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


"If l could only escape-but there is
no hope of thatI Or If had even one
friend near me whom I could trustI-
God send me some help quickly, before
die or go madi Oh, father, fatheri
was Q handful Of money worth wrecking
my life forT''
It was q strange speech for bride in
the first week of her honeymoon; but to
poor Princess Keretsenyi that one week
had seemed longer than Q year.
And well it might. Could . single
living soul be doomed to eternal impris-
onment among the dead, that horrible
exile would ftly represent the life IL
such it could be called) to which Made
leine found herself fettered without
help or hope Of deliverance. The grim
old feudal fortress, with its gloomy tow
ers and crumbling battlements, its mil
dewed hangings, moth eaten tapestries
and pictures moldering out Of their
frames, seemed like vast tomb itself,
and the gaunt, gliding, spectral retain
ers who fitted noiselessly through its
huge, desolate rooms or along its ghostly
passages had the withered, gray, ifeless
aspect Of dried up corpses. Their very
movements had q slow, mechanical
heaviness utterly unlike any motion Of
living men, and more appalling to poor
Madeleine than even the death like ap-
pearance of their faces.
But to the i'll fated girl the most terri
flying characteristic Of these human ma
chimes was their stony and unchanging
silence. They never seemed to speak TO
each other; they never by any chance
spoke to her, and when she gave an or
der or asked question they either re-
Piled by signs or made no reply ct all.
Whether they were actually dumb or
whether their stern master had forbid
den them to hold any communication
with her, she never, from first to last,
heard one Of them utter o single word.
Amid this mute train Of specters one
might have thought that even the COM
panionship Of her mysterious and terri
BILE husband-who at least wore human
face and spoke with human voice
would be q kind Of relief to her. But
the instructive terror which had always
underlain her girlish admiration Of
Keretsenyi had now filed her mind 80
completely as to leave no space for any
other feeling. She could not forget how,
when they stood together before the
altar, the consecrated tapers that burned
on it suddenly went out Though not q
breath Of air was stirring), and how her
old nurse had solemnly declared that q
0lanca from the fiery ewes of the taYrihla
bridegroom had made these weaker
flames tremble and expire. Nor had she
forgotten how Keretsenyi, when excited
by an argument with one Of her fathers
military guests, had darted at his adver-
sary a look beneath which Col. De Malst
IA strong and courageous man In the
prime Of ife-seemed to shrink and
wither like paper shriveling in the fire.
What could he be, this man to whom
she had bound herself forever9 This
man with the beauty Of q god and the
glance Of q demon, accomplished as .
hero Of romance, yet savage as q wolf Of
the forest. That some fearful tragedy
lay behind the impenetrable mystery
that wrapped him like q pan she felt
only too sure, and this suspicion was
vaguely but terribly confirmed on the
very day after their. arrival at JanosS
castle.
The two earlier meals having been
taken in their own room, the evening re-
past was the princess first introduction
to the great dining hall, which, having |
been built to hold scores Of armed men,