San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-23
4 vooooo PRIESTS VICTIM.
Tragic Story b the Death OF
Moore's "The Rose of the Isles"

MOOre'S 'The Rose OF the Isles"
We we're putting our after dinner cigars
and, strangely enough for a dinner party,
we had somehow drifted into a talk upon
the supernatural. Perhaps it was the
dreamy air of Bermuda or the fairylike
scenery from the hills at st. George, but
whatever was the exciting cause" as my
friend the doctor would say, he himself
was all skepticism on the subject. When
one of the majors guests eemed to take
the power of voodooism seriously, the doctor
laughed outright, whereupon several pairs
of eyes were turned toward our host and
there was an awkward pause, which the
major presently relieved by saying:
LET me tell you a bit of family history.
It was in the old Bermuda days and the
characters in the tragedy were, first, my
uncle, an officer, then stationed here with
his regiment; second, a beautiful young
Bermudian, whom Tom Moore celebrated
in his poem, The Rose of the Isles;' the
third, a pretty and accomplished quadroon
maid, and the fourth was a voodoo priest.
my uncle won the love of the fair Ber-
mudian and their engagement was an
nounced. Not many days afterward a
strange illness seized the intended bride.
She dropped. She avoided the sight of all
men, even that of her father, to whom she
had been tenderly attached. AS for her
lover, she pinned for him when he was away
and when he was near her she sat with
downcast eyes and in silence. Both body
and mind seemed gone when the baffled
medical skill Of Bermuda suggested a
change of scene and climate. In England
she became perfectly well. Her health
and spirits were fully restored. Back she
came to Bermuda and her lovers heart.
"What happened9 She became i'll with
the same symptoms as before. The we'd
ding was postponed To England she
went again. Her health was restored.
Back she came to Bermuda and her lovers
heart again. and this time she was happily
married in Pembroke church. But now
for the third time the illness seized her
and in a few months she was dead. Let
me say here that the quadroon maid / have
mentioned did not accompany her young
mistress On either Of the voyages to Eng
land.
Twelve years ago I was here on a mil
itary commission. One morning / re-
ceived a request from a friend at Hamilton
to call at my earliest convenience. went
at once. An old servant Of his, who was
dying, wished to see me. When l was
alone with her she confessed that she had
been the cause of the illness and death Of
The Rose of the Isles
"She said that she had been madly in
love with my uncle and had gone to a VOC
doc priest for a charm. The priest directed
her to bring him three garments that were
in the habit of being worn nearest the skin
of the rival to whom the lover had given
his affections. This the quadroon was cas-
lily able to do by reason of her position as
maid. She told me that her mistress, while
she wore the garments over which the spell
had been cast. was affected by the symp-
toms ! have mentioned, but when she wa
away from the spell Of the voodoo her love
and health returned. When she became a
bride the quadroon got the priest to work
a much stronger charm, which he did, and
by means of the garments, as before, and
with the same results, except that the
charm ended fatally. What have you to
say to that, doctor?"
"Oh," said the doctor, waking up from a
~reverie, ''the garments were poisoned, of
course New York Herald.