The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-11-23

0ccOuut Oh tuo PkioolcI y o4trtfue yOuLu
and owing to tho urgency Of her condi-
ton, and further relying on the fact that
she may have on her trial some explana-
ton to give which may mitigate in the
eyes OF the court her moral delinquency
In the matter, an willing that every
kind Of personal consideration should be
shown to her consistent with her safe GUS
tody."
The hint Of tho magistrate was not
lost on the sergeant or his kind hearted
wife, and when she returned with them
to the gendarmcrie they shared with her
whatever comforts they themselves pos
sessed. But though she had some measure
of comfort her state of mind was pitiable
in the extreme. At one fell blow she had
lost all that earth had TO give her-hus-
band-for was not the discovery of his
true character worse than death?-father
mother, home, friends, honest name, all
that makes the happiness of life. Nay,
was she not even at the moment a pris-
oner on a criminal charger A prisoner,
90 that her child must be born in prison
and be stained for all its life with tho
prison taint!
The idea appalled, her, and in the great
anguish of her soul o wild idea came to
her. She would run away il she could
from the prison. She had every oppor-
tunity, for tho room she occupied was
not even locked, since no one thought it
possible that she could even make an at
tempt to escape. She would seek a shell
ter OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES her trou-
BILE. She might die, starve or perish
from the cold, but death had no terrors
for her. All she hoped was that her
child would not be born in the prison.
She felt that If she could once get out
into the free air, no matter where, her
little one might escape the prison taint--
that it might not be cursed with the sins
of its father or with her own unhappi-
ness.
While the thought was upon her sbe
rose up and stole to the door. 1t was
night. Not sound was TO be heard
save the gentle rustling of the trees. She
was a mountain bred girl, and the sound
this voice Of nature to which she was
accustomed coming through the still
bess-brought an unutterable relief to
her soul. A sense of freedom came 70
her through all the pains that racked her.
She passed into the night and fled on
her way with one blind hope ever before
her-that her child should not bear the
prison faint.
AS the morning was breakingshe found
herself close to little wayside shrine.
Her strength was going fast, bncs the
sight gave her renewed energy. AS she
looked through the grating that guarded
It in front she saw the figure of the di-
vine mother, and her heart gave glad
throb as she sank to her knees in the
aust and bowed her weary head while
bhe prayed. She felt no fear now. With
that divine image of motherhood and
suffering before her she felt that her
prayer was heard, and that her child
would bo free from the curse of its fa-
therhood. There alone, save for what
she felt to be the presence of the Mother
of Sorrows, she endured all the pangs of
her maternity.
As the light grew in the east her
thoughts hovered between the child that
lay upon her breast and that other Child
whose star was seen in the eastern sky so
many centuries ago, and the solace Of
her pain came in the JOY thata man was
born into the world.