Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-02-06

renee, | was filled with fear and
horror"
After this startling testimony my
daughter was cross-questioned in
every way, but had only the same
thing. She had been sitting upwith
her sick child, and saw the girl 90
over to the mill exactly rs my Mary
had SAID. And then Mercy rose up
from her seat, and with voice and
manner almost supernatural, denied
it all. She said that she had never
been out at all that night, but had
slept soundly and peacefully in her
room. And as / looked at her and
listened, | fully believed her; and
when | had heard the others, be-
lieved that she had been there and
that she had not.
Anyhow, Mercy wac convicted.
Ever so much testimony on little
matters was brought to prove her
guilt, her object being primarily, it
is alleged, to escape the hard life she
was living with her father. She was
to be shut up in the old mill for a
fortnight, and then to be imprisoned
for life. She never was put into
prison, however, for she escaped
from the mill, as you will soon see.
A few years afterwards, when the
wretch that committed the murder,
crazy with remorse, confessed it all
and was hung, the people of Brier-
town were filled with the greatest re-
greet and sorrow. They then fenced
in her grave, and often came to plant
flowers over it. But all that never
did bit of good to poor Mercy.
Young Arthur Olden, as might be
supposed, was plunged into the deep
est despair. He had grown so thin
and forlorn-looking in the short time
after the murder, that I would shed
tears when / saw him, When my
poor bird had been Gagged up in that
horrible old mill, the awful scene of
the murder, for about three days,
Arthur, with another daring young
man, determined to enter the mill
and effect her release. Only crazy
man would have thought of such a
thing, and he was crazy with despair.
So one cloudy night he placed lad
der against the mill, and climbed up
to the little balcony that ran around
the top Of it. In one place the fence
up there was broken down, and a
needless person could easily have
fallen off.
"We must break this door in
said Arthur, as they crept around to
ike little, low entrance to the balco-
ny. ''It is frail looking and we need
not make noise.'
And so they went at it with their
knives, and with success, too, for the
wood around the lock was damp and
rotten with age and the rain that had
beat against it 1t soon yielded, and
they were about to go softly below.
"Hark!p whispered the other, 81
hear a creaking sound as though
some one were coming up the stairs
Let us creep back outside the door
and see what il is !"
Trembling with excitement and
ghostly dread, they peered through
the doorway and watched the room
within. On the winding staircase
there came q figure, clad in white,
slowly, slowly up Mercy Gray, with
her long, black hair falling down and
about her spectral form Her dark
brown eyes were wide, wide open
but oh, like Lady Macbeth, their
sense was shut. She was walking in
her sleep! Attic doorway she stood
a moment, and felt with her hands.
She shuddered, and then she spoke
II deny it all. ] never was out
that night. | slept soundly and
peacefully in my bed until the morn
ing"
She paused moment, and then