The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-06-20

ness of hatred. | avoided the creature,
certain sense of shame, and the remem-
brance of my former deed of cruelty pre-
venting me from physically abusing it, |
did not, for some weeks, strike or other
wise violently i'll use it; but gradually
very gradually came to look upon it
with unutterable loathing, and to flee
silently from its Odious presence, as from
the breath of pestilence.
What added, no doubt, to my hatred of
the beast was the discovery, on the morning
after brought it home, that, like Pluto,
it also had been deprived of one of its eyes.
This circumstance, however, only endeared
it to my wife, who, as | have already said,
possessed, in high degree, that humanity
of feeling which had once been my dis
tinguished trait, and the source of many
of my simplest and purest pleasures.
With my aversion to this cat, however,
its partiality for myself seemed to increase.
1t followed my footsteps with a pertinacity
which would be difficult to make the
reader comprehend. Whenever | sat it
would crouch beneath my chair, or spring
upon my knees, covering me with its
loathsome caresses. If arose to walk, it
would be between my feet and thus nearly
throw me down, or fastening its long and
sharp claws in my dress, Chamber in this
manner to my breast. At such times,
although | longed to destroy it with a
blow, | was yet withheld from so doing,
partly by a memory of my former crime,
but chief fy-let me confess it at once-by
absolute dread of the beast.
This dread was not exactly dread of
physical evil, and yet should be at a loss
how otherwise to define it. | am almost
ashamed TO own, yes, even in this telon's
cell | am almost ashamed to own, that the
terror and horror with which the animal
inspired me, had been heightened by one
of the merest chimeras it would be possible
to conceive. My wife had called my at
tention more than once to the character of
the mark of white hair of which | have
spoken, and which constituted the sole
visible difference between the strange beast
and the one had destroyed. The reader
will remember that this mark, although
large, had been very indefinite; but by slow
degrees, degrees nearly imperceptable, and
which for long time my reason struggled
to reject as fanciful, it had, at length, as
sumed a rigorous distinctness Of outline
1t was now the representation Of an object
that | shudder to name, and for this, above
all, loathed and dreaded, and would have
rid myself of the monster had | dared; il
was now, l say, the image of hideous-
of ghastly thing-of the gallows o
mournful crime of agony and of death J.
And now was | indeed wretched beyOnC
the wretchedness of mere humanity. AnC
a brute beast, whose fellow | had con
temptuously destroyed; brute beast tC
work out for me-for me, man fashioned
in the image of the High God, so much o
insufferabe woe Alas neither by day
nor by night knew | the blessing of Res
any more! During the former the creature
left me no moment alone; and, in the lat
ter, started hourly, from dreams of un
utterable fear, to find the hot breath o
the thing upon my face, and its vas
weight, an incarnate nightmare that | haC
no power to shake off, incumbent eternal
ly upon my heart
Beneath the pressure of torments sucl
as these the feeble remnant of the goot
within me succumbed. Evil thoughts be
came my sole intimates; the darkest an,
most evil of thoughts. The moodiness o
my usual temper increased to hatred of al
things and of all mankind; while, from tn
sudden, frequent and ungovernable out
bursts of a fury to which | now blind,
abandoned myself, my uncomplaiming wife
alas, was the most usual and the mos
patient to sufferers.
One day she accompanied me upon som
household errand into the cellar of the oil,
building which our poverty compelled u
to inhabit The cat followed me down the
steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me head
long, exasperated me 10 madness. Up
lifting an axe, and forgetting in my wratl
the dread which had hitherto stayed IN,
hand, aimed blow at the animal which
of course, would have proved Instant,
fatal had it descended as | wished Blu
this blow was arrested by the hand of IN,
wife. Goaded by the interference into
rage more than demonaical, | withdrew III,
arm from her grasp and buried the AK il
her brain. She fell dead upon the spo
without groan.
The hideous murder accomplished, | Sc
myself forthwith and with entire delibera
ton to the task of concealing the body.
knew that | could not remove it from th,
house, either by day or night, without th,
risk of being observed by the neighbors
Many projects entered my mind. At on
period [ thought Of cutting the corpse int
minute fragments and destroying them b,
fire. Atanother resolved to dig gray,
for it in the floor of the cellar. Again,
deliberated about casting it in the we'll il
the yard-about packing it in box, as
merchandise; with the usual arrangements
and SO getting porter to take it from tn
house. Finally | hit upon what l consid
cred faI better expedient than either o
these. | determined to wall it up in tn
cellar, as the monks of the middle ages ar
recorded to have walled up their victims
For purpose such as this the cellar wa
well adapted. Its walls were loosely con
structed, and had lately been plastere,
throughout with rough plaster, whicl
the dampness Of the atmosphere had pre-
vented from hardening. Moreover, in on
of the walls was projection, caused by
false chimney or fireplace that had bee
filed up and made to resemble the rest o
the cellar. | made no doubt that coul
readily displaee the bricks at this point
insert the corpse, and wall the whole up a
before, so that no eye could detect anythin
suspicious.
And in this calculation was not de
ceived. By means of croWbar | easil,
dislodged the bricks, and having carefull
deposited the body against the inner wal
| propped it in that position, while wit
little trouble | relaid the whole structur
as it originally stood. Having procure,
mortar, sand and hair, with every possibl
precautiop prepared plaster which coul