The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-10-09

Who calls me?" / lnuttered hcnrsely,
Knowing and yet disbelieving. hoping
and set viii a terrible fear at heart.
1T is I~-Petronilla," said the same
voice gently, and the form rose and
gl1ded toward me drought the moon
light. 1T Is I-Petronilla, DO you not
know me"' said my love again and
fell upon h. breast.
She n been firmly resolved all the
t,me not 10 Quit her father. and on the
hrst opportunity had given the slip to
her company. while the horses were be-
ing addle at Watney's farm. Stealing
back through the darkness, she had
found the house full of uproar and
apparently occupied by strange troop
eFs. Aghast and not knowing what to
DO. she had b%ethought herself of the
church and there taken refuge. on
my FIRST entrance she was horribly
alarmed. But as l walked up the aisle
she recognized-so she has since told
me a thousand times with prideAmy
footstep. though 1T had long been a
stranger to her car, and she had no
thought at the momen of seeing me
or Rearing the joyful news L brought.
And so my story is told. For what
passed = between Petronilla and me
iies et"een my wife and myself. And
III Is an old. old story. and one which
our children have no need to learn, for
.hev have told 1T, many of them for
themselves. and their children are
growing up 10 tell it. think in some
cod corner of the house there may still
pe !ound a very ancient swallows nest.
which young girls bring out and look
at tcndei'ly. but for my sword knot I
,enr II a beer worn out these 50 years.
What matter. e.en though IL was yelyel
OF Genoa? He that has the substance
lacks not the shadow.
y never saw my father again. nor
learned accurately what passed at Wat
iaey.s farm after Petronillu was missed
by her w companions, but one man.
Mhom could i'll spare. was also miss
solhe,hihs of q mystery. That was
Martin Luther. I have always be-
lieved that he fell in Il desperate en-
COUNTER with my father. but no traces
or the struggle or his body We're ever
found. The track between Wntney's
farm and Stratford. however. runs for
a certain distance by the river, and Mt
some point on this road l think Martin
must nave come up with the refugees
and failing either to find Petronilln
WIN them or to get any satisfactory
account OF her must have flung him
sen on my father and been foiled and
Killed. The exact truth. l have said.
was never known, though Baldwin and
! talked over 1T again and again. and
ihere were even some who said that n
servant much resembling Martin Luth-
er was seen with my father in the low
gou.l.riss not a month before his death.
\ put no credence in this, however.
having good reasons to think that the
poor fool--who was wiser i'm sane mo
n1ents than most men-would never
nave left my service while the breath
remained in his body.
have heard it said that blood
Washes out shame. My father was
Killed In n Glsiypt,}c1 a., H.
shortly before the peace OF Chateau
and about three months mr.
ter the events here related, I have no
doubt that he died as "a brave man
should. for he had that virtue. He
heId no communication with me or
which l have here described but would
ippear to have entered the service OF
Cardinal Granville, the governor or
the Netherlands, for after his death
word came to the duchess of Suffolk
that Mistress Anne Cludde had en-
auspices. Doubtless sha ia
long since dead. -
ANA so are many others Of whom I
AVE spoken-Sir Anthony, the Ouch
ess, Master BERTHE and Master Lind
s.rom. FOR 40 years have passed since
s nv thlliss happened-years of peace
1ul. happy life. which have gone by
more swiftly. as 1t seems to me in the
retrospect, than the four years of my
wanderings. The Lindstron1s sopgi,t
refuge In England in the second yenr
OF the queen and settled in Lowestoft
under h duchess of Suffolk's nrotecS
ton and did we'll and fiourislled as he.
came them. nor indeed did they find. T
trust, others ungrateful. though I ex-
perlenced some difficulty in inducing
Sir Anthony to treat the Dutch burphs
er as on an equality With himself. Lord
Wllioughby de Eresby, TIL; Peregrine
70 whom stood godfather in ST. Wilt
bTod's church at Vessel, is now a mid
the affection which his mother felt for
me having descended to him in full
measure. She was indeed such a WON
as her majesty-large hearted and
free tongued. OF masculine courage and
q wonderful tenderness. And Of hor
husband what can 1 say, save that he
was a brave Christian and-in peace
full timcs--a studious gentleman.
But IT is not only III vacant seats
and gray hairs that I trace the prog
ress of 40 years. They have done for
England almost all that men hoped
they might do in the first dawn Of the
reign. We have seen great foes de-
feated and strong friends gained, We
nave seen the coinage amended, trade
ouble the exchequer filed, the roads
Christian manner. the church grown
strong-all this in these years. We
gave seen Holland rise and Spain de-
cline, and well ma say in the yords
of the old text which my grandfather
set up over the hall door at Cotton
"Frustra. nisi Dominus."
The end