Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-07-24

Selling her at hazard by the shout
ders, he began to lift her toward him.
Ihree times he raised her, and three
times was he forced to let her tall
back. She seemed terrible heavy. as
II some enormous weight were sus-
pended from her feet. At last. gath.
ering up all his strength. he succeed.
ed and dragged forth something
which he did not at first dare to look
at' and placed it near him on the
stones.
But ne had scarcely cast his eyes
on it when he uttered a piercing cry
"a cry of rage and horror.
His wife dead. with hair loosely
tiowing, an ecstatic smile on her lips,
held IN her arms-a man! Oh! how
she strained him to her, with hands
tightly clasped behind his back! And
he--he had thrown one arm around
her waist, while his left hand. hang
ing by his side, grasped u white rose,
not yet faded.
The count had fallen on his knees.
In n flash he had measured all the
depth OF his dishonor. Years of love
and happiness, he saw them sudden
~ illumed in all their startling real.
itty, polluted by lying caresses and
deceitful kisses.
He approached and leaned over, to
view the features of him who had
culled the last sigh, the last vow of
the perjured wife, but he recoiled in
disgust. The head of the man. cru SD.
ed, almost detached from the body,
was but u bleeding mass OF flesh.
Life had guarded their secret. and
now death seemed still to favor
them, giving up to the dishonored
husband nothing but an unrecog-
niznble and disfigured body. lie
looked again, searching for some
trace, some mark which would flash
n name out from tho darkness-the
name coveted by his jealousy and
his rage! The white hands bore no
rings.
The body, slender and elegant, np-
peared to be that OF a young man.
1t was an impenetrablo corpse, re-
solved to guide it's secret. The count
questioned the motionless lips of his
wife, which must have so often let
pass the name of the beloved-they
remained mute. In a frenzied PRAYER,
broken by blasphemies, he called on
God 20 deliver up to him, on the in.
slant, the abhorred name. God an
swered not. Only, on the wall over
head, the turtle dove cooed in its
gilded cage. All! If the bird of love
could only speak.
Then, nfterpassing his hand aero IS
his brow, the count, moving mechan-
ically, stopped down and placed one
knee on his wife's breast, and hold
ing her thus, endeavored to separate
her from this mans body-this body
on which Love and Death had cru
CITED her. 1t was a long and difficult
task. AS we'll try to untwine serpents
or to tear away the ivy from the
trunk of the ancient oak.
At last the rigid arms relaxed on
either side, and the outraged hus.
band. putting IN end to this odious
embrace, repOssessed himself of the
body OF his wife, which the corpse of
the lover had still disputed with him,
Then he sat down between them, like
a Judge, and awaited the day.
In the early dawn, with the aid of
some peasants, he buried his wife un-
der the shadow of q little fig tree, in
a garden close at hand. The remain
der of the day he walked the island,
stopping the soldiers, the workmen,
every one whom he met, and led them
up to the corpse. He showed every
sign Of the most profound grief.
He believed, he said, that he had
found the body of n dear friend, but
he was not absolutely sure, and he
offered 10000 scudi to the person
who could tell him with certainty
the name OF the dend man. In suite
of the enormous sum, no one could
identify the body. The count had it
Inferred separately, ut his own ex-
pense, in a corner of the Casamicciola
cemetery.
Since then he searches ccaselesslv
tor this name-which he is condemned
never to know less jealous OF the
man who, living, stole from him his
wife's heart, than of the mysterious
corpse which had so insolently duped
him.-Translatcd for The Aryonaut
from the French of Henri Lavedan
by Fl. c. r.