SECOND-SIGHT. Translated from "La Figaro."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 161, 17 July 1886, Page 4

SECOND -SIGHT. Translated from "La Figaro."

BS E. C. WAQGKNKR.

On a fine summer night in the year 1799, the diligence from Parig to Melun had juat disappeared in a grove of massive oaks stretching across the whole length of the forest of Senart, at that time enjoying as ©vil a reputation as the famous one of Bondy. Theclose and overhanging branches shut, out every ray of light, plunging the inmates of the coach into the most impenetrable darkness. Of inside pas?engera there were but two, though the rotunda and the coupd were both full. On the outeide a provincial tenor was shouting at the top of his voice a refrain from " La Belle Arsune," an opera much in vogue at that time. Under these conditions danger seemed impossible, and tha travellers comforted themselves with the assurance that they were in perfect security. The horses subsided into a walk. Nearing the village of Corbeil, the driver, as was his custom, whipped up his cattle and rattled noisily over the drowsy stonepaved streets, speedily arriving at the stage where it was customary to change horses. Complying with the conductor's invitation to refresh themselves with a drink, the passengers pot out, stretched themselves, yawned, and lazily locking from jne to the other, suddenly perceived that some one was missing. " Well if that isn't strange !" exclaimed the conductor ; " where on earth can my two msida pa=eengers have gotten to ?" "£>on't flurry yourself, old chap,"' m\d the tenor; •• they'll turn up all right, I'll be bound They couldn't have boon deroured by the wolves, you know •" I am sure there is no cause for anxiety " said the little village notary, also bound for Melun, "for jj u «t before entering the foiesfc 1 put my head in -the door and offered them a pinch ot snnfF " The diligence waited at Corbeil for some time, expecting every minute that the absentees would vaakr> their appearance, tbe conductor meanwhile suggesting a thousand and one reasons for the oelay but really at his wits' end to know what had become of his fares After a good hour spent in conjectures, the other p issengew fcsd become so impatientth.it he was obliged to go on his way, none of them having the sL^test clue to the mysterious disappoirance of the two insiders.

A few days after this eventful trip of Hie Melun diligence, Monsieur Mechul, pro lessor at the Pari* Conservatoire, xvas unformed by the Parisian prefect of police that his friend, Monsieur JM , had not been seen since the morning when he had taken his seat in the diligence bound for Melun. Greatly a-toniehed as well as di-> tressed by tne news, the illustrious mantra spared neither time nor trouble in his efforts to find him, dead or alive ; but in vain. So strange and remarkable were the circumstances connected with his disappearance that the worthy professor could talk of nothing el<?e, and neither sleep nor eat for thinking of it. One ni^ht he was lying in bed, but tossing restle^ly about on his pillows The clock of St. Roches Church, near which he resided at that time, had just struck two. The moon, entering broadly through the slats of the shutter?, filled the rcom with a eilvery light almost as clear as day. Suddenly the professor perceived, at the foot of hi? bed, the figuie of a little old man, humpbacked, hideous, and with a most ferocious aspect. He was holding in his long and clau -like ringers a coil of rope, as if in the act 01 casting it about an object at the moment unseen. Kubbing bis eyes, M<?chul sat up in bed, endeavouring to convince himself that he was not the prey of some optical ill u .-ion or a nightmare ; but no, There waa the hunchback still, and almost within arm s length. The professor was just about to a=k what had procured him the honour of tuch a visit, when his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, his hair stood on end, and he shivered as with a fit of ague, foy, behold, standing behind this hideou? humpback was a white shadowy form dimly outlined against the wall, and whose dull gaze eeemed to be directed toward himself It was the face and form of his dear and lost comrade, Monsieur M , At this moment a cloud passed over the moon, the room became dark, and the vision faded away. In vain Mdchul watched and waited, and even invoked the lugubrious scene anew - the supernatural phenmenon would not return. Toward daylight he fell into a troubled and feverish sleep. "I vraa dreaming," he said to himself, the next morning, as he haatily prepared foi a rehearsal at the Opera Comique— " I was dreaming, of course, and it simply shows me what influence a fixed idea can have over one The brain becomeg weakened and confused, and no longer distinguishes between the vision and the reality ; and yet 1 could have sworn that I was awake — that I saw my poor friend looking at me Badly, and making signs to me." But the thing that puzzled Monsieur Mechul more than anything else was th 6 presence of the hunchback. "What in the name of Heaven," he would say to himself a dozen times a day, " could that fellow haye been doing there ?" Everything wears out in time— even the most vivid impressions — |and though MSchul's thoughts still reverted to his friend, the memory of *he ghostly apparition, which had so troubled him at the time, had completely faded from his mind. Five years passed away. The imperial Caesar had just placed upon his head the orown ot the kings of Prance, and hie glorious advont was being celebrated with public rejoicings. like a true bourgeois, with his wife and family had gone to witness the illumination of the Champs Elysees. Standing lost in admiration before a sparkling fountain of fire, he suddenly became aware of a band stealthily exploring the depths of hie coat-pocket. Seizing the thief's wrist and turning sud denly, Mechul found himself face to face with a hideous little humpback, whose drawn and ugly features seemed strangely familiar to him. Where had he seen that villainous face and those gorilla-like hands ? All at once a wave of recollection swept over him. In his surprise, but for the timely arrival of a policeman, the thief would have made his escape. Trembling with excitement, Me'chul hurried to the police-station with the declaration that the man had tried to rob him, and when on the point of saying more the professor checked himself. Who would believe an accusation of murdur against a man whom he had Been only in a vision ? Tormented by the memories which this strange adventure had recalled, MtSchul returned home to bed. For a long while he lay with his eyes; wide open, sorrowfully reviewing all the cirdumstances connected with the disappearance of his friend and comrade, Monsieur M . Perhaps he

should have obeyed his first impulse and confided to the magistrate the events which had taken place fire years before. Bream or vision, was it not possible that the double apparition had been a warning from Heaven ? Precisely as it had done on that well-re-membered night, now weighing go heavily on his mind, the moonlight crept softly through the blinds, the parish clock struck two, and the echo of the sound had scarcely died away when in the ray« of light by the window a white and shadowy form appeared and a sepulchral voice murmured .• " Avenge me !»

Mdchul no longer hesitated, and the following morning he found him at the house of the prefect police. Had he been any other than the chapel master of his imperial majesty, as well aa a celebrated musician, the prefect would undoubtedly have sent him about his bu=»inees. As it was, the wretched hunchback was immediately placed in solitary confinement, and before the week was ouv, in the hands of the secret agents of the law, had made a full oonfession. Learning from a domestic in the service of Monsieur M , that on a certain day his master was going to Melun with a large sum of tnonoy on his person, he had conceived the villainous design of robbing him. Securing his pa3eaj»e upon the same coach, he had waited till the unsuspecting traveller had fallen auleep, the absence of other inside passengers facilitating his purpose. Under cover of the darkness, tho thick trees of the Senart forest, the rumble of the wheels and formidable voice of the tenor out-rider, ho had thrown a cord over the sleeper's neck and strangled him to death before he could utter a sound. Opening the door of the diligence, it had been an easy matter to push the body upon tne road and quickly follow it. Rifling the pockets of valuables and concealing the body with branches and leaves, he had returned a day or two nfreiward, dug a hole and buried it. The skeleton of the murdered man was found in tho very spot pointed out to them by the miserable criminal. The jury, who were n©t bo good-natured as jurors of the present day, would allow no extenuating circumstances, and hedied upon the scaffold exactly three months from the day he had conceived the unlucky idea ot picking Professor Mdchul's pocket.