The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-02-02
THE AVENGER.
A THRILLING TALE.
BY THOMAS DE QUINCY.
Continued nom last week. D

his enormous property General rules
were laid down upon which the property
was to be distributed, but the details
were left to my discretion, and to the
guidance of circumstances as they
should happen to emerge from the yari-
Gus inquiries which it would become
necessary to set ON foot. This first dOcu
ment | soon laid aside, both because
found that It's provisions Were depend
ent for their meaning upon the second,
and because to this second document L
looked with confidence for So
luton of many mysteries-Of the pro-
found sadness which had, from the first
of my acquaintance with him, possessed
a man so gOrgeOusly endowed as the
favOrite of nature and fOrtune-Of his
motives for huddlingup, in clandeS-
tine manner, that connection which
formed the glory of his life-and posi-
bly, (but then | hesitated) of the late un-
intelligible murders, which still lay
under as profound a cloud as ever.
Much of this would be unyeiled-all
might be; and there and then, with the
corpse lying beside me of the gifted and
mysterious writer, | seated myself, and
read the following statement
MARCH 26, 1917.
"My trial is finished; my conscience,
my duty, my honor, are liberated; my
warfare is accomplished Margaret,
y
the last time. Her, the crown that
might have been Of my earthly felicity
her, the one temptation to put aside the
bitter cup which awaited me-her, sole
seductTess % innocent seductresSD from
the stern duties which my fate had inn
posed upon me-her, even her, have
sacrificed.
Before | go, partly lest the innocent
should be brought into question for acts
almost exclusively mine, but still more
lest the lesson and the warning which
God, by my hand, has written in blood
upon your guilty walls, should perish
for want of its authentic exposition, hear
my last dying avOwal that the murd-
erS that have desOlated so many families
within your walls, and made the house
hold hearth no sanctuary, age no charter
of protection, are all due originally to
my head, if not always to my hand, as
the minister of dreadful retributiOn.
THAT account of my history, and my
prospects, which you received from the
Russian diplOmatist, amongst some
errors of little Importance, is essentially
correct. My father was not so immedi-
ately connected with English blood as
is there represented. However, it is
true that he claimed descent from an
English family of even higher distinc-
tiOn than that which is assigned in the
Russian statement. He was proud of
this English descent, and the more sO
as the war with Revolutionary France
brought out more prominently than ever
the moral and civil grandeur of Eng
land. This pride was generous, but it
was imprudent in his situation; his i'm
mediate pTOgenitOrs had been settled in
Italy at Rome first but latterly at
Milan; anl his whole property, large
and scattered, came by the progress of
the Revolution, to stand upon French
domination. Many SpOliatiOns he suf-
fered; still he was too rich to be seriously
injured. But he fOresaw, in the pro-
gTess of events, still greater peTils
menacing his most capital resources.
Many of the states or princes in Italy
were in his debt; and in the great con
vUlsiOns which threatened his country,
he saw that both the cOntending parties
would find colorado excuse ab5Olying
themselves from engagements which
pressed unpleasantly upon their finances.
In this embarrassment he formed an
intimacy with French officer of high
rank and high principle. My fathers
friend saw his danger, and advised him
To enter the French service. In his
younger days, my father had served eX-
tensiyely under many princes, and had
found in every other military service a
spirit of honor governing the conduct
of officers; here only, and for the first
time he found ruilian manners and uni
sword in company with su h men, nor
in such a cause. But at length, under |
the pressure of necessity, he accepted, |
Tor rather bought with an immense |
bTibe) the place of cOmmissary to the |
French forces in Italy. With this one |
resource, eventually he succeeded in |
making good the whole of his public !
claims upon the Italian States. These |
vast sums he RENTED. through various
channels, to England, where he became
a proprietor in the funds to an immense
amount. IncautiOusly, however, some |
thing of this transpired, and the result
was dOubly unfortunate; for, whilst his |
intentions were thus made known as
finally pointing to England, which of |
itself made him an object Of hatred and |
suspicion, it also diminished his means |
of bribery. These considerations, along |
with another, made some French officers |
of high rank and influence the bitter |
enemies of my father. My mother,
whom he had married when holding a
bTigadierg generals commission In the
Austrian service, was, by birth and by |
religion, a JeWess. She was of exquisite
beauty, and had been sought in mOrga-
matte marriage by an archduke of the |
Austrian family; but she had relied upon |
this plea, that hers was the purest and |
nOblest blood amongst all Jewish fami- |
lies: that her family traced themselves, |
tiOns, under the hands of the Jewish
high-priests. to the Maccabees, and to
the royal houses of Judea; and that for
her it would be degradation to accept
even of sovereign prince on the terms
of such marriage. This was no vain
pretentiOn of OstentatiOus vanity. 1t
was one which had been admitted as
valid from time immemOrial in TransyI-
vania and adjacent countries, where my
mothers family were rich and hOnOred,
and took their seat amongst the digni-
taries of the land. The French officers
/ have alluded to, without capacity for
anything so dignified as a deep passion,
but merely in pursuit of vagrant fancy
that would. on the next day, have given
place to another equally fieeting, had
dared to insult my mother with pro-
pOsals the most icentiOus-prOpOsals as
much below her rank and birth, as, at
any rate, they would have been below
her dignity of mind and her purity.
These she had communicated to my
father, who bitterly resented the chains
of Characterization xUb bieh tind nm his