The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-03
THE FIERY DEATH.

hour the Judgment hall of the little
town OF B%ourdonnis was thronged with
the populace. Men, women and chill
dren, old and young, the noble and the
burgher, priests, soldiers and common
people, crowded the spacious hall and
cried madly for her blood.
The evening before a female, closely
yelled and attended by two servants,
whose dark cou~ntenances bespoke the
sons of Ethiopia, had arrived at Bour-
donnis and put up at one of the princi-
pal hostelries of the place. Strange
rumors soon arose respecting her. Her
garb, her mien, her language and her
complexion were said to be those Of
a Saracen, against which accused
race the ~chivalry of Europe and the
church itself varied in vain. These ru-
mors gained additional strength when
the landlord of the inn where she had
stopped was heard to say that he had
seen her practicing sorcery, a charge
easily credited in that age, and one
which few, especially In o case like this,
had the hardihood to disbelieve. In
less than an hour the whole population
OF the town was about, surrounding the
hosiery. and crying out for vengeance
against the sorceress. Such commo-
tons were both frequent and sanguinary
in that superstitious age.
The soldiery, however, interfered by
arresting the unsuspecting victim of
these rumors, and at this early hour the
prisoner had been brought into the
Judgment hall to await the mockery
OF trial.
ANSWER me, daughter of Belial!"
said the judge, as soon as the murmurs
of the mob allowed him to be heard.
"Wln you confess your crime? Speak,
or you die! Know you that the rack,
aye! fire itself, awaits you If your OBJ
stinacy continues"
The prisoner was a slight girlish crea-
ture, sitting with her face buried in her
hands, directly opposite to the Judge.
She was apparently young and her fig
IRE, so far as could be seen through the
thick veil which shrouded her form, was
light and agile as that OF a sylph. To
the judges question she made no an
swer She only shook her head des-
pondingly, and those nigh her fancied
they heard her sob.
AT these fearful words, repeated now
for the second time, and growled forth
with an ominous tierceness, appalling
even to the hearer, the prisoner was
observed to tremble, whether with fear
OF otherwise we know not, and lifting
her veil up with a sudden effort, she
rose to her feet, turned hastily aroundto
the mob, and disclosed a c~ountenance of
such surprising loneliness to their gaze
that even those who had cried out most
~unrelentingly for her blood now shr,lnk
abashed into silence, while others who
had been less eager for her condemna-
ton audibly murmured in her favor.
ri "What would ye have Of .me? % she
said, addressing the judge, and for the
first time standing unveiled before him.
"As there is a God in whom we both
believe, I have told you only the
truth. / am a stranger, q foreigner,
a defenseless woman, but not the
less the affianced bride of one of your
proudest noblemen, the Count de Gar
onne."
The tone in which she spoke was low,
but oh! how touchingly sweet; and her
words We're uttered in broken French,
with a %perceptible oriental accent.
Loud murmnrs rose in her favor as she
ceased speaking. The tide w~asturning.
But the Judge now spoke.
"Ont or thee, woman of hell! Out on
thee for a base slanderer of a noble of
France and a holy crusader! Thou the
betrothed bride of G~aronne! AS soon
would the eagle mate with the vulture.
l tell thee woman. that thy story of hav-
ing been shipwrecked in coming to
France, and CT all thy train having been
lost except thy two Ethiopian myrmi-
dons. is afoul lie, and | am almost mind
ed to wiring the truth from thee on the
rack"
II have said it," said the prisoner,
in n firm voice, for she felt that her
life depended on her firmness. land if
you will give but one week, one
little week, and I will prove it
before man as well as God. l came
from Syria in the same fleet with my
lord, but under charge of his mothers
confessor-now a saint in heaven!-but
being separated by q storm, in which
our galley was shipwrecked, I was
thrown unprotected on your shores. l
am a stranger here. My servents even
have deserted me. I do no one harm.
I plot no treason. All l ask is to pass
OF my way. Obi" she continued in a
burst of emotion, "if you have a daugh-
ter think what would be your feelings
if she was thus to be set upon in a
strange land, and she burst into tears.
Again the crowd murmured in her IA
vor.
"Woman!" sternly interposed the
judge, unmoved by her emotion, "look
at the victim of your sorcery, and seek
no longer to deceive US by your lies.
Send forth, Philip the D~eformed!"
At the words of the Judge, an official
bearing a white wand stepped into a
side room, and in a moment reappeared
with a cripple hideously deformed,
whom the populace recognized as the
landlord of the hostelry. When con-
fronted with the prisoner he glared at
her with a look of demoniacal hatred.
"know you this woman? 2" asked the
judge.
GAY! to my cost" answered the Grip
pie. ut is through her incarnation
that l am the being L am. It was but
yesterday she came to my inn, attended
by two heathePish Philippians, whom I
have heard palmers from the Holy Land
say are kept by the Panims-God's
who, three years ago, brought on me
ban be theirs! I no Don beheld her