Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-03-29

either to some other place in the colony
or to his home in old England. The lat
ter place was chosen for him within
few days by an unexpected letter from
his father. Egbert's elder brother had
been killed while hunting, and the
father wrote to recall the younger son,
who would now be the next Lord OF
Oswold.
But before Egbert Ingram could ar
range to leave Sagnauck other events
were shaping themselves to keep him
longer in the place of his wife's persccu-
tion. The inhuman sentence of the
Puritan Judges had brought on a low
fever, and before a week had passed
DOrOthea Ingram was insane. Her in"
sanity was of mild form, and the
vagaries which filled her mind were or
the most elusive kind.
Some days dark ghOstly clouds swept
over her and in the wall of darkness
around, queer forms interminglcd with
each other, fantastic shapes, distorted
faces of men and women. These would
appear and fade and others come. AT
times some woodland scene would appear
as plain as if she were looking out of hel
cabin window at the forests which sur
rounded her home; the waves OF the
ocean beat in her imagination and tall
towering castles built themselves and
disappeared before her eyes.
But at all times light cloud seemed
to float before her eyes, cloud whlcD
she was ever trying to penetrate and
which was so thin that she was ever IN
hopes of finding what was behind it.
Sometimes the cloud passed away and
then some other object appeared. Now
it was Egbcrt, now the minister, and
sometimes Mark Hillary. At length the
beclouded intellect was able to under
stand what the object of its desire was.
Hidden by cloud or by the perpleXing ap-
pearance of other forms was the fgure
of her mother, whom she could not re-
member but whose portrait she had worn
on her breast all her life.
Once did she see the vision, through
clouds and darkness, and the gentle in
flucnce of her spirit mother brought a
soothing peace, and Dorothea sank into
an untrOubled. childish sleep After that,
although the filmy mist hung over her
still, the vision never entirely faded
She felt that the fair form was lowering
over her and the consciousness brought
her rest.
During DOrothca'S illness, her husband
never left the cabin, and yet the two
were never in need Every morning,
when he arose, Egbert found by his
cabin door some article of game, fish
from the river, or a piece of vcnlson.
This soon became known to the busy
goSsips of the village, and every effort
was made to learn from what source he
received them. Failing in this they, fell
back upon the old theory that Dorothea
was being protected by that unknown
person to whom the minister had referred
on the day of the trial.
Mr.. Granville was not slow to hear
these tales. In fact he took pains to in
quire daily concerning the young couple,
and stored away every possible story or
theory as more evidence against the poor
woman. Every incident in DOrOthea's
life was now theme for suspicion with
him. He remembered when she had
given way to anger and knew now that
she had been under the influence of the
devil; her friends had been won by evil
charms; her insanity was the working of
devils in her mind, and the food with
which she was fed came from her
Master
About this time Mr.. Granville received
medical advice concerning his children,
and was hidden to take them for long