The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

my dungeon a secret panel that gave me
 access to hidden passages. one ot these opened on the platform and enabled me | to take the air as a ghost. It was rom another passage in the thickness or the walls discovered by me that l uttered | the words and the groans that so dis concerted Montoni and, l fear, alarmed | you on the occasion of his first attempt | to make you sign away your aunt property"
 Emily was about to reply when Verez- l zi, craved with drink and jealousy, came l rushing from the secret staircase through | Emly's room and aimed a blow at the 1 heart of Du Pont with his dagger. | fierce struggle began. Ludovico, who had | retired down the passage to watch. but whose vigilance had been defeated by the 1 fact that verezzi had come by way of | the secret staircase, came running up to | find that Du Pont had wrenched the dag ger from the Italians grasp and hurled | him to the stone floor with violence l that knocked him unconscious. "Oh, you are lost whispered Lndo- l vico. "Montonis people are coming. cannot stop to explain; follow me, all of you"
 Guided by Ludovico they fled down the | stnirs behind Emilys chamber and thence l into secret passages that Annette lover had discovered and explored with view l to some such emergency as this. As they hurried along he said "A party from the mountains has just arrived With wine and the horses have been left beyond ths outer gate. If We can ca1ole the warder there we may seize the beasts and es- cape.'
 Soon they came to a passage inelosed in the thickness of the walls of the court at the end of which concealed door opened near the outer gate. Leaving h's companions there, Ludovico went back and emerging from another door, came leisurely strolling across the courtyard. "Oh. thov' said he to the warder. Why
 are you not in drinking with the others? They will swill all the good wine before you get taste. I have just had my share and it is going rapidly .'rhe pigs" replied the warder would I had some of it to quench this thirst"
 "Well. you are a good fellow said
 I.udovico. "Go you in and I will watch
 until your return l know you would do as much for me- But make haste.
 The warder resigned his halberd to Lu- doyico and ran toward the castle door. instantly the fugitives emerged from the
 secret passage and rode off down the u all to freedom.
 The warder fingered long over his wine. and Montoni and his companions did nor realize until after protracted search that the fugitives had escaped from the castle. The result was that they reached i Leghorn in safety, and there took ship ! for France.
 1 A great storm compelled the vessel to l put into a little bay on the coast or l France in proximity to the Chateau Ia . Blanc near which the orphaned sirl I father had died, and close to the convent ! where he lay buried. The vessel had been 1 so strained by the storm that all the pas 1 sengers disembarked. The present owner 1 of the chateau. the Count de Villefort,
 recognized in NJ. Du Pont an old friend | and invited him and his companions to 1 the castle
 l On learning the story of the fugtives l the Count de Villefort insisted on Emily ! considering him as her guardian and ne | immediately set in motion processes to | secure to her the fortune which belonged | to her.
 | The Count who had but recently come ! to inhabit his chateau, was much dis 1 turbed by the reputation which it had Of ! heinz haunted and by the gruesome sto- 1 ries that pertained to it. The Marchoness ! de Villeroi had died in one of the rooms 1 and her spirit was still supposed to walk | there. It was believed that she had been l poisoned by her husband.
 1 In the castle was a portrait of this l | resemblance to Emily that even the serv
 ants commented upon it. Emily observed
 with agitation that 1t was picture or | the same woman whose miniature she 1 had taken from her fathers papers and | a confession of love for whom she had l read in the lines in the destroyed papers 1 upon which her eye had accidentally | fallen.
 The haunting of the chateau was [ ;Ia there | It was discovered to be due to the pres 1 ence of a gang of smugglers who had ] secret massage from the shore leading into | the rooms where the Marchioness had 1 died; but the mystery of the relations be- tween the dead Marchioness and her | father was still an occasion of distress to 1 Emily.
 There was legend that before her marriage the Marchioness had been in 1 love with a Squire of Gascony and Emily ] recalled the emotion of her dying father 1 when he learned the name of the near | by castle and his desire to be buried
 near the tomb of the Villerois One day. when Emily had repaired as | was her wont to the convent, she en-
 1 countered an aged nun, who instantly | exclaimed: Tt Is her very self. All the | graces which were my ruin! What would | you? What reparation can I maker sister Agnes" said the Abbess, hush l ing the half-crazed nun, lis excited Pray | excuse us" And she led the aged woman l away A few nights after messenger | came in haste for Emily. Sister Agnes | was dying and would see her before she ! died.
 1 Emily found the nun raving; but, be- | coming calmer, she poured out to the | astonished girl confession of who she | was and of the great sin of which she l had been guilty. She had at first taken ! Emily for the ghost of the Marchioness ] de Villeroi but now knew that she was l her niece, for the marchoness had been ! her fathers sister! M. St. Aubert had 1 carefully concealed from his daughter the | sad story of her aunt and had ex- | tracted promise from Madame Cheron | that she would never tell 1t. The Mar 1 uuis de Villeroi, travelling in Italy, had | fallen in love with the Signora Lauren | tini. mistress of Udolpho; but during l visit to the castle he had been So snockeu 1 at what he had discovered of her charac- 1 ter that he had set off at once Tor france | and married the sister of St. Aubert. Slg- ! nor I,a,,rentini had not been murdered by , Nontoni. as was reported. but had sec | retlv followed De Villeroi to France. and, | finding him married had again entangled 1 him in the meshes of her Vaccinations and J finally induced him to poison his wife.
 1 When the deed had been done the Mar l ouis. overcome by remorse. fled to a dis l tant country, where he soon died. Signora I I,aurentini retired to the convent. where l she was then dying, to expiate her sins ! by lasts and vigils. Hurriedly and brok-
 1 enly Emily told the nun of her connection | with Udolpho and exclaimed: s.What
 ! then, Madame, was that horror I saw n