.
Lean Dynevor was to remain in the
prison at Larchton for few weeks,
and then be removed to a criminal
| 1unatic asv1,,uo