Year: 1877




fathers notice, and as he now went out
every morning at an early hour, sherose
one day sooner than usual, and knocked
at the door of his dressing room. There
was no answer, and, unclosiDg the door,
she looked in to see if he were already
gone. The curtains were still drawn,
but through them some of the morning
beams found their way and by the dim
siekly light, Alice beheld an object that
made her clasp her hands and tremble
violently. Her fathers chair before the
dressing table was vacant; but beside 1t
lay upon the floor, something like the
figure of q man asleep.


Alice approached, with her heart beat
ing so violently that she could hear it;
and there was no other sound in the
room. She knelt down beside him; it
was her father. She could not hear him
breathe, and she drew back the curtains
He was as pale as marble, and his eyes
were open, but fixed. She uttered not
sound, but with wild eyes gazed round
the room, thinking of what she should
do. Her mother was in the chamber at
the side of the dressing room but Alice,
thoughtful, even in the deepest agita-
tion, feared to call her, and rang the bell
for her fathers valet. The man came
and raised his master, but Mr. Herbert
had evidently been dead some hours
Poor Alice wept terribly, but still she
thought of her mother, and she made
no noise, and the valet was silent too,
for, in lifting the dead body to the sofa,
he had found a small vial, and was gaz-
ing on it intently.


81 had better put this away, Miss
Herbert" he said at length, in low
voice; {" had better put this away be-
fore any one else comes"


Alice gazed at the vial with her tear
full eyes. 1t was marked " Prussic acid
poison poison J"


This was but the commencement of
many sorrows. Though the coroner's
jury had pronounced that Mr. Herbert
had died natural death, yet every one
declared that he had poisoned himself,
especially when it was found that he
had died utterly insolvent. That all his
last great speculation had failed, and
that the news of his absolute beggary
had reached him on the night preceding
his decease. Then came all the horrors
of such circumstances to poor Alice and
her mother-the funeral-the examina-
ton of the papers the sale of the house
and furniture ;-the tigers claws of the
law rending open the house in all its
dearest associations the commisera-
ton of friends the taunts and SCOTS of
those who WED and hated in silence


Then to poor Alice herself, came the
worst blow, the sickness and death bed
of mother-sickness and death in pow
erty. The last scene was just over, the
earth was just laid upon the coffin of
of Mrs. Herbert and Alice sat with her
tears dropping fast, thinking of the sad
"Wbat next ?n when letter was given
to her, and she saw the hand writing of
her uncle in Canada. She had written
to him of her fathers death, and now he
answered full of tenderness and aflec-
ton, begging his sister and niece in
stantly to join him in the new land
which he had made his country. All
the topics of consolation which phi
losophy ever discovered or devised to
soothe man under the manifold sorrows
and cares of life are not worth blade of
rye grass in comparison with one word
of true affection. 1t was the only balm
that Alice Herbert's heart could have
received, and though at did not heal the
wound, it tranquilized its aching.


Mrs. Herbert, though not rich, had
not been altogether portionless, and her
small fortune was all that Alicenow con-
descended to call her own. There had
! been, indeed, considerable iointure,
but that Alice renounced from feelings
that you will understand. Economy,
however, was now necessity, and after
taking passage in one of the cheapest
vessels she could find bound for Quebec,
vessel that all the world has heard of,
named the st. Lawrence,-she set out
for the good city of Bristol, where she
arrived in safety on the 10th day of May,
| 1884,


Imust now, however, turn to the his
tory of Ashton. tLt 1a


1t was just after the business in Can
ada was settled, that he entered the
room in Quebec, where several of the
officers of his regiment were assembled
in various occupations-on writing o
letter to so by the packet which was