The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-12

a world of good"
Having finished the little golden leaves,
she began one of the large roses, near the
lilies. Already she had threaded several
needles with the silks required, and she en-
broidered in stitches varying in length, ac-
cording to the natural position and move
ment Of the petals, and notwithstanding the
extreme delicaQY and absorbing nature OF
this work, the Tecollections of the previous
day, which she lived over again in thought
and in silence now came to her lips and
crowded so closely upon each other, that she
no longer tried to keep them back. So she
talked of their setting out upon their e1Re-
dition, of the beautiful fields they crossed,
of their lunch over there in the ruins of
Hautecoehr, upon the fagstones OF little
room whose tumble-down walls lowered far
above the Ligneul, which rolled gently
among the willows fifty yards below them.
She was enthusiastic over these crumbling
ruins, and the scattered blocks OF stone
among the brambes, which showed how
enormous the colossal structure must have
been, as when first built it commanded the
two valleys. The donjon remained, nearly
200 feet in height, discolored, cracked, but
nevertheless firm upon its foundation pill
lars Is feet thick. Two of its towers had
also resisted the attacks of time-that of
Charlemagne and that Of David-united by
a heavy wall almost intact. In the interior,
the chapel, the court room and certain
chambers were still easily recognized; and
all this appeared to have been built by
giants, for the steps of the stairways, the
sills of the windows, and the benches on the
terraces, were all on scale far out of pro-
portion for the generation of to-day. 1t
was, in fact, quite a little fortified city.
Five hundred men could have sustained
there siege of thirty months without suf-
fering from want of ammunition or OF pro-
visions For two centuries the bricks OF
the lowest story had been disjointed by the
wild roses; lilacs and laburnums covered
with blossoms the rubbish of the fallen
ceilings; plane tree had even grown up in
the fireplace of the guard room. But when
at sunset the outline of the donjon cast its
long shadow over three leagues of Guilt
waited ground, and the colossal chateau
seemed to be rebuilt in the evening mists,
one still felt the great strength and the old
sovereignty which had made of it so i'm
pregnable fortress that even the kings OF
France trembled before it.
"And | am sure" continued Angelique,
'that il is inhabited by the souls of the
dead who return at night. All kinds of
noises are heard there; in every direction
are monsters who look at you, and when l
turned round as we were coming away, L
saw great white figures tiuttering above the
wall. But, mother, you know all the his
tory of the castle, do you mott"
Hubertine replied, as she smiled in an
amused way:
"Oh, as for ghosts, have never seen any
of them myself"
But in reality, she remembered perfectly
the history, which she had read long ago,
and to satisfy the eager questionings of the
young girl, she was obliged to relate it over
again.
The land belonged to the Bishopric OF
Rheims, since the days of Saint Remi, who
had received it from Clovis.
An archbishop, SEVERN, in the early years
of the tenth century, had erected at Haute-
cueur a fortress to defend the country
against the Normans, who were coming up
the river Disc, into which the Ligneul
flows.
In the following century successor of
Severn gave it in fief to Norbert, a young
son of the house of Normandy, in consider
alton of an annual Quit-rent of sixty sous,
and on the condition that the City Of Beau
mont and its church should remain free and
unencumbered. 1t was in this way that
Norbert l. became the head of the mar
auesses of Hautecoeur, whose famous line
from that date became 50 we'll known in
history Herve w., accommodated
twice for his robbery of ecclesiastical
property, became a noted highwayman,
who killed on a certain occasion with his
own hands thirty citizens, and his tower
was RACED to the ground by Louis le Gros,
against whom he had dared to declare war.
Raoul l., who went to the crusades with
Philip Augustus, persisted before Saint Jean
dAcre, having been pierced through the
heart by lance. But the most illustrious
of the race was John V. the Great, who in
1925 rebuilt the fortress, finishing in less
than five years this formidable chateau of
Hautecpur, under whose shelter he for a
moment dreamed of aspiring to the throne
of France. and after having escaped from
being killed in twenty battles, he at last
died quietly in his bed, brother-in-law to
the king of Scotland. Then came Felician
Ill, who made pilgrimage to Jerusalem
barefooted; Herve VII, who asserted his
claims to the throne of Scotland; and still
many others, noble and powerful in their
day and generation, down to Jean TX. +,
who. under Mazarin, had the grief of as
sisting at the dismantling of the castle.
After desperate siege, the vaults of the
towers and of the dopjon were blown up
with powder, and the different construc-
lions were set on fire; where Charles vi.
had been sent to rest and to turn
his attention from his vagaries, and where,
a week as Gabrielle d Estress. Thencaforth,
all these royal souvenirs had passed into
oblivion.
Angelique, without stopping the move
ment of her needle, listened eagerly, as if
the vision of these past grandeurs rose up
from her frame, in proportion as the rose
grew there in its delicate life of color. Her
Ignorance of general history enlarged facts,
and she received them as II they were the
basis of a marvellous legend. She rrem-
bled with delight, and transported by her
faith, it seemed as if the reconstructed
chateau mounted to the very gates of
heaven. and the HautecBurs were cousins to
the Virgin Mary.
When there was pause In the recital she
asked:
SIS not our new bishop, Monseigneur
d'Hautecour, descendant of this noted
familyp
Hubertine replied that monseigneur must
belong to the younger branch of the family,
as the elder branch had been extinct for a
very long time 1t was indeed most sin
puIar return, as for centuries the marquesses
Of Hautecoeur and the clergy Of Beaumont
had been hostile TO each other. Toward
1850. an Abbot undertook to build a church.
with no other resources than those of his
order, so his funds soon gave out, when the
sedifioe was no higher than the arches of the
side chapels, and they were obliged to cover
the nave with wooden roof Eighty years
passed and Jean Y. came 10 rebuild the
chateau, when he gaye800. 900, pounds which
added to other sums, epab3ed the work on
the church to be continued. The nave was
finished, but the two towers and the great
front were terminated much later, toward
a--ty a. -.