San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-02
A STRANGE STORY.
QUESTIONS WHICH HAUNT AN ENG
LlSH ARMY OFFICER.

He Witnessed a Deathbed Marriage. and
the Sequel, He Believes, Has Troubled
Him for Years-was the Girl Buried
Alive?-If So, How Did She Recover.
An English officer tells the following
strange and most uncanny story, which
ought to be given as far as possible in his
own words: "A great friend of mine, a fell
low named D., one of Ours was en-
gagged to the daughter Of an old clergy.
man in Leicestershire. They were awfully
in love with 'ach other, and were to be
married in tel days; he had asked me to
be his best man, and all the arrangements
were completed for the wedding when he
received a telegraphic message from the
father of his bride, to say that she had
been taken suddenly i'll and to come at
once if he would see her alive.
"Of course he started for their place i'm
mediately, and was SO completely cut up
about it that went with him feeling that
he ought not to be alone in such a condi-
ton of mind. We found the sad news only
too true; the poor girl was dying, and as
they both greatly desired that he might
have the right to be with her until the
end, the old rector performed the cere-
mony, and they were made man and wife.
It was the most affecting thing ever saw.
Her mother drew off her own wedding
ring, which the poor fellow placed on the
finger Of his broken lily Of bride, who
lay there SO white and wan, the only calm
member Of the agitated group
"Three days afterward all was over.
Unable to bear his old life, D. sent in his
papers and left the service. For several
years completely lost trace of him; and
then, from an English surgeon who had
proffered his services to the German au.
thorities during the Franco Prussian war.
heard tale SO weird that it might well
seem impossible. Finding the monotony
of his life uncomfortable, D., it seems, en-.
tered the French army, and without much
difficulty, through his prSssns connec-
tions, obtained commission N one Of the
regiments which had been ordered to the
front.
After the battle of Sedan, among the
many who had been carried to the hospital
MORALLY wounded was D. Was it
a visionP he thought, that, as he lay dying,
he saw bending over him his old love, his
dead wife, in the garb of a sister of the Red
Cross. He saw the startled white face and
the deep blue eyes that he knew so we'll all
filled with an awakening wonder. There
was a sharp cry, and the sister swooned
away.
DEATH THIS TIME, ANYWAY.
"The surgeon in attendance hurried up
and giving her in charge of some of the
other nurses, returned to the excited man,
who insisted that he had seen the face OF
his dead wife. The shock was too much
for his enfeebled condition, his wound broke
out a freshand in few hours he was dead.
"On leaving his patient, who no longer
required his services, the doctor found the
Red Cross nurse delirious with brain fever.
Over and over again she lived what seemed
to be the last weeks of previous existence.
She was "a happy, promised bride-she was
girlishly excited over her trosseau and
pretty presents-she talked proudly of her
handsome and devoted loyer-and finally
of a solemn deathbed wedding That was
all--over and over she seemed to live again
former period Of her life-but of the time
since the doctor had known her there came
never word.
"a year or two before he had been con-
nected with one of the London hospitals,
and had been interested in this woman, who
had been brought there and placed in the
ward for the insane. The only point upon
which her mind seemed affected was that
she had no recollection of the past, and
seemed entirely oblivious Of her own iden |
tity Her name had been given as Mrs
Clark, and the people who left her had
never appeared again.
"But she died without recovering con- |
seriousness, and the mystery was unsolved. |
Among D-'s effects, however, the doc |
tor found letter directing that his few
papers, ETC., should be sent to me in case
of his death; and photograph in frame
which was so marvelously like the dead
woman that he at once wrote and gave me
all the particulars, not only of D-'s
death, but of Mrs. Clark's' life while un.
der his observation.
THE GRAVE.
HE forwarded at the same time plain
gold ring, which was on her finger when
she came to the hospital, and which had
simply date of thirty years back en-
graved inside the rim. Feeling that the
strange coincidence-for it could be moth |
ing more-was hardly enough to warrant |
me in disturbing the family by awakening |