CHAPTER XII.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 210, 9 July 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER XII.

" a vision vvsski) bi;fokk mi;." Can this bo death? There's bloom upon her cheek, But now 1 sec it is no living hue, But a strange hectic, like the unnatural rod. Which Autumn plants upon the perished lear, It is the same ! Oh God ! that I should dread To look upon tho bame I Bykon. "It was the morning of the fifteenth, child. It was after one o'clock, Gertrude. Call it a dream, vision, hallucination, anything you please; but I was wideawake, vividly wide awake when it happened. " I had heard the clock strike one while I lay gazing out. through the little grated window upon the cool night scene— -the clear, >tar-lit sky leflccted on the broad, dark i iver ; and then I closed my eyes and lay in a delightful reverie, thinking of the morning just come, when I should be free ; of the days «oon coming, when I should be re-united with Lily ; and in the midst of this delightful day-dreaming I heard a soft, clear voice murmur in my ear : ' Gabriel !' "The voice thrilled my soul, for it was the \oice of my beloved. But the next instant a tender awe fell upon me^ 1 opened my eyes and inquired, a-i if in doubt: " ' Who called me ?' " I listened intently, but there was no reply. I ga/.ed around, but there was no one visible- nothing to be seen but the bare walls oi my six by eight prison-cell, and the little giated window in the wall, against which xny narrow cot stood. Yet I know that I had not dreamed or imagined that voice. I knew that 1 had heard it ! I closed my oyca again, and lay intently listening ; breathlessly expectant ; yet, withal, strangely awed and calmed. The voice- spoke again, sweet, soft, low, clear, ano close to my ear. "■Gabriel, 1 come.' "I lifted my eyelids suddenly and glanced around. Nothing was to be seen but tho white- washed walls of my cell, dimly visible in the faint light of the little grated window. 1 called aloud. Nothing wa& to be heard but the weird sighing of the 'wind. I now began to perceive that nothing would respond to me, while all my senses were open and on the alert ; thus 1 closed my eyes for the last time and kept them closed, Avaiting in breathle.-^ awe tor what might next happen. " Tho heavenly voice breathed once more, low, clear, llute-Uke : " ' Husband, I am here.' "Lily! Love! Wife!' 1 aspirated, faint botween delight and awe. " Tho sweet voice spoke no more ; but as if my recognition of it had evoked the vision, this id what appeared before my sealed eyes : " A soft, white light, that dilated and brightened until its radiance filled the cell ; and this radiance scetned to proceed from the form of my Lily, who stood in the midst of it, her face beaming >\ ith celestial beauty, her brows contracted with a wreath of orange blossoms, her hair, silver in the sunshine and golden in the shade, flowing over her shoulders, her form enveloped as , in a sih cry mist in bridal robe and veil. I "As I gazed in an ecstasy of rapture that caught away my breath and stopped my I pulse, the celestial vision faded auay, the radiant light paled, tho cell grew dark, and ; I lapsed into a &tate of complete unconi sciousness. " It seemed to me only the next instant that I was aroused by a violent shaking from a strong arm and calling from a loud voice. I started up, bewildered, to see one of tho turnkeys standing over me and the sun shining broadly through the little grated window, and throwing a small square of golden light, cheeked with black lines, on the floor? It seemed to me that, only a second before, I had lain in the midst of a heavenly vision at one o'clock in the morning, and now I lay staring at the stupid face of°the turnkey in the full glare of day. I was so confounded that I could not speak. "And what the deuce is the matter with you ? Are you sick ? lias the doctor given you opium that you sleep so long and wako so dull ? , Get up'! Tho prisoner* are all forming to go to breakfast !" explauhed the man.

