Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-08-05


be, but his quiet tone and the deep,
melancholy, truthful expression of his
eyes produced in me longing to bear
his story. I therefore directed the but
ler to loosen him and let him sit in
chair. This the servants were very un-
willing to do, insisting that the man
should be Immediately turned over to
the police. However, when they saw
was in earnest they let their prisoner
rise:
sMadami' he said, strange as it may
seem, the purest and best actions of my
life are those which have brought me to
this terrible pass. In the unfortunate
being who is now before you surround
ed by hideous circumstances the world
would never recognize Count Hubert
De LONE, inheritor of one of the great
est names and descendants of one of the
proudest families of France. Yet such
is my title and my family. Pray par
don me for showing emotion.
At the outbreak of the late war be-
tween France and Germany was a leu
tenant of infantry, not yet arrived in my
twentieth year. The purest fires of pa
triotism burned in my heart, and in the
battles where we were engaged was
remarked for the heroic manner in
which exposed myself. Ipassed scath-
less through storms of lead, which dealt
death on every side, and escaped with
out the least injury till the battle of
Gravelotte, where round shot mu-
tilated both my legs and rifle bullet
destroyed my right arm.
When awoke, after the battle, I
was in the German field hospital with
bevy of the cleverest surgeons in Europe
about me. soon found that was the
center of attraction as the most extern
siye case of limb grating in the annals
of surgery. They had found dead man
of my proportions on the field of battle,
and from him they had transferred to
me right arm and two legs, and they
were watching with deep interest the
experiment of their growth.
For two weeks the result was doubt
full, but at last science and nature tri-
umphed over all obstacles, and it be-
came evident that was going to be able
to use the grated limbs as well as
ever used my own.
by the time could stand, the war
was over, and returned to my home in
Brittany, to recover amid rural scenes
from the rude shocks I had received.
Here, as I grew stronger, a strange and
awful thing happened. Ifound that my
grated limbs had will of their own,
and that that will was evil. Legs that
could hardly be persuaded to move in
the daytime, became at night restless
and tireless as those of a predaceous
animal Many time awoke at mid
night to find myself being carried
abroad. Many time my relatives,
hearing my cries, have rushed to my
room and found me cinging to the bed
by means of my jaws and my left hand,
while my right hand and both legs were
struggling to carry me off.
"I always resisted to the utmost, be-
cause knew from certain intimations
what the upshot of these midnight ex-
cursions proposed by my limbs would
be- theft, odious, horrible, vulgar-not
the romantic theft of the bold highway
man, but the low and brutal pilfering
of the burglar and sneak thief. Theft
by myself in spite of myself.
"sYou can easily imagine, dear Lady,
that my discovery caused me the keen
est anguish. The cruelist thing of all
was that must suffer in silence. Who
would believe my story? So skillfully
had the operations on my mind been
performed that there was no scar to be
seen, and, even were able to prove that
the limbs I used were grated, how
could 1 satisfy anyone that they had
retained their individuality and were
seeking to make of me an accomplice
in these nefarious undertakings?
"'The constant struggle in which
was engaged gave me wild and hag-
gard look. I became the victim of ner-
vousness and melancholy, and the peo-
pie of my estate began to avoid me.
When 1 came upon the road, riding or
walking, those whom I met whispered
and drew aside. They knew that | had
given my servants orders to watch me
at night and restrain me by force if
sought to go out. They therefore
looked on me as madman or at least
man with mystery.
"eThis feeling was not confined to
the peasants; my equals also possessed
it, and I could see by their ayerted
looks, their silence when approached
| them, that I was feared, if not dis
liked.
Zone only remained true to her
! childhood's beliefs and memories, but
that was the one whom, above all
others, I desired to please - Louise,
daughter of Marquis De Campazany,
whose estates adjoined my own.
Even to her I dared not explain,
yet her love and sympathy were mine
through all and in spite of all.
".The only human being who knew
my secret was the chief of the Ger
man surgeons, who performed the
grating operations. sought him out
and called him to my side for con-
sultation. His advice to me was to
wait with patience. my friend he
said, 81 ask you to wait not only for
your own sake but for the sake of sci
/ GuCS.a COulO .yO0 VI y yOuA eAOu0ASo
now by taking off the limbs above the
gratis, but that would leave you a
helpless wreck again. 1t might be that
other grating operations would sue
ceed as well as these have done, and
you thereby become possessed Of limbs
which have good habits. But that such
would be the case no one has assurance.
Besides, my friend, what loss to
science that 1t should be debarred
from witnessing this struggle; this
survival of habit; this proof Of men
tality in limbs; this evidence of the
permanence of impressions made by
the governing brain of muscles"
Must I always be at war with my
self2' l inquired. ''No," the surgeon
said, as time went on the struggle
of the limbs to bear me away on pre-
daceous errands would become weak
er and weaker. ''The physical struc-
ture of man." continued the surgeon,
sis renewed every seven years. There
fore. in seven years from now. If you
have patience, the legs of the dead
man which we grated on you will
have entirely disappeared; the limbs
that will have replaced them will be
entirely your own, subject to your will
and perrnaaHe6 hv va11T own mental