The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1893-01-25

nave run ABOUT until MS DlO01 nOWed
freely; but now three human lives we're
at stake, one Of which was dearer to him
than his own.
On, on rushed the swift stations,
reeking with sweat from the mad race,
and even when their brave driver ceased
to urge them forward, as he leaned
frozen stiff against the dash board, the
faithful aud intelligent animals kept up
their homeward course as fast as ever.
At last they stopped before his house,
and their neighs brought out the in
mates, who, seeing Vladimir sanding
erect and without turs, at once OWNED
what had befallen him. With Rt ssan
love aud intelligence they las ened to
carry him in, stripped him ofhis clothes,
plunged him in cold water, aud then
rubbed him until he came to life again.
HIS first words were to ask how Irene
and her mother felt; but seeing the va
cant lcok on their fac-s,. he hurriedly
dressed, and rushed out to bring mother
and daughter into the house. The wo-
men of the household attended to their
needs, and ere long restored them both
to consciousness.
Night fell. The horses were spent and
must be carefully stabbed. Her Lady
ship must needs pass one night in the
humble home of the Poniateifs. say
her Ladyship, for Irene remained for
some time nursing her rescuer, who,
through the exertion, and the
exposure and the sudden reani-
nation of his only and all
absorbing love, fell prey to fever,
which made him linger at deaths thres.
hold for loug and weary weeks. The
girl had asked for this privilege, in or
der that she might testify her gratitude
to Vladimir Poniateff for saving her life
and that of her mother.
He raved about his Irene, who thus
learned what sentiments were harbored
in the brave young mans breast. In his
delirium, he fancied that he was snatch
ing her from pack of hungry wood
wolves; then the scene shifted to an Icy
lake, and he thought that he arrived
Just in time to rescue her from hole IN
the ice into which she was sinking, be-
numbed and frozen. Then it was an
avalanche that had overtakeu them both,
and with his hands he opened passage
through the suow-slide and carried
from under it the inanimate form of his
darling.
His rawlings lasted for nearly week,
and his life, despsired of by the village
doctor, had been in constant danger;
but Irere's unAinchiug devotion con.
quered disease and death, aud re.
paid him the debt OF her own life.
He was saved at last, and convalescence
began. She still remained by his side,
and attended to all his wants, and now
she discovered how learned he was, and
that, besides his taught Latin and
Greek, he knew also the old Slav.
One day she asked him how and where
he had learned the old Slav. In answer
he begged her to fetch him from his
bookcase carefully wrapped parcel
which he described to her. She COM
piled with lis request, aud he unfolded
an old manuscript, written, he said, by
one of "his ancestors"
"Your ancestors9" she inquired in as =.
tonishment.
"Yes, by Ivan Vradski."
''Ivan Vradski Why, that sounds
rather like one of my ancestors. am
Vradski." "
"Irene, you are not. You are Ponia-
teffl"
He said this in such serious tone
that she knew it must be true; but what
were his proofsa
"YCu are Poniateff, and / a Vrad-
ski; so says this manuscript, which gives
the whole history of your family and
mine from the remotest times. 1 will
read it to you. Listen.
When the convalescent paused, ex.
hausted from reading, she knew that
Ivan Vradski, an undoubtedly genuine
prince and former owner of all that her
fathor now possessed, was, at the time
Russia was divided into provinces, out
witted by Alexander Poniateif, his half
brother, who usurped Vradski's estate
and name and reduced the real Vradski
to bondage, whence he was freed only
on the sworn condition that he aud all
| his successors should take the name OF
Poniateff and be satisfied with a civil
Office in the small village of Bogoslovsk.
Ivan had accepted this degradation in
preference to slow death in the dungeon
where he had been thrown. To corrob-
crate the story, the writer had purpose
ly given dates aud details which, he
said, when compared with certain books
in the library at the Vradski Castle,
would be found true.
! Vladimir soon became we'll enough to
warrant Irene's return to her fathers
mansion, where she at once set out to
compare Ivan Vradski's startling manu-
script with the books mentioned 10 it,
and still extant in the castle library.
Winter advanced rapidly, and Vladi
mir was the constant and pleasant sub
| ject of Irene's thoughts. Now that she
knew he was even her superior in educa-
tion aud birth, and that he wanted none
of those qualities that form the character
of true nobleman, she felt that her
father would bless her love for her res.
cuer. How happy she was when Vladi,
mir would come to see her with the ex-
cuse of presenting her and her mother
with the choicest spoils of his hunt, and
how wretched when he left her and
stayed away She could wish to be
again under the snow-drifts, or at his
humble home nursing himl
nhricfmaq xuas veRv near now and the