" I sprang off my hard cob pallet, doused my head and face from the stone jugof water that stood on the lloor, and followed my guard, to join the line of convicts on their march to the prison eating-room. Bub my mind was so completely absorbed with the thought of the vision I had seen that I could think of nothing else, not even of my freedom just at hand. "Immediately after breakfast I was summoned to the warden's office, where I found the sheriff waiting for me with the governor's pardon in his hand. Ho read the document to me, and then warmly shook mo by the hand, congratulating me upon my deliverance, and going so far out of his oificial routine as bo say that he believed it to be an act of justice that ought to have been done a year before, when the injustice of my conviction and sentence by the Wildeville Court had been perpetrated. "I thanked the sheriff cordially for his kind words, but told him, at the sa.me lime, that I knew the great wrong which hatl been done mo could never be lighted in this world. " While wo were still speaking, my poor mother was shown into the oJlieo, bearing a largo bundle in her hand. She greeted ever} one with a smile as she took the chair the warden placed before her. The sheriff congratulated her also ; but instead of answering him, she burst into tears and wept. 1 knew what was passing in her mind ; for, after the first shock of delight at unexpectedly recovered freedom, 1 felt that she like myself, was overshadowed by the reflection that we should always live under the reproach of my conviction and imprisonment, however undeserved it might be, and certainly was. "We waited until some legal forms passed between the warden and the sheriff, and then I was informed that I was at liberty to depart. "My mother handed mo the bundle that she had brought, and I took it and retired to change my prison uniform for a citizen's dress. " When I had done this I returned to the warden's office, where my mother still waited for me. We then took leave of the officers and left the prison. "A carriage was waiting for us at the gates with a large trunk, containing all our effects, strapped behind it. " ' I have taken two places in the stagecoach that leaves at nine this morning, and it is now only half-past eight. Wo have plenty of time to drive to the oflice and get them,' said my mother, as the carriage started. "I pressed her hand, but said nothing ; my thoughts were still absorbed in the vision I had seen, to the exclusion of all other subject?. "In due time we reached the stage office and got into our seats in the roach. Every other seat was taken. H was crowded with passengers, men, women and children, chiefly tourists, escaping from the heat of the city to t&e shades of the forests and the coolness of the mountains. Happily, they were all stn\ngern to us. Three days of laborious travel- changing houses e^ery eight hours at the way-stations or post-houses, as they were-tihen called, stopping three times a day few meals, and sometimes losing old passengers and gaining new ones — brought us at length to Wildevilde late in the evening of fche third day. "There were few loiterers- at that hour around the village inn ; yet it wa? gratifying to see the genuine pleasure with which they greeted my unexpected returnv It was extent that my old neighbours looked upon my imprisonment more as an unmerited martyrdom than as a disgraceful punishment, ' ' We did not linger there to receive the somewhat massed condolements and congratulations of our friends, but procured the use of the tavern hack and its driver,, and set out on. our road to Wildeville. It was the same carriage, the same driver, ain't the same road over which I had travelled Little more than a year before with my Inkle. Then we were going a way together,, a happy and expectant bride and bridegroom ; now I was returning a paidoned eomieb !' " After two hours' ride we readied the ferry, at the loot of the Eagle's "Rot, Cliff, and I got out of the hack, and blow tlie hoin, and gave the familiar call : " ' Boat"!" "'All light!' came booming across the river in response. Meanwhile, Zebedce, the driver, took off our trunk, and set it on the ground, received the money for the use of the carriage from me, bowed, re-mounted his seat, and drove off on his return road, for the hour was late, and he was anxious to get home. " We stood on the brink of the river. " It was very dark ; it was like the ideal river of death ; the towering black mountains hid all the horizon* and the few stars that twinkled at an immeasurable height in the zenith were but dimly reflected inithe dark waters beneath. Bub as we stood and watched we saw a light lea»ve the opposite shore, and we knew that our boat Avas coming. The light steadily approached us, and soon we heard the welcome clip of oars ; and soon afterward the bout was pushed ashore, and our faithful John stood upon it, saying : " 'Here I am at your service, gentlemen,' and he held the lantern up to see who his passengers might be but dropped it inamazement as he met my eyes, and; exclaimed : " 'Great Heaven, Mr Hadiion !"' " 'Help me to put the trunk in the boat, John/ I said, as calmly as, I could speak in reply. "He obeyed me, greeting my molfeor with a bow as he passed her- " When we were all in the boat,, and John had taken the oars> pushed it from the shore, and was rowing u& rapidly over the river, I spoke : " You did not expect em, John f " ' Who— l, sir ? N,o>, sir—no more than anybody else did ; bufe I am powerful glad to see you, sir, all the same, as