The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-08-08

One of those whom the probation of a
few years so changes that their most
familiar friends would pass them by for
a stranger, yet %perchance turn a back
ward look a. the image of some faint
personal resemblance to one whom they
we'll remembered in bygone years
flashed across their memory. His once
towering and upright form had yielded
to a slight stoop, as of premature age;
his rich raven locks were white as the
snow that lies more than half the year
round on Alpine highlands which be-
girdle the valleys of the Roya; more
over, their rare luxuriance had been
long since subjected to the shears and
the tonsure in conformity with the aus
tere self-abnegating VOWS to which
their once proud possessor had volun.
tarily submitted.
perhaps the most faithful and fore
ible comparison which could be sug-
gested between the grave and marble
pale, smooth faced Brother Sebastian
of the present with the gay, proud, hir-
suite Count Robert of the past, would be
that of o plaster cast or post-mortem
picture contrasted with the living pro-
totype in the heyday of youth and ex-
uberant vitality.
But the inexorable finger Of time
speeds fast round the arrival of Dom
Sebastian, gradually sank beneath the
weight of his infirmities, aud his office
became vacant. With one voice the
grateful and apprecative fraternity ell
ected their exemplary and generous
benefactor for their spiritual head; q
dignity which he exercisedto the gener-
al satisfaction and editication during the
brief continuance of his austere but
kindly and paternal sway. Not till
years after his decease, add the subse-
quent dispersion of the community by
the stormy breath of the great French
Revolution, was the secret of his life be-
trayed to the world, by the chance dis
covery, to which l have already referred,
Of certain documents, forgotten or mis-
laid amid the hurry and confusion of the
general Encouragement and Sauve.qui-
peut.
1.-The secret vas now divulged, and
the key to the enigma at last found.
The beloved and revered Lord Abbot
of st. Dalmas di Tenda was no other
than the heartbroken and p%rematurely
aged Count Robert of Nice; who, in the
flower of early manhood, had borne in
his arms, from the altar stair of st.
Reparata's Cathedral church, the life
less form-lovely even in death-of his
bride-Maria de ST. Taller?
NAY, none had ever for q moment
conjectured that the sweet name, which
ever and anon fell from his bloodless
lips, was not always that of her whose
presence and guardianship were daily
invoked by the chime of the Angelus
bell-but sometimes also, though the
frailty of human nature, Of the Marie
who was to him q wife of an instant and
the bride of eternity. Nor was it ever
surmised among the guileless and I'M
suspecting community that when the
Lord Abbot spent hours of moonlight
meditation in his island sanctuary, fix
ing a wrapt and wistful gaze in statues
que immobility on yonder silver bab-
bling font, which rises so spiritlike
amidst the impenetrable foliage betting
it in on all sides, like the sacred grove
Of q Greek ~temple-that this austere and
holy man saw and heard, with inner
eye and ear, only the shape and voice of
her whose faithful and loving worship
per he was eve unto death. Few or
none had, ever at such an hour, caught
the passionate accents which broke from
the heaving bosom of the lonely abbot;
and which, echo alone, whispering the
name of Marie discretely buried in
her secret and silent a e."-Belgravia.