The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-04-05

ARSOl Is PgJEeE

i mountain lEhS, dIku INV tlat 1c WAS
gone tie gloom and silence and utter
loneliness of this abode Of the dead were
almost more than she could bear
It was not long, too, before she dis
covered that the gnostike attendants
who peopIed her solitude were keeping
! stealthy but incessaat watch upon all
/ her movements, which was even harder
| to endure than the Jealous vigilance of
| her terrible bridegroom had been. When
she strolied through the neglected garden
or the wide bare courtyard, she would
suddenly catch sight of q black robed,
silent form DIGGING her steps like a
haunting shadow, She .Duld not walk
the battlements without seeing pale,
i lean, corpsehke face peer1ng out ut Der
from an adjoining loophole. No OPP
position, indeed, was made to the con-
tinuance Of her morning rides. but when
ever she ordered out her horse two Of
the mute phanto.ns that guarded her in
stantly mounted their horses to bear her
company. It was plain that for any
victim once caught in these fatal tolls
there was no escape but death; and she
felt instinctively that death itself was
already lowering over her, and that its
stroke would not be long delayed.
And now came a passing spell of wet
and stormy weather that lasted for sew
eral days, during which Madeleine, I'M
able to venture out, employed her en-
forced leisure in exploring the interior
of the castle, many parts Of which were
still quite new to her. She was all the
more inclined to occupy herself in this
way because here, and here alone, she
was left unmolested by the ceaseless
vigilance of the spies who logged her
every movement elsewhere.
In the course OF one of these rarnbles
she came upon lQpg, narrow, gloomy
passage, which she followed without
knowing why. The rooms that opened
out of it bore such marks of neglect and
decay as showed that they must have
lain uninhabited for years; but midway
along the corridor she met with an even
more striking token of disuse and aban-
donment-the doorway of a room which
had been actually built up, as il it were
never to be occupied again.
This of itself would have been nothing
very remarkable IN such place, but
Madeleine Was startled to perceive by
the freshness of the work that this room
must have been closed up within the last
few years.
OF what dark and mysterious tragedy
had these voiceless stones been the mute
witnesses? Had her terrible husband, like
other men Of whom she had read, walled
up one of his enemies alive in this dis
NAL retreat to perish by the slow tort
ure Of thirst and famine, or had he?-
But at that Thought she flung out her
hands wildly. as if thrusting away from
her some horrible specter, and was just
turning to go back when she happened
to notice that one of the posts of this
blocked up door had parted slightly
from the surrounding woodwork, leav-
ing crack through which it was posi-
Bile to see into the mysterious chamber.
Driven by an impulse beyond her con-
troll she crept up to it and peeped
through.
There was not much to be seen within
after all--only bare, dusty, unfurnished
room, at the farther end of which hung
black curtain. But strange horror
fell suddenly upon her as she gazed, and,
springng back as if from the edge of
precipice, she turned and fed away.
Two days after Madeleine was wan
dering aimlessly along tapestried gal
lery which she had not seen before, when
her foot slipped and she fell with some
force against the wall. To her surprise
the wall seemed to yield with her, and
she guessed that she must have accident
ally touched the spring Of some secret
panel. She lifted the tapestry, pushed
back an oaken panel which was stand
ing ajar behind it, and found herself
with what feeling may be easily mag
ined-in the mysterious room with the
black curtain.
For one moment she stood motionless,
glancing round her with secret horror
which she could neither understand nor
resist.
The door which had been walled up,
when thus seen from the inside, ap-
pearcd to be massive framework Of
solid black oak, cla1nped and banded
with iron; and the sight of it increased
Madeleine's terror. as she thought how
frightful that secret must be for which
even such defenses as these were ac-
counted insufficient
The room was covered SO thickly with
dust that her first step into it had stirred
up cloud which almost choked her;
but on the bare, unswept floor she saw a
line Of footprints leading up to the
black curtain and another line returning
from it, Those footprints could belong
to no one but her husband, and behind
that curtain the secret must lie.
With heart throbbing as if it would
burst the excited girl went desperately
up to the mysterious veil, paused irreso-
lutely for one instant, and then, Selling
the curtain convulsiyely with both her
hands, tore it back As she saw what it
had concealed she uttered low, chok-
ing cry, swayed helplessly forward, and
would have sunk to the ground but for
the support of somh object against which
she blindly fell
On kind of shelf behind the curtain
stood small glass case, within which,
, on a narrow strip Of black velvet, were
ranged three human heads--the heads OF
! young and beautiful women, still lovely
as when they lived. and preserved with