everybody else will. 1 tell yom \vchat, Mr Haddon, it was a good thing foi: oM Slaughter that the men about here didn't know as much while he was in the neighbourhood- as they know ' now, for if tliey had, they'd have burnt down his old Slaughter House over his head. But they didn't know anything about it until after he had gone away, and taken Miss- Lxty with him. Then the servants' tongues were let loose, and the way they did talk would ha' mado an oyster's hair stand on end. We found out all the' black-hearted old beast done to Miss Lily, sir, begging your pardon.' " ' Where is ' Miss Lxly ' now ? I inquired, anxiously* "*■ Lord knows* sir 1 The old savage took her away near twelve months ago, and nobody knows where they are. But I toll you what, sir, it would be dangerous for that old brute to come back here, and maybe he knows it. Why, lor, sir, Mr Haddon, you would only have to give a hint to have a hundred determined men h\j your heels to go and burn the Slaughter House over old Slaughter's head, and him in it. Why, sir, the heart of the country rages against him for what he done to Miss Lily and you. ' "As my faithful helper delivered himself of this tirade the boat touched tho shore, and we landed, I was 'home again.' " John secured the boat, and then helped me to carry the trunk up to the house, my mother preceding us. " The dogs broke out into a fury of bark

ing, bub as soon as they recognised us they apologised and fawned in the most abject and affectionate manner. We took our devoted old Jess by surprise, but found her as much rojoiced as astonished at our unexpected arrival at home. "She prepared for us a good supper and comfortable beds ; and in about an hour from our entrance into the house we had been refreshed by a wash and a meal, and we stretched our wearied frames on our beds, for the first time in four nights. Conquered by extreme bodily fatigue, I slept until latu in the morning. My mother also had slept well, but had risen early. "This was Sunday morning. I told my mother at breakfast that I would go to church with her that day, but on the nexfc day, Monday, I should commence my search for Lily. I went with her to the Old Red Sandstone Church at the mouth of the Whirl, and engaged with all my heart in the services there. After the benediction was given ami we had left the church, w^ wore pleased to see tlio number of our friends who came around us in the churchyard with greetings of welcome and congratulation. It seemed that I had lost no ground at all in the esteem and affection of our neighbour?', who all regarded my condemnation as a gieat persecution rather than a just penalty. "We returned home much encouraged by the confidences of our friends. " The next morning I arose early, intending to commence my investigations at Hill Top Hall, and at Wildeville, in order, if possible, to obtain a clue that I might follow to a successful termination. " While I was dre.-wing there came over the river the sound of a ferry-horn, followed by the usual cry of : "'Boat!' " Knowing that John wns on duty, I gave myself no trouble about this, but proceeded with my toilet. I had not quite finished,. however, when John came in, and said : (( 'I'm afraid I shall have to ask your help, sir. The party on the other side have two carriages and six horses, besides heavy trunks and boxes, so that we shall have to take over the great flat-boat.' "Very well, John, I will join you in a moment,' I said, as 1 hurriedly finished dressing and followed him down to the ferry-house. " We soon got out the flat-boat and gofc her afloat. As we nearcd the opposite shore we perceived that the carriages stood, the one behind the other, at the base of the Eagle's Roost Cliff. The foremost carriage Mas black, and drawn by black horses. The hindmost carriage we could not see distinctly. As we touched the beach we saw that the two coachmen on the boxes were in deep mourning ; then that the foremo&t carriage contained two male passengers, also in deep mourning ; finally that the hindmost carnage was really — " A HISAKSE SVITII A COFFIN IN IT ! "The sight struck cold to my heart, notwithstanding that a funeral party was not so very unusual a fare to take across the ferry. "John stepped on shore and told the coachman that the boat was ready. The coachman nodded gravely and drove down upon the flat-boat. . "The hearse followed slowly in the same direction. Then two mounted grooms in deep mourning paced their horses soberly on to the boat. " When all was ready, we pushed ott from the shore. I gazed around upon the party ; but the attendants, the two- coachmen, and the two grooms were al strangers to me. , , " I o-lanced at the carriage ; but the gentleman within it had pulled down the curtains, so that I could not identify or even see him. "Then I had to give all my attention to the oars. It was a heavy and laborious ferriage. We were about twice the usual time m crossing the river ; but we reached. the home shore at last. "The carriage was the first to leave the ferry-boat, and"tako the road up the mountain pass. , T " The hearse was about to follow, where J went to tho side of it, and inquired of the diiver : „.,,«,» " ' Whoso body lies within there ? He pqinted to the coffin, indicating that I might read the inscription. " Very reverently 1 looked in tne side ot the hearse, and read the inscription on the silver plate. I read - oh, heaven of heavens ! — I road : LILY, only daughter of all vn and ella vale. p.okn July 15, 18— ; " I fell as if struck by lightning." (To be Continued.)