Year: 1873

returned WIN the report that the lac


was somewhat unwell, but would soor


be ready tc leave. AS she was gooe


horsewoman, and knew the path fol


some distance, she requested tho party


not to delay, saying she would over


take it by the it reached Inspiration


Rock.


Impatient to be gone the gentlemen


waited for nothing more, but started


down the valley at the top Of the


horses speed. 1t was, however, abou,


half an hour before Mrs. Yelverton
appeared to follow them, when
scattering snow-fakes bad already
begun to TALL She would pot be
6issusded from setting forth, started at
OF pace not interior to that of her
predecessors. Near the lower end oil
the valley, aud where the briddle path
begins to asend the mountain side. she
looked about for her escort. Neither
traveller or guide was there. She
pushed on, the snow now falling quite
rapidly, as fast as she could until she
reached Inspiration Rock. But no
gentleman and no guide; was there.
Hoping still to overtake her country.
men, who seemed TO be flying from her,
she urged her horse onward as fast as
possible. But the tracks al those she
was following grew fainter aud fainter
until they wholly disappeared, and the
path itself was not well defined Still
she went on until she came to a swamp
across which her way led. She put
her horse at what she supposed the
rigLt crossing place, hut he refused TO
tako it and sought another. She dared
net allow him to go where he would
fearing he would sink in the mre
bvt to force him to go where he would
not she was unable.


And now, with snow eight or ten
inches deep and rapidly increasing, the
shades of night were falling. What
to do in this terrible strait. To
proceed Oh was impossible to rctrace
her steps hardly less cifieult. AT length
she remembered passing not far back
a large pine tree, out of which the
FIRE had burnt, near the ground, almost
the entire heart. Back tosthat she
retreated, and found it large CROUCH to
admit not only herself, but the head
and about half the body of her horse
Here, therefore, drawing her shawls
and wraps about her as well as she
could, aud leading her horse into the
friendly covert as 1t would permit him
to enter she passed the night, holding
the briddle rein in her had What
were her fears and hopes, her phsicai
and mental sufferings during the slow
moving hours. and while the wind
was roaring and the snow was drifting
down through the pine tree tops, 1t
would be difficult to- imagine. She
remembered shat grizzly and cinnamon
bears, if not very common, were not
unknown in those regions, and that it
was not at all impossible that one of
them might pay her visit before
morning dawned. She rendered, too,
the terrible cursed pronounced on her
by her husband at their last interview
He had endeavored to acquiesce in his
wishes, admit the invalidity of their
marriage, which both Irish and Scot
tish Courts had declared legal, and
confess herself something else than a
virtous and honorable woman. To
this end he exhausted all his means,
whether Of argument or entreaty,
bribery or threats, within his power
but withou. avail. Finding her
utterly immovable, and losing his own
temper, this beautiful specimen of
British nobility launched at his much
abused wife the most tesrible maledic-
tious. Might she live friendless and
alone, In complete destitution aud
degradation, Might she die with no
human ear to listen to her parting
sigh, no gentle voice to speak COM
fortiog word, and no friendly hand to
to close the sightless eyes or give her
lifeless form decent burial.


How such a curse, though from a
really cursed as we'll cursing creature