The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-09-08

stubbornness and perverslty OF the child,
who was declared to be half-witted. Be
that as it may, at the orphans death the
aunt inherited her brothers fortune. Be-
fore the first Wedding year was out, the
American quilted England abruptly, and
never returned to it. He obtained cruls-
ing vessel which was lost in the Atlantic
two years afterwards. The widow was left
in afIuence; but reverses of various kinds
had befallen her; bank broke, an invest
ment failed, she went into small business
and became insolvent, then she entered
into service, sinking lower and lower, from
housekeeper down to maid-of-all-work never
long retaining place, though nothing pc
culiar against her character was ever al
legged. She was considered sober, honest,
and peculiarly quiet in her ways; still moth
ing prospcred with her And so she had
dropped into the work house from which
Mr.. J-had taken her to be placed in
charge of the very house which she had
rented as mistress in the first year Of her
welded life.
Mr.. j added, that he had passed an
hour alone in the unfinished room which
I had urged him to destroy, and that his
impressions of dread while there were so
great that Though he had neither heard
nor seen anything) he was eager to have
the walls barred and the floors removed as
1 had suggested. He had engaged persons
for the work, and would commence any
day 1 would name.
The day was accordingly fixed. l re-
paired to the haunted house; We went into
the blind, dreary room, took up the skirt
ing and then the floors. Under the raj
tiers, covered with rubbish, was found a
trap-door, quite large enough to admit a
man. 1t was closely nailed down with
clamps and rivets of iron. On removing
these we descended into a room below, the
existence of which had never been sus-
pected. In this room there had been a
window and fue, but they had been
bricked over, evidently for many years.
By the help of candles we examined this
place. it still retained some Wondering fur
niture-three chairs, an oak settee, table
all of the fashion of about eighty years
AGO. There was a chest of drawers against
the wall, in which we found, half rotted
away, old fashioned articles of mans
dress, such as might have been worn eighty
or hundred years ago, by gentleman of
some rank; costly steel buckles and but
tons, like those yet worn in court-dresses,
a handsome court-sword; in waistcoat
which had once been rich with gold lace,
but which was now blackened and foul with
damp, we found five guineas, a few silver
coins, and an ivory ticket, probably for
some place of entertainment long since
passed away.
But our main discovery was in kind
of iron safe fixed to the wall, the lock of
which it cost us much trouble to get
picked.
In this safe were three shelves and two
small drawers. Ranged on the shelves
were several small bottles of crystal, her
medically stopped They contained color
less volatile essence, of what nature | shall
say no more than that they were not pois-
ons; phosphor and ammonia entered into
some of them. There were also some very
curious glass tubes, and small pointed
rod of iron, with large lump of rock crys-
tai, and another Of amber; also loadstone
of great power.
In one of the drawers we found mini
allure portrait set in gold, and retaining the
freshness of its colors most remarkably con-
sidering the length Of time it had probably
been there. The portrait was that Of a
man who might be somewhat advanced in
middle life, perhaps forty-seven or forty
eight.
1t was a most peculiar face, most i'm
pressive face If you could fancy some
mighty serpent transformed into man, pre-
serving in the human lineaments the old
serpent type, you would have better idea
of that countenance than long descriptions
can convey-the width and fairness of from
tai; the tapering elegance of contour, dis
guising the strength of the deadly jaw; the
long, large, terrible eye, glittering and green
as the emerald; aud withal a certain ruth
less calm, as if from the consciousness Of
an immense power.
The strange thing was this: the instant
saw the miniature | recognized startling
likeness to one of the rarest portraits in
the world; the portrait of a man of rank
only below that of royalty, who in his own
day had made considerable noise. His
tory says little or nothing of him; but search
the correspondence of his contemporaries,
and you find reference to his wild daring,
his bold prohigacy, his restless spirit, his
taste for the occult sciences. While still
in the meridian of life he died and was
buried, so says the chronicles, in a foreign
land. He died in time to escape the grasp
of the law; for he was accused of crimes
which would have given him to the heads,
man. After his death the portraits of him,
which had been numerous, for he had been
a munifcent encourager Of art, were bought
up and destroyed, it was supposed by his
heirs, who might have been glad could
they have razed his very name from their
splendid line. He had enjoyed vast wealth
large portion of this was believed to have
been embezzled by favorite astrologer OF
soothsayer; at all events, it had unaccount-
ably vanished at the time Of his death
One portrait alone of him was supposed tc
have escaped the general destruction:
had seen it in the house of collector some
months before 1t had made on me 6
wonderful impression, as it does on all who
behold it; a face never to be forgotten; and
there was that face 10 the miniature thai
lay within my hand. True. that in the
miniature the man was few years Older
than in the portrait L had seen, OF than The
original was even at the time of his death
But few years why, between the dat
in which fourished that direful noble, and
the date in which the miniature was evi
IDENTIFY painted, there was an interval o.
more than two centuries While was
thus gazing, silent and wondering, Mr..
j said
Quits it possible have known this
man"
'Hoy? wherel' cried |.
Sin India He was high in the conf
dence of the Rajah Of, and well-nigt
drew him into revolt which would have
lost the Rajah his dominions The man
was Frenchman, bis name De v
clever, bold, lavless. We insisted on his
L. - H. . h,