The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-05-29

IN
was Just in time to see them disappear
into a first-class carriage as the train
steamed off !
had lost her for that time, but / COM
forted myself with the idea that we must
meet during the season, and determined
at once to look up all my old friends, and
accept all the invitations got, for until
now, wrapped up in my art, had rather
neglected the first and always declined
the last But everything had changed :;
since my dream had been the shadow of
this sweet reality seemed to have reached
at ono bound the very soul of life.
After some months of solitary wander
ings, / began to journey homeward,
lAusing at each picturesque village which
took my fancy, and crossing the rich
Lombard plain to Milan, and so to Genoa
and the Riviera.
II was late on Christmas Eve when
reached quaint little town near Bordig-
hcra and d. Jve to the Hotel Francia.
was very tired, and after supper and a
hasty glance at the beautiful bay, and the
white moonlight shining on the rugged
Rocker Rogue, and mingling with the
glancing lights fitting about in the steep,
arched little streets, | went to bed, feel
ing a strange sense of familiarity and eX-
pectancy, which ! strove in vain to ac-
count for. However, l soon fell asleep,
and then once more the old dream came
to me.
There was the violet sea laundering on
the beach, the shadowy purple hills
growing paler against the clear gold Of
the dawn, and the strange, wild chorus
of the bells surging and quivering
through the hushed air; and then, with a
gathering sense of terror and fear, the
darkness, and that dead face yelled in its
coffin lying before me.
With sharp cry awoke to find this
was no dream, but horrible reality, for
the room was rocking and trembling with
that sickening motion one grows to know
and dread in countries subject to earth
! qualIes, and terrible sounds of falling
| buildings were mingled with cries and
groans of those buried beneath the ruins.
The sea broke on the shore with a sound
like thunder, and above us the peaks
seemed to shiver and crack, as huge
powders came tottering down on the lit
tie city.
l sprang up, and hastily dressing,
groped my way out of the hotel; and
not a moment too soon, for as l reached
the road, which here sloped sharply down
to the sea, the ground again quitered and
rocked slowly backward and forward,
and the whole building fell into a mass
of shapeess ruins, and as the steep little
streets seemed leaning together, the un-
earthly chorus of bells rang out again
and again, half drowning the cries of the
terrified people.
1t was all exactly as / had seen it in
my dream. and ] turned away with a
shiver, noting how familiar was each de-
tail, and feeling sick and dazed, and
helpless, when a voice near recalled me to
myself.
''Ina, where are you9 My God where
can my daughter be?"
l recognized the voice at once as that
of the old man had seen looking at my
picture, and the girls sweet name sounded
like hymn of peace amid the horrible
scene.
"Was she in the Francial" | gasped.
Eyes" he replied eagerly; ''she was
with me as we CROPPED our way down
stairs, but a blow from some falling beam
hurled me here, and shc-where is sheln
He stroye to rise, but even as he spoke
another fearful shock came, the ground
opened at our feet, and with IA terrible
cry and hopeless clutch at the yielding
masonry of the wall by which he stood,
disappeared, swallowed up before my
very eyes, Had l been foot nearer
must have gone, too. As it was, l stag
gered and fell heavily, but only to
struggle up again, haunted by the hor-
rible thought that she was lying buried,
perhaps dead, underneath those cruel
stones.
must find her! And nerved to greater
haste and energy by the awful sight had
just seen, l rushed into the ruined house,
calling:
'Ina! Ina! Where are youln
Alas there was no answer.
| CROPPED my way over the great heaps
of debris through what had been the hall
of the Francia. Great jars of rude native
pottery, in which grew orange and palm
trees, camellias and myrtles, had been
set on the wall ON either side Most of
these were now crushed and broken, but
at the further end close to the solid stone
staircase, stood two, apparently unin-
iured, though half buried, and in the
dim light of the returning dawn | caught
a glimmer of something white underneath
Il heavy wooden beam which appeared
resting on these two immense vases, its
fall having been broken by the balustrade
OF the staircase.
l hastened forward, and as | reached
the spot the first ray of the Christmas
morning sunlight rested upon it, and
showed me a sort of rough tomb or al
cove formed by the beam resting on the
two mbroken orange jars, and in it lay
the girl l was seeking! There she was,
exactly as | had seen her in my dream,
apparently dead, the lovely face as white
as the draperies around her. The huge
block of wood had probably knocked her
down, and falling above, had been caught
by the jars, and so protected her from all
the other debris scattered around par
TALLY walling her in.
| tore away the stones and broken frag-
ments with frantic hands (the beam it
self of course | could NOT Ynp,-n Ia, ,