The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1891-05-28

black, funereal dress, only intensified
the crushing sense Of loneliness instead
Of relieving it. The brides eyes wan
dered with secret terror over the huge
bare walls, the massive pillars festooned
with torn and dusty banners, the vault
ed roof with its mighty cross beams Of
solid oak, the pine torches that famed
and cracked in their iron stands over
head, and the vast antique fireplace,
with its fantastic carvings, till her timid
gaze rested at length upon another OBJ
ject more strange and startling than all.
Just behind her husbands tall oAken
chair stood life size wax figure Tor what
appeared to be such) holding o small sil-
yer lamp in its outstretched hand. It
represented young man Of marvellous
beauty picturesquely set OF by the
snowy uniform Of Honved hussar; but
the face, instead Of wearing the fixed,
unmeaning stare common to such fig
ures, was wTithed and distorted as IL by
spasm Of mortal agony, which looked
80 horribly real in the fitful glare Of the
torchlight that Madeleine fairly started.
She was just about to ask some question
respecting this weird ornament, when
Keretsenyi, catching her inquiring
glance, replied to it with a smile more
fierce and cruel and terrible than his
blackest frown, which froze the half
formed words on her lips.
So far as she herself was concerned,
however, the first few weeks gave Made
leine no valid reason for her unconquer-
able terror Of her husband. To her he
was always attentive and affectionate,
though his affection resembled rather
the watchful care Of . kind guardian
than the passionate tenderness of a bride
groom in his honeymoon. He did his
utmost In various ways to make the
grim isolation Of this strange life more
endurable to her. Horses Of that match
less Hungarian breed which he had hith-
erto known only through books Of travel
were always at her disposal, and her
morning gallops over the hills by her
husbands side, with the sun shining in
o cloudless sky and the fragrance Of the
pine woods filing the whole air, were
almost the only bright spots in her dreary
existence.
Keretsenyi, too, seemed to feel their
influence as well Us herself, and to
shake of for a moment on such occa-
sions the mysterious gloom which at all
other times weighed him down like q
nightmare. As his horse hoofs ratified
along the eteep rocky ledge paths and
the mountain breeze whistled through
his long hair he seemed almost happy,
but the moment they re-entered the dark
walls Of the grim old castle the gloomy
spell was upon him once more and upon
his bride likewise.
When they were together in the even
ing Keretsenyi would often tell her ex-
citing stories Of the strange people and
wonderful sights that he had seen in his
travels, which appeared to have extend
ed over every part Of the earth, and
which he described with such startling
power and vividness that Madeleine al
most forgot her terror Of him in the in
terest with which she listened. But
then all at once he would stop short, us
II something choked him, and she, look
ing up in amazement, would find him
gazing at her with q sad, wistful look,
full Of pity and of yearning tenderness
such a look as Jephthah might have cast
ct his only child the moment before he
slew her.
On one Of these occasions, moved by
o strange impulse Of womanly compass
sion which she herself hardly under
stood, she took his hand in both her own
and pressed 1t to her lips. The strong
man started as II stung by viper,
clasped her passionately to him for one
moment, and kissed her as II his whole
soul went into the earess, and then
thrust her fercely away and rushed
headlong from the room.
The morning after this strange out
burst the prince suddenly announced to
her that he must leave her that very
day, on an errand which might detain
him for several weeks, and before she
had time to recover from her amusement
at this unexpected news (for hitherto he
had hardly let her out Of his sight, and
would never allow her to 60 beyond the
castle gates alone) he was actually gone,
and she stood watching his lessening
figure as he spurred his black horse along
o narrow, dgzag, broken path, which
sldrted the brink Of Q precipice 50 terrific
that few men would have cared to pass
It even at q walk.
But just then she caught fragment
Of the talk Of two passing peasants below
her, who, like herself, had paused TO
watch the reckless course Of the distant
horseman.
"Uncle," said the younger Of the two,
who was q stranger in that neighbor-
hood, ''if yon prince Of thine always
rides as smadly as this, he hath done well
to marry again 90 soon, lest the race Of
Keretsenyi should end with him."
"He hath naught to fear on that score,
nephew" answered the older man SOL
emnly. at was foretold to him long
ago, by tongue which cannot lie, that
no living thing, man or beast, shall have
power to touch his life, and that, when
his hour comes, he shall go down alive
into the graver'
Madeleine was almost ashamed to find
how immeasurably relieved she felt by
Keretsenyi's departure; but before many
uAyb Weto ONoE sue uau BOOo cause 70
wish him back again. In that lfeless
atmosphere the exciting influence Of
his fierce feverish vitality was like the
plunge Of an avalanche into 0 still
mountain lake; and now that he was
gone the gloom and silence and utter
loneliness Of this abode Of the dead were
almost more than she could bear.
II was not long. too, before she dis
covered that the ghostlike attendants
who peopled her solitude were keeping q
atenlfhy buk incesaank watch upon All