Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-05-29
ANNE BEDE'S DEBT.

sitting. 1t Smelled OF SheepSkInS, peas
ants, eau DE Gle, and the leaden ventilators
in the upper sky-light turned slowly and
slothfully.
The jurors, too, leaned YEARLY against
the backs of their chairs. One of them
had closed his eyes and let his hand fall in
crt, lullcd to Somnolence by the monoto-
nous scratching of the clerks pen. An
other tapped and softly beat the rat-a-plan
with his pencil on the table
The president pushed his spectacles to
the tip of his nose and mopped his damp
brow, his stern gray eyes, with a glacial
stare. bent iiNcdly upon the door whence
would issue the culprits i'm course of trial,
and on whom they waited to pronounce the
sentence.
SIS there not still another one?n demand
ed he, presently, of the sleepy-loolling tip
staff at his elbow. in hard, resonant
voice.
Cone responded the other; "a girl"
''Eh bien. bring her in, Them" said the
president.
The crier called, the door opened, the
girl entered.
a current of fresh air glided in with her
and softly famed the faces and tickled the
lashes of the curious assistants. At the
same moment ray of sunlight pierced the
shrouding fog and danced between the
frosty etchings of the panes across the
dusty walls and furniture of the hall of au-
dience
"a girl had said the tipstaff-a child,
rather, scarcely more than on the verge of
maidenhood, and so pretty in her little
furred jacket, embroidered with wreaths
and blossoms, and fitting like the skin the
rounded waist, straight and slender as the
stem of young palm. Her black eyes
were lowered to the floor, but her white
brow was clear and unclouded.
"What is it that you have done, my
child?' questioned the president, inditfer-
emily.
The girl nervously re;irranged her hand
kerchief that covered her head, caught her
breath heavily, then answered. signing:
"Nly affair is sad, NJ le President, very,
very sad
Her voice, soft and dolorous. went to the
heart like good music, that, even when one
hears it no longer, seems to vibrate in the
air and change everything by its mysterious
influence.
The faces of the jurors We're no longer
so morose. The portrait of the king and
farther away still, of the judeX curie, ap-
peared to make to her from the silent wall
benignant signs, encouraging her to brave
ly recount the affair, $50 very, very sad. "
but you see, said she, this writing;
it will tell you better than | can
Only she had first to seek it; to uncasp
the buttons of her cOrsage and draw it
from her bOsom-a piece of cracking
parchment, stamped and closed with the
pOnderOuS official seal.
"A Judgment mulmured the president,
running his eye over the paper, "a iudg-
ment against Anne Bede assigned to begin
today a punishment of six months i'm
prisOnment."
The girl nodded sorrowfully; the hand
kerchief, loosened by the movement, fell
from her head, and heavy tress of her
long black hair, all unbound, yelled her
features. 1t sought, perhaps, to shield
them from the gaze of the people, for if she
was white as lily while ago, she was
purple with shame at this moment.
ut is a week since we received it, SIAM
mered she, in a broken voice. "The court
officer brought it himself and explained
what it wished to tell us, and my poor
mother said to me: Thou must 90. nv
child, the law is the law, and one should
not take it as pleasantly | have come.
therefore, Toto begin the six monthsr
The president wiped his glasses, then
wiped them again, his cold, stern gaze
seeking the faces of his colleagues, the win
dows, the floor, the great iron stove,
through whose grated door fiery eyes
seemed to sparkle and threateningly re-
gard him.
"The law murmured he, ''the law is
the lawr'
And he read anew the summary before
him, the black, sprawling scratches across
the white page, declaring Came Bede con-
demned to six months imprisonment for
receiving stolen goods"
Meanwhile the leaden ventilator had
quickened its pace and spun furiouslv.
Outside the wind had risen, and now it
shook the windows, whisted through crev-
ices and seemed to hiss remorsely about
the ears of the gaping crowd:
1.-The law, yes, the law is the law!'
The head of the president bent afiirma-
lively before this importunate voice; he
dropped his eyes and touched the bell for
the tipstatf.
Accompany Anne Bede," said he, 'to
the house of the inspector of prisons
The man bowed, the child bowed obed-
emily, but her little rosered lips opened and
shook TREMENDOUSLY, as if words were on
them that she could not speak.
perhaps my child, said the president.
still something to say to us"
"Only-that ! am LiZette, Lizette Bede.
NJ. lie President; Anne Bede was my sister,
and we buried her, poor girl a week ago"
Twas not you that was condemned
and sentenced?' cried the president, sur
prised.
"Ah, bon Dieu, no! Why should l have
been condemned who have never done
harm to a fly?'
Then why are you here mad child that
you are?''
Because, if you please, it is because
Anne died while this business was before
the royal table, 0he lower court of Hun
gary. sit was when she was lying in her
coffin all cold and white that this order con
corning the six month arrived, certifying
that she must submit. Oh! how she had
waited and prayed for it, and tried so hard
to live to receive it? She had never dream
ed of this, NJ. lie President, and when they
had taken her away with closed eyes, mute
and deaf forever, my mother and | told
ourselves that we must repair the wrong
she had done because of her fiance, Gabriel
Karloney. 1t was for him, and without
knowing it, that she sinned, and we
thought"
"What, my child?"
"That to let her rest peacefully in her
mortal ashes, and that no one should saw