The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-08-18

stiffness, the thick darkness, the lone
Illness, and yet those others | knew 10y
every nerve and thrill of my body were
still there. Slowly the sort of paralysis
that comes upon one in hidcous
dream driftcd over me. my limbs seem
ed powerless to move further. | sup
pose the strain became too great, for
remember no more.
In the morning, hastily summoned
10y Brother Matthias the father super
ior and Digby found me lying uncoE-
scious on the floor of the old refectory,
numbed and rigid, so they said. And
for a day or two l had to stay with
the brethren and he nursed by Hugh,
who tended me with all the care and
devotion of woman. Father Cyril,
too, a very different person from him
| had taken for the head of the mon
astery, was throughout most kind and
solictous for my comfort. We had
more than one talk about various
things, but | carefully abstained from
telling either him or Brother Crispin
Of my nights experience in that
ancient dwelling. Their idea evident
ly was that had been sleep-walking,
and strayed out of the dormilory to
where l was found; and in this i'm
preston it seemed best to leave them
uEdisturbed. But strange thing
happened. The day before | left the
place, Hugh proposed to show me
round the old priory ruins, the rem
nant of the church, the cloister, and
the other parts of the former conven-
tual domicile I had not yet seen. AS
to the latter promptly excused my
self, but to the church we went. Uu-
der other circumstances I should have
revealed in the wealth of delicate
sculpturing to be seen here, and many
beautiful monuments, but felt haunt
ed and oppressed by the nearness of
, the weird house adjoining and its men,
cries. Within the ruins We passed
finelycarved alabaster altar-tomb
recessed in the wall, and bearing the
full-length efligy of an ecclesiastic at
tired in canonical vestments. "Yon-
der cleric" said Hugh, in a low voice,
''if tradition is to be credited, deserv-
ed no such sumptuous memorial trap
pings as these. His life was Il scan
dial to our Holy Church, and his evil
deeds drew down to perdition many of
the brethren committed to his charge
The country folk hereabout always
speak of him as the Black Prior" |
looked close at the recumbent figure
with it's boldly-cut features, and
great shudder aud curdle of the veins,
came over me, for surely these sculp-
tured lineaments were those of the
ruler of that midnight feast. The
straight line of the brows, the unus-
ual width Of jaw, but, above all, the
tell-tale protruded lower lip-the YER
ismilitude was marvellous. "What's
wrong?' said Brother Crispin. "Your
pedestrian fatigues and sleep-waking,
I'm afraid, have been too much for you
YOU look faint" And | felt faint, or
dizzy, or something I had tried to
bring myself to view the whole gtue-
some experience as q mere nightmare,
an hallucination. But was this imagin-
ed likeness of the dead to a phantasm,
it was, seen by the living pure coin
cidence? know not what to think,
nor why have been singled out to
carry about with me memory so
terribly vivid and haunting of ghast-
ly pageant.
Such was the narrative of the Rev.
erend Bcrtram Some years
later, visited Redmere 'in memoriam' !,
and found the monument Of the "Black
Prior exactly as it had been describ-
ed to me, the facial peculiarities at
once recognizable. An inscription in
black letter ran round the tomb, of
which "Hic facet corpus" and then the
name "Ricard Proris de Redemere,"
could be made out. Twice after hear
ing Bertram's story saw him, but,
though he made no further allusion to
the subject of his recital, could see
the man was far from being either his
usual men al self or in his wonted
health A shadow seemed to hang
about him, and certain grave sclem-
nifty of manner to have replaced the
old brisk cheeriness And the sequel
was sadder still Before the New
Year following that Eve of All Hallow-
maS-Whcthcr from shock oil the
nerves, or bad chill followed by inso-
mnia, or both-my best friends and
"chummicst" of old friends had pass
ed over to the Gland where all things
are forgotten. " The Englishuomom.
"Io on wouldn't think that wreck Oft
man over there could speak five lam
guages."
"No. What caused his downfall 7"
"Didn't know how to say no.
GLOW is your daughter getting on
with the piano, Gibbs?'
"Fust-rate. She can play with both
hands, now. Says she'll be able to play
with her car in six months"