Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1893-01-20

horses, rolled himself on the snow, and
have run about until his blood flowed
freely; but now three human lives were
at stake, one of which was dearer to him
than his own.
On, en- 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 and intelligent animals kept up
their homeward course as fast as ever.
At last they Stopped before his house,
and their neigbs brought out the in
mates, who, seeing Vladimir sanding
erect and without iurs, at once OWNED
what had befallen him. With RI ssiau
love and intelligence they has ened to
carry him in, stripped him of his clothes,
plunged him in cold water, and then
rubbed him until he came tollfe again.
HIS first words were to ask how Irene
and her mother felt; but SEEING the va
cant lcok on their faces, 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 res ored 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 Poniateffs. l say
her Ladyship, for Irene remained for
some time nursing her rescuer, who,
thrnnnh "a nvarkinn ond the
exposure aud the sudden reani-
nation of his only and all
absorbing love, fell a 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 a 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 overtaken them both
and with his hands he opened a passage
through the snow-slide and carried
from under it the inanimate form of his
darling.
His rawlings lasted for nearly week
and his life, despaired of by the village
doctor, had been in constant danger;
but Irene's unflinching devotion con-
quered disease and death, and 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 solf-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, and he unfolded
an old manuscript, written, he said, by
one of 'this ancestors"
"Your ancestors2" she inquired in as J..
tonishment.
"Yes, by Ivan Vradski."
"Ivan Vradskil Why, that sounds
rather like one of my ancestors. am a
Vradski."
'Irene, you are not. You are a Ponia-
teff!"
Z He said this in such serious tone
that she knew it must be true; but what
were his proofs2
"Ycu are Poniateff, and Vrad-
ski; so says this n ranuscript, which gives
the whole history of your family and
mine from the remotest times. / 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 Poniateff, his half
brother, who usurped Vradski's estate
and name aud reduced the real Vradski
to bondage, whence he was freed only
ON the sworn condition that he and all
his successors should take the name of
Poniateff and be satisfied with 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 well 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 in 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-
ton and 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 himi
AZ