The advocate., 1895-06-19

know at this late day. that in the year 1884, or for
twenty three years BEFORE there lived not far from
Richmond, Va, young woman named Loretta
Liburne, descendent of John Lilburne, the Puri-
tan "leVeler,' who was, by the Star Chamber in
1887 sent to prison for distributing sedit0us pam
phlets, and upon regaining his liberty in l64O,
straightWay sued his captors and recovered dam
ages to the amount of two thousand pounds; who
led regiment against the king at Marston Moor
and was one of the braVest of the brave on that
memorable field and few years later was arrested
for treason against Oliver Cromwell in writing sedi-
tious pamphlets but was acquitted by jury; who,
late in life became a Quaker because the Quakers
renounced all human rulership; and concerning
whom Hume's History of England declares that he
was 'the most turbulent, but the most upright and
courageous, of human kind" character which can
usually be given the extremely radical in all great
revolutions, Isnd which no conservative reformer
has ever to this hour deserved.
Loretta was the antipodes of her famous English
ancestor in point of aggressiVeness. She was not
only difident and shy, but there was look and an
atmosphere of the angelic about her. A face OF
transcendant beauty was luminous with spirituality,
as if pure, serene soul had taken form and become
visible in her features. The reader would greatly
err, however, should he assume from this descrip-
tion that Loretta was of that spituele class who
look sanctifed because of ilheslth or imbecility
one of that class of young women who, having no
blood in their sluggish arteries look as CHASTITY as If
they were dummies" used for advertising the at
fractions of particular graveyard in competition
with the commonplace graveyard over the way; or
who, having no brains where brains ought to be,
hive cOuntenances made sanity by the utter ab
sAnce of mental disturbance. Loretta was healthy,
as most Virginia women of that period were, had
mortal appetite and rather more, than less, intellect
than the average woman, man either, of her time
But she was neither mere animal nor mere intel
lect. Body and mind were normal, but they were
subordinate to that mysterious thing we call soul
without knowing precisely what we mean. She had
the far off, rapt look of one who sees what is nVis
ible and listens to what is inaudible to the gross
senses of the majority who are of the EARTH earthly
From her earliest childhood she had seen strange
visions, and dreamed strange dreams, and had won
from her parents that unconscious compliment
which the worldly pay those possessed Of some gift
which Woos them heayenWard. They said: "She is
a very peculiar child" But as she grew to woman
hood the cynicm of those about her had repessed all
alusion by her to her visits to the realm of the un
known, and had induced her to seek seclusion when
drawn toward the inVisble and her good health and
had outgroWn her childish whims; that, in short,
she had shown her good common sense by foregoing
forever all communication with the world Of the
soul in order to devote herself to the frivolous,
sprit-dwarfing dotic driVel of fashionable circles.
This blsck-haired beauty, with eyes and COM
plexion which might have made Venus herself hate
her as a rival had been finished" at the Worcester
academy, where she had made Gertrude's acquaint-
ance and won and recprOcatedher ardent friendship
and early in December, 1887, she had arrived at the
Stlwell mansion for visit, long promised and long
deferred.
Reuben StilWell was a bachelor, but not an old
one. AT least that had hitherto been his consoing
opinion. 1t must be owned, however that he had
been very negligent of his personal appearance, ex-
planning his careessness with the remark that he
was "not trying to marry anybody" and that even
if he should take it into his head to engage in such