Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-25

stormy interview, she declaring she would 90
and tell my other, and retorting that 1t would
be useless Suddenly she produced small
revolver and said she would shoot me
unless fulfilled my old promise to make her
my wife. ] thought she only trying to
brighten me, and laughed, but the next moment
she actually shot me and as I became almost
Immediately unconscious, she believing she had
killed me, turned and fed from the spot.
do you understand now, Nancyf This most
unhappy, most unfortunate woman having
wounded me severely as you know, went back
to town in a state of semi M adness l afterwards
learned and then tried to commit suicide by
shooting herself also She barely escaped with
her life, and the doctor who attended wrote to
me to tell me of this during my illness, and
naturally was terribly shocked.
And now am coming to that part Of my
HE, when met You Nancy-met you and loved
you very dearly, You viii think these are very
strange words for me now to write to you, but
they are nevertheless very true ones. Yes.
Nancy. in spite of all l have done l loved you,
and left you only because this separation was
actually forceC on me.
81 need not repeat here the miserable events
that followed our marriage-my mothers utterly
unjustifable action seemed to change my whole
nature and filed my heart with intense bitter
ness and hatred, for the man who had sup.
planted me; who had taken the name l had
borne all my life, and who actually as you know
personally assaulted Unhappily for me.
unhsppily for her, just at the very time, when
the most burning indignation against this man
filed m y heart. I met again by accident the wo-
man who had shot me, and then
herself. and who had always loved me
had tried to soften my feelings to this man; had
praised him, and seemed to like him, and this
angered me exceedingly. But Alice Ferrars
entered eagerly and passionately into my
wrongs. She spoke to me of vengeance; told me
that in her land the Spaniard kills the man who
had wronged him; and she limited darby that
my enemy might die. Nancy, these words came
back and back to me-this hated brother might
die-and then all would be again as it had been
before my mother had told the story, which had
so entirely changed my life.
II heard stories of this man, too; o; his low
life and degraded habits, and how he was drag
ging the name l had borne all my life to the
dust; and the longing for his death grew
stronger and stronger within me. You ceased
TO speak of him, but l secretly resented your
ject, and listened with greedy ears to the other
woman's passionate and sympathizing words.
But why write any longer OF my temrta-
lions and my hatred? You know they were both
strange enough, and at last they brought their
evil and terrible fruit. Alice Ferrars, in an ac
cursed moment, suggested, and listened, that
this man should be lured to his death, that she
should be the temptress; and to aid her two OF
her Spanish relations-a man and a woman
were bribed to come to England, and a house
was taken down the river, and Alice made the
acquaintance of the man hated, calling her
self by another name. She was handsome and
the man fell an easy victim. We planned it all
AS l write these words llno .. l was mad then,
devil-possessed, accursed! Yes, il was so, but
the mad and hideous deed was done. The poor
fool was fiattered with soft wotds, and wiled by
the smiles, aud walked straight into the snare
we had laid for him. We fixed the day of his
murder, and Juan. the Spaniard,
dug his grave beforehand. You re;
bitter night, when l came back to the house
where my innocent wife and child were sleep
ing. with murder on my soul? So God help me,
thai night was the fir st time that any remorse
had ever crossed my mindi Before, l had only
felt hatred. and an eager and burning desire for
his death. But that night l was dining with
some men at the club. and suddenly the horror
OF the whole thing-the guilty knowledge of
what was about to take place. rose before me
and left the table, telling the others l felt
i'll, and having partly disguised myself l started
in the train for Maidenhead, hoping that 1
should be in time to stay heir hands.
"A storm was raging when l Jed there,
but ran as fast as L could go along the slippery
tow-path by the river edge At last 1 reached
the little villa-my God! even now can scarcely
write of that frightful hour-I stole into the
house, and met the Spanish woman, who sig
nificantly pointed to the door of one OF the
rooms.
- Tell her 1 want her. whispered hoarsely,
and the Spanish woman nodded, and went into
the room she had indicated, and moment or
two later Alice Ferrars came out of it. and as /
looked in her face saw was too late.
~ caught her haud-'Alice, don't do it, I
Missed in her ear, and thi. was her reply:
60 Hush, what folly she said, your brother
is about to die;' and her expression was terrible
as she spoke.
'She had left the room door aiar, and one
moment l glanced in. The wretched man was
lying on a couch struggling in mis- death agony
but cannot describe it, nor the scene thgt
he lay half asleep, and moment or two later it
was all over, they told me, and they began to
talk of carrying him to his ready grave.
AZ have only an indistinct recollection of
what Immediately followed, for began drink
ing glass after glass of brandy. seeking to
satisfy my own terrible thoughts. 1 heard them,
l thought, carrying something heavy past the
room door where / was, and ! remember calling
out to them for Gods sake not to bury him until
they were sure hewas dead. And then pres
emily Juan came in bearing on his arm two
coats wrapped up together and fastened securely
by leather strap He too had seemingly been
drinking, for he half insolently told me that
coats fastened on my back so to rep
resent the hump ST The dead man. I re-
fused at first. but he persisted. He was run
ming the risk OF his neck to please me. he said
with his odious grin. and must help him a lit
tie bit since fortune had sent me on the spot.
The dead man was well known at the railway
station and if he was seen 10 leave by the late
train for town, no one would look for him at
Maidenhead, and thus there would be no risk of
discovery at all. He almost forced me to
sent, and fastened on this hideous burden, and
then flung rough capeo cloak over my should
ers, declaring that now no one could tell any
difference between myself and the dead man.
Thus the station master was deceived and the
dark secret hidden for time, only as you know
to be discovered later.
Nancy, from that dreadful night, my life has
been q hell. What do YOU think wa1 the reward
Alice ferrars had bargained for; The price that
had to pay for this black deed? If she killed this
man, had to forsake her-you, my boy and our
left the gentle woman who nad tried to soften
my evil passions, and went to the one who had
famed them; went with loathing and disgust in
my heart. From the very hour, indeed. when
had looked Alice Ferrar's face, when the
miserable man lay dying, sudden change, an
absolute revulsion took place in my feelings to-
wards her. She was handsome, bur her beauty
gave me no pleasure; she loved me- but shud-
dered at her touch. Yet l was bound to her;
bound by a tie dare not break, and great as
was my sin, my punishment was still greater.
II took house for her. in one of the suburbs
here, and the life we led there literally as
fear came to add its terrors. The dead mans
body was found: a warrant for the apprehension
of Madame de Costa, the name that Alice was
known by at the riverside villa, was issued
and she lived in perpetual dread Of recognition.
She scarcely ever left the house, she changed
the color of her hair, but she was always in
terror. Her Spanish relations too-the wretch
Juan and his sister-were forever writing for
money, and threatening unless vast sums were
sent TO tn EN-. The constant strain and misery
finally broke down my health and for more
than a year have been drifting to the grave. 1
caught q severe cold and it settled on my lungs,
and the haunting remorse and wretchedness of
my life has done the rest. And Alice Ferrars'
sudden and painful death, six months ago, was
also terrible to witness. She died of diph liberia;
died upwiilingly and terror stricken, and felt
1 stood by her that l, and l only, had
wrecked her life.
Nancy, have now nothing more to tell; this
miserable confession of sin. and bitter remorse
Is ended, and have but to ask your pardon for
the misery l have brought upon you, and to
make one last request. Will you come to see me
once more, and bring the boy? If you will, you