Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-04-17
CHAPTER XIII.
A TERRIBLE Confession.

TERRIBLE CONFESSION.
Ceneri, having made this astounding
announcement. threw his wasted arms
across the rough table and laid his head
upon them with a gesture of despair.
| sat like one stupefied, repeating me-
chanically: ..Pauline's brother-Antho-
ny March, Every vestige of the black
lie was swept away from my mind; but
the crime in which Ceneri had been
concerned assumed more fearful pro-
portions. 1t was more dreadful than 1
had suspected. The victim near blood
relation-his own sisters child! Moth
ing, l felt, could be urged to excuse or
palliate the crime. Even had he not
ordered and planned it, he had been
present; had assisted in hiding all
traces of it; had been, until recently,
on terms of friendship with the man
who had struck the blow. l could
scarcely control the loathing and con-
tempt felt for the abject wretch before
me. My burning indignation would
scarcely allow me to ask him, la intel
lgible speech, the object of the cruel
deed. But for once and all must have
everything made clear to me.
was spared the necessity of asking
the question l was trying to force to my
lips. The convict raised his head and
looked at me with miserable eyes.
You shrink from me. No wonder.
Yet | am not so guilty as you think"
Tell me all, first; the excuses may
come afterward, if anything can be
urged in excuse of the crima.H
spoke as l felt-sternly and con-
temptuously.
None can be urged for the murder
er. For me, God knows l would will
ingly have let that bright boy live Ue
forsook and forgot his country, but that
l forgave."
His country! his fathers country
was Englandr'
His mothers was italy," replied
Ceneri, almost fiercely. He had our
blood in his veins, His mother was q
true Italian. She would have given
fortune, life-aye, even honor, fox
Italy, ~ -
No matter. Tell me the whole ter
rible story
man, l do not use his own words in re.
telling it. Without his accent and stress
they would sound cold and unemotion-
al. Criminal he had been, but not so
utterly black as my fancy had painted
him. His great fault was that in the
cause of liberty any weapons were al.
lowable, any crimes We're pardonable.
We Englishmen, whose idea of tyranny
and oppression is being debarred from
the exercise of the franchise, can neither
understand nor sympathize with man
of his type. We may call the Govern,
ment righteous or corrupt as we are
Wings or Tories, and one side happens
to be in or out; but, at least, we are
ruled by our countrymen, elected by
some of us for that purpose. Let us be
for years and years at the mercy of a
foreigner, and we may understand what
patriotism in Ceneri's sense means.
He and his sister were respectable
middle-class people - not noble as
Macari asserted. He had been given
a liberal education, and adopted the pro-
fession If a doctor. His sister, from whom
Pauline inherited her great, beauty
lived the life of an ordinary Italian
girl-a duller life, perhaps. than many
of them led, as, following her brothers
example, she refused to share the gay
cites whilst the white-coated foe ruled
the land. No doubt she would have
been faithful to her mourning for her
country had not love came upon the
scene. An Englishman named March
saw the fair italian girl, won her heart,
and carried her away in triumph to his
native land. Ceneri never quite for
gave his sister for her desertion and
detection; but the prospects opened
before her by the marriage were so
great that he made but little opposition
to it. March was a very rich man.
He was the only son of an only son,
which fact accounts for Pauline having,
so for as Ceperi knew, no near relatives
on her fathers side. For several years
the young husband and his beautiful
dark-eyed wife lived with great hap
piness. Two children, son and a
daughter, were born to them. When
the son was twelve and the daughter
ten years old the father died. The
widow, who had made few close friends
in England, and only loved the country
for her husbands sake, flew back to
her native land. She was cordially
welcomed back by her old friends. She
was considered fabulously wealthy. Her
husband. ) in the first flush of his passion,
had made a will bequeathing every
thing he possessed to her absolutely.
Although children have since came, SO
perfectly did he trust her that no
change had been made as to the dis
position of his property. So, with such
a fortune at her command, Mrs. March
was honored and courted by all.
TO BE CONTINUED.