Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-07-27


Catherine Cavendish was esteemed Il
great beauty by both men and women.
which shows perchance that her beau
ty availed her little in some WHY'S, else
it had not been SO freely admitted BY
her own sex. However that may be.
Catherine Cavendish had had few low
ers as compared with many a maid less
fair and less lowered. and ait this time
she seemed to have settled intb an ex-
pectation and contentment of single
ness.
She stood looking at her sister and
me as we rode toward her, and the sun
was full on her face, which had the
cool glnmer of pearl in the golden
light, and her wide open eyes never
wavered AS she stood there she might
have been the portrait of herself. such
look had she of unchanging quiet.
and the wonder and incredulfty which
| always seized me at the sight of her to
reconcile what knew with what she
seemed was strong upon me.
When her young sister had dis
mounted and gone up the steps she
hall, clinging together in way which
was pretty to see. / never saw such
love betwixt two where there was not
full sympathy, and that was lacking
always and lacked more in the future,
through the difference in their two tenn
peraments got from different mothers.
Madam Cavendish was still in her
bedchamber, and the two sisters and
dined together in the great he'll Then,
after the meal was over, went forth
with my book of Sir William Dave
nant's plays and sought favorite
place of mine in the woods and stayed
there I'LL shutdown.
Then, rising and going homeward
when the mist doated over the marsh
lands like wells Of silver gauze and the
frogs chorused through it in waves of
sound and birds were circlingf above it,
calling sweetly with duting notes or
screaming with the harsh trumpet
ciang of the sea fowl, heard LOT a sud-
den. just as the sun sank below the
western sky, a mighty din Of horns and
bells and voices from the direction of
Jamestown | knew that the sports
which certain part Of the community
would have on a Sabbath after sun
down, when they felt so inclined, bad
| begun. Since the king had been re-
stored such sports had been observed
now and then, according to the humor
Of the governor and the minister and
the others in authority.
Laws had been from time to time set
forth that the night after the Sabbath
the Sabbath being considered to cease
! at shutdown. should be kept with de-
corum, but seldom were they enforced
and often, as now, a great din arose
when the first gloom overspread the
earth. However, that night was the
Both of April, the night before May day.
and there was more merryInaking in
consequence, though May was not here
as in England. and even in England not
what it had been in the first Charles
reign.
But they kept up their rollicking late
that night, for the windoW of my
chamber being toward Jamestown, and
the wind that way. could hear them
till fell asleep. At midnight l awak-
ened suddenly at the sound of light
laugh, which | knew TO be Mary Cav
endish's. There was never in the maid
any power of secrecy when her hui
NOR oyercame her. She laughed
again, and / heard hushing voice,
which | knew to be neither her sis
ter's nor grandmother's, but mans.
| was up and dressed in a triee, and
sword in hand, and out of my window,
Z which was on the first floor, and there
was Mistress Mary and Sir Humphrey
Hyde. | stepped between them and
thrust aside Sir Humphrey, who
would have opposed me. Go into the
house, madam" said | to her, and
pointed to the door, which stood open.
Then, while she hesitated. half
of obedience strong upon her, yet with
angry willfulness urging her to re-
bellion, forth stepped her distant
cousin Ralph Drake from behind a
white Towering thieket, and demanded
to know what that cursed convict fell
low did there, and had lie not a right
to parley with his cousin, and was her
honor not safe with her kinsman, and
he an English gentleman? I perceived
by Ralph brakes voice that he had
perchance been making gay with the
jewellers at Jamestown, and stood still
when he came bullyingly toward me.
but at that minute Mistress Mary
spoke.
II will not have such language to
my tutor. Cousin Ralph" said she,
Ralph Drake and his shadow