Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-08-28
AT ALL COST, SLEEP

Dead! Before I kneeled beside] him and,
after unbuttoning his coat, laid my hand on
his breast, 1 knew the man was dead. Be-
fore / turned the lantern on his white face I
knew who the man was. Sir Mervyn Fer
rand had paid for his sin with his life! 1t
needed little professional skill to determine
the cause of his death. A bullet fired, it
seemed to ME, at close quarters had passed
absolutely through the heart. He must
have fallen without a moan. Killed, I
knew, by the hand of the woman he had
wronged.
A sneering smile yet fingered on his set
features. l could even imagine the words
which had accompanied it, when swift and
sudden, without one moments grace for
repentance or confession, death had been
melted out to him. At one moment he stood
erect and full of life, knocking, it may be,
her who had trusted him and had been be-
trayed; at the next, before the sentence he
was speaking was completed, he lay ifeless
at her feet, with the snow-fakes beginning
to form his w~inding-sheeti
Oh, it was vengeance! swift, deadly ven
geancel But why, oh, why had she wreaked
it? Philippe, my peerless Philippe, a MUIR
deress! Oh, it was too fearful, too horrible!
/ must be dreaming. All my own thoughts
of revenge left me. 1t was for the time pity,
sheer pity, l felt for the man, cut off in the
prime of his life. While l knew he was alive
| could look forward to and picture the min
ute when we should stand coolly seeking to
kill one another. but now that he was dead
l hated him no longer. Ali death is a sacred
thing. Dead! Sir Mervyn Ferrand dead,
and slain by PhilippaI
1t could not be true! 1t should not be true!
Yet | ~shuddered as l remembered the passion
she had thrown into those words, "Basil, did
you ever hate a manW l gave a low cry of
anguish as l remembered how | had hurled
from me the pistol she had let fall-the
very weapon which had done the dreadful
deed.
Killed by Philippa! Not in a sudden burst
of uncomfortable passion, but with deliber-
ate intent. She must have gone armed to
meet him. She must nave shot him through
the heart; must have seen him fall. Then.
only then, the horrible deed which she had
wrought mist have been fully realized!
Then she had turned and fled from the SPOT
in a frenzy. Oh, my poor grill my poor
grill
Utterly bewildered by my anguish Irose
from my knees and stood for a while beside
the corpse. 1t was in that moment l learned
how much l really loved the woman who
had done this thing. Over all my grief and
horror this love rose paramount. At all
cost l must save her-save her from the
hands of justice; save her from the fierce
elements which her tender frame was even
at this moment Drawing. And as / recalled
how she had sought me yesterday with the
tale of her wrong-how she had wildly fled
from me a few minutes ago, madly, blindlv
into the night; as l thought of the injuries
she had suffered, and which had led her to
shed this mans blood; as l contrasted her
in her present position with what she was
when first l knew her and loved her. the nitv
began to fade from my heart; my Thoughts
toward the lifeless form at my feet grew
stern and sombre, and l found myself be-
ginning, by the old code of an eve for an
eye, to Justify, although 1 regretted Philip-
pas fearful act. Right or wrong, she was
the woman l loved; and l swore I would
save her from the consequences of her
crime, even-Heaven help mel-if the accl,-
sation, when made, must fall upon nv
shoulders.
Yet it was not the beginning of anv
scueme 10 eVdue Justlce which induced me
to raise the dead body and bear it to the
side Of the road, where l placed it under the
low bank on which the hedge grew. It was
the reverence which one pays to death made
me do this. l could not leave the moor
wretch lying in the very middle of The HIGH
way for the first passersby to stumble
against. Tomorrow he would, Of course.
be found. Tomorrow the hue and cry
would be outl Tomorrow Philippa, nv
Philippa, would -. Oh, heavens! never.
never, neverl
So l laid what was left of Sir Mervvn
Ferrand reventially by the side of the lonely
road. even tried to close his CLASSY ewes.
and l covered his face with his own hand
kerchief. Then, with heart holding fear
and anguish enough for a lifetime. | turned
and went in search of the poor unhappy
girl.
Where should l seek heri Who knew what
her remorse may have urged her to dol