Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1897-05-29


even after her SON S death, steadily |
refusing the shroud Of Grape, and |
having always in the house light,
flowers, perfume and pleasant CON-
pany.
The step-children looked curious
~ at each other as year after year
slid away and said to each other
that she would never die.
Many of them died of dropsy and
other watery disorders, and their
children grew up, but at 80 Mistress
Chevalier was still alive-and at 9S,
although, truth to tell, she had
shriveled into brown mummy, and
sat all day and ofttimes all night in
a great wadded chair with hood
over it, stuffed about with cushions
and proped with pillows and hot wa
ter bottles. Her body had mummi-
| fed, but her mind was as clear and
crystal as Ice.
She would look with her deep
black eyes at the faithful mulatto
slave woman, who waited upon her,
and laugh to herself-a strangely
clear laugh to issue from such
shrunken lips.
Sometimes her step grandchildren
would 60 to see her. When they
were children, they were afraid, but
as the years passed they got quite
used to the sight of the great coffin
in one end of the room.
"It is very comfortable bed,'
Mistress Cheyaler would often say.
And several times, when she thought
the hour had surely come, she made
the slave woman and her daughters
put it on its trestles and lift her in,
and she would lie waiting for death,
| gazing with corpse-like smile at
the generals portrait.
At these times the family, in all
its branches, rejoiced. There were
only few of the direct line left.
| Nearly all had married. Some we're
rich, and some were poor, and all
were avaricious.
At last, one morning the faithful
mulattress found the mistress dead
in her coffin.
| Once again the children of the
house assembled in the drawing
rooms TO hear the reading Of will
the women, as usual, hypocriti-
cal row Of yelled plenreuses. All
were present except the son OF Rob-
ert. He had inherited his fathers
hatred, and Mistress Chevalier's
death revived the story of her sons.
So the step-grandson staid away
from her burial.
His portion Of the estate should
be the place itself. But the will
ran:
ITO my faithful and devoted at
tendant ella, or Lucilla, Chevalier
| 1 leave the place and certain sums of
money at interest, herein more fully
described and specified"
This Luciila Chevalier was none
other than the mulatto slave woman
whose papers of freedom, together
with those of her daughters and sons,
had been declared before the will
was opened.
Therefore was she legal heir. A
gasp OF horror ran around the room.
The Chevalier place
But that was not all. If the sur
viving relatives of the testator should
attempt to set aside the conditions
of the will in any way, on any
grounds, sthe entire property, real
and personal, should 60 to the dead
woman's physician. Between this
man and the Chevallers there had al
| ways been feud and ill-fayor.
Niobe's son received life inter-
est of many thousand dollars, and
there we're few legacies here and
there among the poorest Guelph
Chevalier tribe.
The mistress gold and silver plate,
diamonds and other jewels were
locked up in bank in the city, to
be disposed of in accordance with
sealed instructions locked up with
them, year after the reading of the
will.
When Roberts son was told these
things, he turned white and then
green-a liyid, unpleasant shade.
The Cheyalier place, his patri-
mony, left to slaves
And no one knew to whom the
gold, the silver and the diamonds
were left. The sealed instructions
would undoubtedly reveal further
determination on the part of the
dead woman to insult and rob the
family.
Mistress Chevalier' coffin had been
placed in the family vault, between
those of her husband and their little
son. BY her desire the collins were
on one shelf, touching each other,
and covered with a velvet pail, on
which she herself had laboriously
embroidered the Chevalier coat of
arms, with it's significant crest and
motto.
The vault was in the churchyard
of old King William, Seaforth, fac
ing the salt marsh and fanked by
the ricefelds.