Year: 1875

troubled brain that the place in which
l had sought refuge was newly-made
receptacle for the tenement of some de-
parted spirit.


As / crouched there, what unbidden
thoughts of eternity filled my soul |!
Never did the future present itself with
such force to my halfcrazcd mind as
when hiding from the revengeful cruelty
of man uninjured by me in that little
place. Death was apparently my COM
paniOn. felt his icy presence around.
Within a few yards, perhaps few feet
of nae, the marrswless bones and decay
ing forms of many CHASTITY corpses were
mOuldering away at every stroke of time,
until, in the process, they became
blended utterly with the mother earth.
pictured to myself every horror attend
ing death, from the moment when the
shrOuded body feels the first touch of its
primitive element to the last, when all
trace, save a few bleached bones, is lost
of the image once moving among men,
made glorious by the immortal SOUL but
now shrunken to an atom by the with
drawal of that pervading and sustaining
essence of life.


The benumbing cold of the air, the
dark atmosphere, the offensive effluvia of
the mould, did not conspire to raise my
spirits. A pang of acute pain racked my
frame. At length heard the retreating
footsteps of my pursuer, as he groped
about the cemetery in search of his con-
cealed victim, become fainter and more
faint, until lost them in the darkness.
l suspected he was lying in wait for me
somewhere, hoping to lull me into secu-
rity by his absence.


But a strange sensation that never
before experienced possessed me-. A
confusion of thoughts rushed simultane-
ously over my brain. My past career
swan before me in uneasy motion. At
one moment certain event reappearcd,
and another effaced it, and it sank in the
great ocean of remembrance. My father.
mother and sister stood around me. /
gazed up into heaven; l fancied it bril-
liantly illuminated. Then a mist be-
dimmed my sight, and knew no more
what happened.


When / Iawoke to consciousness l saw
myself borne along as dead by several
persons, who were carrying me up what
appeared to be the avenue leading to a
mansion. l was conscious of intense
pain, which resulted, as was afterward
proved, from a severely sprained ankle,
and l Immediately sank into a swoOn.
When again restored to consciousness, l
found myself on a sumptueus bed, with
an attentive nurse tending my wants.
My ankle was comparatively free from
pain, and was informed that some Ia
borers, in going to the cemetery to COM
plete grave commenced on the previous
day, had found me.


The Chateau de c. was the nearest
house, and was borne thither, where,
through the skill and assiduity of an en-
ineut physician, called by the Count
d'A--, was soon in the chair of conva-
lescence. My introduction into this no
bic family was never regretted, for q
younger daughter of the generous Count
is now my wife. How she became so
can only be explained by a chain of cir
cumstances on which it is needless to en-
ter. The person who had been engaged
as my guide happened to have been a
classmate of mine in college, who had
taken umbrage at a trivial incident
which occurred to his disadvantage.
refused to aid in bringing one of my fra
ternity to justice, and the piece of gold
bearing his name l still possess. He
was, however, exiled from France to ex-
plate for multitude of crimes which he
had committed. In endeavoring to sati-
ate the cravings of revenge, which was
his first deviation, he became the propa-
gator of iniquity.