The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-04-28

through the windows: but hitherto those
VINO mad told the tale had none of them
had the courage to look further into the
matter The old church was now COM
pletely deserted; religious services had,
it is true, begun again to be nublicly
performed IN the land, but in Verreville
they were at this period carried on in a
pretty new chapel which had been
nearly built before the troublous DAYS
began, and lately finished Thus the
OLD church had become a place well
fitted for ghosts to frequent.
we must mention here that the Count
de F!orlon had escaped, in some way
that had never been explained, from his
prison at Toulon, the very day after his
wlfe's funeral, and had made his home,
1t is said, since then, in England AS
for Fifine and Maurice, they had mar
rled soon after their mistress death.
and were now living on little farm
which they had taken near the town.
and which they cultivated with care and
success.
But to return to the mystel Gus light
in the old church. One night Babette
and Pierre, who were still plighted low
ers, though the extreme contempt of
the maiden for her adorer had hitherto
prevented the final knot being tied.
were coming from friends house
where they had spent the evening.
When they reached the old church,
both of them perceived that there was,
most certainly, light shining through
its windows. Pierre's immediate i'm
pulse was sudden flight, but Babette,
still true to her colors as philosophic
,free=thinker, declared. her Intention of
clearing up once for all the mystery.
She made the trembling Pierre wait
close by and then boldly advanced her
self toward one of the church windows
and looked in. ..... ..
AS Babette gazed at the sight which
met her view, it was SO strange and ut
terly unaccountable that she rubbed her
eyes, thinking she must be under some
optical illusion, but when she looked
again it was all still there. What she
saw was, shortly, this-and it was little
wonder that she was bewildered with
widest. establishment; she beheld the
Countess grave open, and at the side OF
it stood Fitine, the farmers wife, with
a great glittering mass of something
which looked like heap of gold and
silver lying at her feet. Babette's ra-
tionalistic principles forsook her most
treacherously and melted away like
morning mist; the notion suddenly
flashed across her that Fifne was
witch and she sank insensible to the
ground. Pierre's love was stronger
than Pierre's fear; having heard Ba-
bette cry out as she tainted, he came to
her help, though she was lying in the
very CLEANS of the mysterious light.
When she came to herself in the house
whittier he had borne her, Babette was
so far touched by his devotion that she
promised to become his wife next morn
ing and kept her word. On the very
morning after Babette's vision Fifne
and Maurice disappeared from their
farm in sudden and mysterious man
ner. ...
Not until many years after, when
political changes in France allowed of
the return of the Florion family to their
native land, was the whole strange story
with regard to them and their servants,
Fifine and Maurice, cleared up. 1t was
then publicly known that the young
Countess was not dead, and that the
money and plate and jewels of the fam
lily had been buried instead of her body
in the old church at Verreville. The
fact of the Countess being regarded as
dead had, moreover, enabled her to
carry out with greater safety a scheme
for her husbands escape. When things
had grown little quieter in France,
Maurice and Fifine disinterred the buried
treasure and conveyed it to his master
and mistress in England. The whole
had been invented and carried out by
the courage, wit and devotion of Fitine.
Whitehall ReUieW.