The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-18
SENTINEL WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER

eyes smaller. He is pouring out avowals
OF love and devotion. The girl turns her
head aside. By degrees he wins her at
tention; she allows him to kiss her and to
put sparkling ring on her
finger. There is a narrow footway
on one side of the avenue beyond
the line of lindens and an unsupported
observer has accompanied them step by
step. 1t is the man with the chestnut
hair and passionate eyes; he is breathing
quickly with suppressed rage and excite
ment, and as the final seal of the engage
ment ring is put to the compact, he rushes
forward, with a muttered curse, and con-
fronts the lovers with flashing eyes and
| face infamed with jealousy. "Hypocritesw
he struggles out, hoarsely. Itwas a tragic,
dreadful scene. The girl gives a sharp
/ cry, remains as If struck for a second, and
then, flinging her arms up and pressing
her hands over her ears, she flies back the
way she came as If for bare life. The two
men were brothers. Rudolph, the first
/ lover, was poor and proud Carl, the
younger, rich and powerful. "How dare
! you make love to my betrothed" gasped
out Rudolph. Now it was CarPs turn to
burst out in frenzied indignation, and hot
and strong, bitter and singing, were the
words they hurled at each other. The
passion displayed was too deep for depic-
/
ton. They parted.
The third picture is slowly unfolding.
The brothers meet again at early dawn
in the depths of the forest, where no ear
can detect the clashing of swords and no
arm of the law can intervene to avert the
| duel which is to prove of deadly result to
one or the other. The survivor is to re-
tain his bride. The seconds are officers
from neighboring garrison, overzealous
in their temporary office and unrighteous
in the antipathy each bears to the OPP
| posing party. Carl is wounded to the
death. Rudolph relents, and VOWS never
to return to the beautiful Ermantrude
who has proved false to both.
The Baroness Won Reichstein only
guesses at that third scene. She never
saw either lover again after the fatal en-
counter in the avenue, but heard of the
duel and CarPs death. To this day she
turns sick and faint at the smell of the
! linden-trees. Even now, as she reclines
in the low chair by the window, with
tightly pressed lips and contracted brow,
the sickly sweet odor seems to float before
her sharpened senses after the lapse of
thirty years silence.
She shoulders, and rises to leave her
seat. She will try and sleep, now she has
allowed these ghosts of buried past to
nOLu sway IOr a time Jney Will surely rest
now. An Undesirable something arrests
| her; she cannot move-not even raise her
eyes, She sinks back. Still feeling that
same eerie sensation of an Invisible bar
rier, she looks UP, and becomes conscious
of light in the room. Just at first she
forgets the candles are extinguished, and
then a chill of terror overtakes her. There
is q cold, phosphoretic, blush light, filling
the room mistily, dimly, and brightest
round the bed. She dares not breathe !;
a dreadful oppression weighs her down !;
she wonders if she is going mad, and
sickening horror seizes her. All at once,
after one rapid glance around, she gives
an agonizing gasp and loses conscious
ness.
This is what she saw: On the bed the
! clothes were disturbed, showing the cut
lines of a massive figure. On the pillow,
with closed eyes and a greenish pallor on
the cheeks and forehead, was rigid.
CHASTITY face. There were stains of blood
on the linen coverings, and by the bed
side stood a shadowy form in the act of
pouring some fluid from a bottle into a
glass-the lady at the window here opens
| her eyes, and with fascinating, horror
struck, staring look, every nerve strung,
every limb tense, she followed each detail
of the ghostly scene. Phantom-like fig
ures pass in and out of the room, noise
lessly and rapidly. Still that quiet figure
on the bed sleeps on; still the shadowy
figure by the bedside holds the glass in its
hand. Now the figure Of an aged man
enters. misty and uncertain; profound
grief is shown in his very attitude; ;
he stands gazing on that quiet figure
with a sorrow-stricken face, that would
melt the stoniest heart. Now he stands
erect, seems to be listening to some one
speaking at his side; as he listens his
| countenance changes, his features become
convused, an awful look enters his face.
He lifts his hand high up, and with eyes
fixed into space, seemed to pour forth tor
rents of words. The figure on the bed
moves, rises-"Mv Godm muttered the
lady at the window-endeavors to clutch
the old mans arms, opess his mouth to
speak, but suddenly falls back on the pill
low, and from his side, which now reveals
surgical bandages, spreads bright Grim
son stain, which spreads and spreads till
| the whole bed seems flooded with red, and
a little red stream trickles to the floor and
collects in a dark, ominous pool. The
old man staggers, falls to the ground, and
is borne swiftly by shadowy figures from
the room. Confused forms pass to and
fro; the light becomes indistinct the
shadows less frequent, and more dimly
seen; in another moment all has vanished,
the grewsome vision is past, only the
moon shines into the room, throwing
long, silvery beams across the bed, with
its undisturbed linen and snow-white
pillows.
But the door remains open, and tall
figure stands on the threshold. 1t adj
vances like the figure of relentless fate,
sinister, strange, and seems to seek some
thing. The baroness horror-struck eyes
are still staring into space. Evidently
they take in this fresh apparation as part
of the awful pageant: She begins to
speak:
''You, too, Rudolph? 1 expected you.
Do not look at me so sternly! | did not
mean it. How could / tell what would be
the ending? swear / never knew until
tonight. | was so young then. A.a-a-h!"
with long, convulsive shudder, look
at the blood" and she drew her
skirt aside. 1t is only the red silk cover
let that has slipped from her should
ers. Don't go till / tell you what
my life has been-how | have been pun
ished / married Rudolph Yes-to try
and forget. have had six children,
bonny boys and girls. Tony, the eldest,
lived till he was six then he was drowned
in the lake. Pretty little Adele was
poisoned by berries gathered in the woods
with n careless nurse. Nv handsome Ec-