San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-03-19

=
by the inminenCe OF her Ferii Madeleine
sprang to the edgeof the battlerlent anc
prepared to descend. But hardly nae
she got one foot over the coping stone
when the trap door, which she had CLOSED
behind her, was burst open Win tre-
Inenlous crash and Kerctscnyi, with his
dark features all ablaze with fierce ex-
citement and his eyes flaming hike live
Goals, came bounding on TO the platform.
"Traitressr' shouted he in voice OF
thunder, as he stamped furiously upon
the moldering pavement, would you
betray ne too? But you shall not es-
cape so easily. The hour is come, and
this night one of us two must die"'
Those savage words were his last.
Before the furious stamping of his
mighty foot the crumbling stones gave
way--a black and frishtfal chasn
yawned suddenly beneath his very feet
with terrific Grassland he was gone!
No cry came up from the bl&ckness of
that awful gulf, but far down in it's
gloomy depths was heard u dull, nuffied
reverbe-2tion, like tie sound Of i heavy
body being dashed from Jolgo to ledge
of seemingly bottomless abyss. aHd
then all was still. The last OF the an.
Gent raccc q K:r2t = !! :, Indeed gone
down alive into the grave, and the
CHASTITY prophecy was fulfilled
What followed, Maigl;2c c2%N p.r2r
have told. The horror Of this [. Owning
tragedy was 50 great and overwhelming
that it seemed to benum1 every sense
and thought, and the next thing of
which she was clearly conscious was
finding herself-she Knew not how--ept.
side the castle, and standing upon a
small patch Of open ground about a bow
shot from its gate, while Henri de Nor
temart, supporting her with ono hand,
held horse by the bride with the
other.
Mount qnickly behind Tee, for
heavens sake said he through his
clinched teeth, as he helped her up, ''or
We are lostr'
And away they went like an arrow
from bow, just rs a hustle and glanc-
ing to and fro of lights within the
gloomy building told that its inmates
mad taken the alarm.
BY daybreak they We're many mile
away from the terrible castle. which
was destroyed by fire only few days
later-a fit end, indeed, for that den OF
horror and death.
Madeleine returned e. i!'r native lana
III safety, and as the jewels which she
brought back with Ter SuiiCed to re-
deem the greater part Of her fathers lost
estate the old gentleman was very well
pleased with the whole affair, and always
looked back upon it and upon his own
ClevcrnesS ii bringing it about with I'M
satisfaction. But although he
never lost chance of talking about
my late son-in-law, Prince Keretscnyi,"
he Lad the sense to make no opposition
when his daughter, ut the end Of her
first year of widowhood, became Nine
de Mortemart.
When the story OF the "Bluebeard
chamber" in Janosz castle got abroad
many people openly expressed their dis
belief in it, declaring that Madeleine
must have been out of her mind with
terror ut that time, or else that the sup
posed heads were nothing worse than
wax models placed there by the crazy
prince to humOr his own strange mono
mania. But Madeleine herself firmly
believed, and believes still, that these
gha&tly relics were genuine, and that it
was only the courage and devotion of
her second husband which saved her
from figuring as Sample No. 1" in the
grim museum of her first.
THE END.