Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-03-15

"You do not repent having undertaken the
charged Nine d'Avril will never be sane
again, and II you weary of your life here she
can be placed In an asylum Poor creature,
she knows nothing Of her Surroundings! She
is often very violent; are you not afraid OF
herr
NO. no. nor cried the woman passion
ately; Iii is my atonement- Not for myself
| God. what has my life been that l should
fear the tortures Of helli 1t could not DO
worse than the misery l have known, but
would make aJoneneut for those who sinned
for me-
The priest said nothing. but he laid his
hands for Il moment on the bowed head and
then passed out through the little gate.
Many. many years before, when Adels was
Young and beautiful, with the weird beauty
of the quadroon a soft and teeting loveliness
like dusky summer night, she had belonged
to a rich sugar planter In one of the Creole
parishes Of Louisiana She was intensely
beautiful All the senSaous loyeliness, all
the wild, passionate grace of her savage an
cestry all the stately pride Of bearing of her
white blood met in her and made her like the
! dethroned princess OF some eastern legend.
Such women We're only too naturally the
| prey Of their owr RS, or OF some neighboring
| grandee who was enthralled for a moment by
| their beauty Adeles fate was the fate of
| her kind-with this difference A planter
| fell wildly, madly, passionately in love with
| her--and wanted TO marry her She was will
| ing to sacrifice country, home, friends, every
| thing 10 his unreasonable passion for the
| beautiful slave. He offered her owner any
| price, but the naughty old Creole, who would
| have died to preserve the integrity of his
| caste, Indignantly refused to listen to terms
| Adeles lover pleaded, storrned, threatened in
vain
But Adele's child is my son."
Monsieur Ii grande shrugged his shoulders
"M'sieur, that is detail of your life with
which have nothing TO do"
Ii miscegenation was ever brought on
Louisiana it would not be through his fault.
Adele loved her child with all the passion
ate intensity of her half savage nature. and
when the child's father begged her to give
him the boy so he might have broader life
in another country than he could hope for in
his own, she was like a tigress fighting for her
whelpS. She had known nothing but slavery
and she could not understand the degradation
it meant for the man, born of freedmen, who
saw the woman he loved and his child bear
ing the bonds of slaves; but at last mother
love trumphed and one dark night she stole
the child out of bed and tore his clinging
arms from about her neck, kissed for the last
time the dewy sweet mouth of childhood, and
laid him in his fathers arms All that night
she lay upon the dank, wet grass writhing
In anguish that tore her very soul in twain,
and when, in the early dusk, she saw the
black hull and tall maSts of the ocean steamer
as it dropped down the river, she could bear
no more, but drew her hands over her eyes to
shut out the sight, for she knew it bore her
child away from her
The years went by slowly enough for the
poor mother whose soul was absorbed in the
thought of her petit Ledou," she fondly
persisted in calling him, but for the boy
growing up in great city, handsome, rich,
feted, the time passed all too swiftly No
one knew his history. He was the son of o
rich American-that title so vague yet SO
satisfactory to Europeans. As for the rest,
one could see for themselves
No ono knew the boys history but the boy
himself. His father never once suffered him
to forget it, that his mother, so beautiful and
50 beloved, was q slave who was doomed to
feel, perhaps, the slave drivers lash on her
tender, quivering flesh. From his earliest
consciousness it was impressed on Leon that
he was to avenge the wrong inflicted on his
father and mother.
Leon was beautiful; he had the best educa-
ton the French capital could bestow and that
IluthCIlpdblt VI lEt great WORTH tuuu sets
the seal of polish on mau. His father look
ing at him, felt all the revenge and hatred he
had nursed SO long cryStallize in a plan Of
action. He would send Leon to New Orleans
with proper letters and credentials; there he
should meet the daughter of the man who had
stood between him and Adele he should |
marry this girl, and there then he would be |
revenged, when the daughter OF the naughty |
aristocrat knew she was married to the son
of her own slave!
Leon had not lived under his fathers NOR |
bid influence so long without becoming in
fected by it, He too, felt the degradation of
his mother being held slave, and he
chafcd at the inpossibility of freeing her.
There were but few generations between
him and his savage forefathers, and he felt
brute Indifference to the pain he was to in
fict.
Tho programme his father so carefully
mapped out he fulfilled to the letter. 1t
might all have been rehearsed thousand
times-his appearance and success in New
Orleans tcciety, even his meeting with the
shy, sensitive girl who was no match for the
brilliant Partisan. When society received
the news OF their engagement it shrugged its
shoulders.
Bah, it said, "a little chit of thing who
does nothing but make nouvenas! He will
tire of her in a week"
The marriage followed close upon the an
nouncement of the agreement. 1t was cele-
brated in the gay old cathedral, and after a
few weeks of pleasuring the young couple
left for the brides plantation home
To Adele the time that had elapsed since
her boys return TO America seemed in
terninahle, She knew that by some means
he was married to her young mistress, but
she did not understand the plot that was to
avenge her. AT last, however, he was COM
ing home, her little Leon. her heart her soul.
She would sec him, hear him speak. be near
him once more. He might not speak to her;
She might not claim him before the world,
but that was nothing. Some night he would
slip down to the little cabin and call her
mother and she would be repaid She was
faint and gddy with happiness. Suddenly
the door opened and Icons father stood on
the threshold he had not crossed since the
day he pleaded with the naughty planter
for her The courteous old host advanced to
meet him
"Monsieur." he said, lit is many years
since | have welcomed you within these
doors"
Yes, responded the other. "but tonight
hear You welcome home your son and daugh-
ter, and came To offer my fluctuations"
Almost as he spoke the door opened and
tne bfhEI party entered. he servants fell /
back and stood blocking door and window,
dense mas of faces. Only Adele stood apart
in the shallow Of II door, trembling fearing. |
she knew not what suddenly there fell |
deep portentous silence like the breaks in |
tempest Before a word could he said Ieon's |
father stepped forth and took his hand.
my SON. he said, con dark night,
twenty-five years ago, took YOU from your
mothers arms. promised her then 10 bring |
You back. Tonight | redeem my promiser |
As he spoke he laid Icons hand i'll the trem-
bling hand Of Adele. Leon stopped down and |
brushed with his bearded lips his mothers
ashen check, and then he turned TO his pale
and aifriEhtrd wife
Petite, he said, with mocking tenderness,
i present to You my mother After so many |
years separation it ischarming 10 he reunited, |
and under your ancestral roof
The poor little bride turned from his cruel |
eyes to whore her father stood frozen with |
horror, rs the truth of the scene forced itself
on him. Al her love for the man in whose
face sh" read now only bitter aversion. all |
the teachings Of hor life rushed back upon
her in one overwhelming flash Of conscious
ness that sho was married to a negru, the son
of her own slave. and with n wild cry she fell I
seuscieSS to the tlpor.