Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-10

Continued from last Sdtarddyl
''Can YOU make him speak?'' asked one
'cHe does not seem to heed us, though we
have shouted TO him and even shook his
arm
Il shall not trv," said L f'Horror like
this should be respected" And going softly
in l took up my station by his side in silent
awe.
But they would have me talk, and,frally
in some desperation turned to him and
said. quietly:
''The scaffo1ding broke beneath them, did
it not?" AT which he first stared and then
fluhgup his arms with wild but suppressed
cry. But he said nothing, and next moment
had settled again into his old attitude of
silent horrer and amazement.
He might better be lying with them,' 1
whispered after a moment, coming from his
side. And one by one they echoed my
words, and as be failed to move or even
show any symptoms of active life, we grad
ually drifted from the spot till we were all
huddled below in the hollow blackness of
that doorway guarded over by the dead.
Who would tell Eer father? They all
looked at me, but 1 shook my head. and it
fell to another to perform this piteous err
rand. for fearful thoughts were filling my
brain. and Orrin did not look altogether
guiltless to me as he lay there dead beside
the maiden he had declared so fercely.
should never be mistress of this house.
Was ever such night of horror known
in this town!
They have brought the two bruised bodies
down into the village and they now lie gt5s
by side in the parlor where 1 last saw
Juliet in the bloom and glow of life. The
Colonel is still crouching where 1 left him.
No one can make him speak and NO one "a
make him move, and the terror which his
actions have produced affects the whole COM
munity, not even the darkness of the night
servingfo lessen the wild excitement which
drives men and women about the streets as
if it were broad daylight, and makes of
every house an open thoroughfare through
which ANYBODY who wishes can pass.
l, who have followed every change and
turn in this whole calamitous affair, am like
one benumbed at this awful crisis. l too go
and come through the streets, hear people
say in shouts, in cries, with bitter tears and
wild lamentations "Juliet is deadr' ''0rrin
is dead," and get no sense from the words.
hive even been more than once to that spot
where they lie in immovable beauty, and
though 1 gaze and gaze upon them, feel
nothing-not even wonder. Only the re-
membrance of that rigid figure frozen into
lis place above the gul: where SO much
youth and SO many high hopes fell, has
power TO move me. When amid the shad-
ows winch surround me l see that, l shud
der and the groan rises slowly to my lips as
# l too were looking down into a gulf from
which hope and love would never again
rise.
The Colonel is nov in his fathers house
He was induced 10 leave the place by Ralph
Urphistone's little child When the great
man first felt the touch of those baby
fingers upon his he shuddered and half re-
c0iled, but as the little one pulled him
gently but persistently toward the stair, he
gradually Welded to her persuasion, and
followed till he had descended to the
ground-foor and left the fatal house. l do
not think anv other power could have in
duced him 10 pass tina. blood-stained
threshold. For he seems thoroughly
broken down. and viii, l fea-, never be the
same man that he was befo>e this fearful
tragedy took place before his eyes
All day / have paced the floor of my room
asking myself if | should allow Juliet to be
laid away in the same tomb as Orrin. He
was her murderer, without doubt, and
though he had shared her doom, was it right
for me to allow one stone TO be raised above
their united graves. Feeling said no, but
reason bade Ine halt before / disturbed the
whole community with whispers of crime.
l therefore remained undecided, and it was
in this condition of DOUBT that l finally
went 10 the funeral and stood with the rest
Of the lads beside the open grave
which had been dug for the unhappy
lovers in that sunny spot beside the great
church door At sight Of this grave and
the twin cofins about to be low1red into it,
l felt NV struggle renewed, and yet l held
nv peace and listened as best l could to the
ministers words and the broken sobs of
such as had envied these two in their days
OF joyance, but had only pity for pleasure
early destruction.
We were all there; Ralph and Lemuel
and the other neighboIs, old and young, all
except that chief Of mourners, the Colonel;
Tor he was still under the influence of that
horror which kept him enchained in silence,
and had not even been sensible enough of
the day and its mournful occasion to rise
and 60 to the window as the long funeral
cortcCe passed his house. We were all
there and the minister had said the words,
and Orvin's body had been lowered to its
nGal rest, when suddenly, as Iney were
about TO move Juliet, a tunlult was OBJ
served in the outskirts of the crowd, and
the Colonel towering in his rage and ap-
palling in his just Indignation, fought his
way through the recoiling masses till he
stood in our very midst.
Stop be cried, this burial must not
go on" And be advanced his arm above
Juliet's body as if he would intervene his
own very heart between it and the place of
darkness into which it was about to descend.
''She was the victim, he the murderer: they
shall not lie together if have to fling my
self between them in the grave which you
have dug.
''But-but," interposed the minister,
calm and composed even in the face of this
porrentous figure and the appalling words
which it had uttered, ''by what right do
you cali this one murderer and the other
a victim? Did you see him murder her?