CHAPTER XVII. AN EVIL SPIRIT'S FLIGHT.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER XVII. AN EVIL SPIRIT'S FLIGHT.

By many a (lea h-bcd T have been, And many a sinner's parting senn, But lc\ or aughl like this. Sin Walter Scott. "I followed my stiff conductress into a vast, gloomy chamber, dimly lighted by one binall wax candle in the clustered chandelier that hung from the centre of the Ceiling, showing a huge, four-post bedstead, curtained with dark-brown maroon, which stood in the middle of the floor, and leaving the four walls of the room with its furniture lost in obscurity. " The bed curtains had been looped aside for air, and betw eon them stood a tall negro ■woman, in a •white tin ban and dark gown, rra\ ing a large palm leaf fan. " Miv? Row le> .stepped up to the bedsid and bent over the imalid, ga/ed at him fo a moment, and then lifted her head, baying loftily: " Geneial Slaughter sleeps. Come hero, my good man, and take this, chair, and sit by him, until he awake*. Then rioO and tell him that j-ou wait his oideis. He knows you by sight, and having ordered your attendance, lie will not be .surprised to find you here, so that you will need no introduction.' " Smiling slightly at the insolence- of this lady, I bowed and took the indicated seat. " Miss Rowley beckoned the black nurse to follow her, and both withdrew from the loom, lea\ing me alone with the old stricken man. "He was l\ing on the bed, under a cuiiou-ly embroidcu'd silk coverlet, probably the production of .some lady of the manor who excelled and delighted in such cunning and beautiful needle-work. His head and <-houldeis were raised by several pillow-. One arm was flung up over his head, the other hung listlessly down by the bedrid:. I raided that arm and laid it in its place, and then stooped to look upon the face of my sleeping foe— the face I had not seen for thirty yeara— the face, once handsome in it- youth, if one might judge from his poi trait, but now .'-earned, scarred, diabolical in its iccord of a century's tierce, brutal and unbi idled pa^ions, and altogethei indeed ibable in it 5 hidcou&ne.ss. " I blnank back into my chair, co\ered my eyes with my hand anil waited. " Seated by the bedside, I soon felt a e^l 1 honor creeping into my .spirit, such as I had ne\er felt befoie, and failed to understau 1 tho'i. I w;h m ei shadowed by the e\ il spheie of a deith-bed haunted by rem'>: >; e, dc-cited b} hope. " So cold and .till, &o davk and deadly, so weiul and uueiithly was this influence t':at I welcomed the wild-beating .stoim— thi lilting lightning, the rolling thunder, t!:t how Him wind, and the rattling rain as Ihinu- c i, thl>, naKual, f uniliai. •" ] had co\ered inyuje-. with my hand, to shut out any chance glimpse of the fcletpei'- face ; jet some strange fascination d't'Ni me, fiom time lo time, to uncover my e\e-> and na/c at what 1 loathed to look ■upon. '• A<- length, in -ueha ga'e, lencounteied tl.e open cu 1^ of the dying man gLuing upon inc. "So— jou've — come,' 'no falteiod feebly. '■ I bowed, and di^w my ehaii neaiei to " 'The cordial — quick !' he gapped,changii.j colon 1 '• I -aw a bortlo and a small wine -gin "^ on a near the bed. f poured out a little ol the contents of the bottle into the gla^->, t.'. I held it, to hi- li.)-^. 3Tt; ->%\ allow ocl the Coidi il \.kli ditliculrv, but. seemed re\i\cd Ly it ; T'U a- soon a? I had leplaced the gla--^ oi- the -t ma and le^umed my oeat, he .said t.'.iV . '•1 i.nt for vllv 11 Aiid now, 1 he added, vLn a i\ ightful oaJi, ' I do not know why I -honlu h i\e bent toi you, and I urn very s=n 1 \ 1 did it.' With tin- hi> face giow moio ludu"!- il a il had bef n befoie, and lie rel tj )-_d into a -llente that lasted so long I v. a- ubh f _,j'i to interrupt it by saying : '• ' 1 ,i.n 1 )ld that }ou .■-jnt for me to hear a commi^'ic itioii th .s \ou w ished to make. 1 hft\e come throngii tlii 3 lua\y .storm to heal 11 '•'Oh! A}c, I Im\o .something to tell yra. JJiu,' he g.owled, \.-ith anothei t.ni 1 le liiiprecation, ' 1 do not know wh} 1 '■■'. ii.l-i > jll \ on.' '• 'Vn i will bj glided by yoiu c.n ja'!^...itnt, (icncial Slaughter,' I ... i-v, 1 1 cd. '• • [ 1, low that, \uu Aillain! I'll be g. ililed ij % i'iy own judgnvMt and nothing e'-<_. It I tel! yoit anything, it will be Kj>u-c my own j-u'^ein^nt tolls me that t. ''', -i< a ,1, mal.e ihmgT ca-ier for me up tit n ,' he -aid, l.twnt; his bony aim and p'>iijtiii'^ towards hea\un. The ne\t i.- u:i lv- aid\ fell poweik?.! upon the 1.. 1 H I- -id (.-vlM.i-ti'd him.vjlf, and kj tided ijuict. f^i a iew r moments. At k> j.i\\ i''_ io-u;ned : ' * Nvi' , it I tell sju a -eeiot, you f-cam[), jr \,ili Mot b'jfov an) liking [ lia\e foi you ; id Jlmenone; biit it will be out of re g,"iifoi m)own^oul. Aic >ou attending t j v, li.vl I -ay, sn lah V " ' Vo-. lil-nuial Slaughter,' I replied. " ' Lll/» \"VLI. W \.s Vot'K LYWML W 11-X !' '• ' 1 I.'ion that p.'ftctly well, sir.' " ' Oh, >u-3, ot ecu. -0 you know that ]icrfvv.il> well, for^ou would lia\e considered t \c:.. 'Un- l a,.iy match lawful enough if the 111 iiJagt. ct eiiiony hud been perfoimcd )>y 1. ir. igi-ti.ite- 01 a i>l ickiinith, instead of a ic^nia 1 !', oidanied minister ot the go.spel — Thar is not w h it I mean.' '' ' \Vhat do you mean, if I may be a' lowed the question, sir V I inquired. '• Bvt again the tailing old man had v< eaiied hnn-oU, and Ily exhausted. .For t c n^\^ few minutes nothing could b,e heaid bur th«- crnnonadiug of the tempest upon the w all- of the hou -c. I pom ed out a glass of w arcr, :vv\ ofiVod it to him. He diank it, and ic-nuicd hi-, opeech. '• ' "\\ hat Ido nn .in i-> this : You knew tli 'it soiu !'unawa> man iage was considered illegal b) c.cry one concerned in it — ' " ' ]]\ccj)L :iiy.-clf and my wife,' I put in. " ' And otic o!h"r vv ho knew better than e'.tlici of ;, oil, yes. But it was coir-idcred a telunj' by cvciy one else— by the con-s--'t 1 >1(,-d who aric-ited you and your bride; b", tin ningi-tiate who committed you to pa-011 ; I>y tli3 jury who convicted you of the abduction of a minor ; by the judge who Hsutohced j 011 to two year.-> of impi isonment in the penitentiary. Vet, in spite of judge, ji'i", , and lav. officer* to the contraiy, you bb r i I committed no offence against (Joel or man, and your bride was your lawful wife in the sight of heaven und earth.' " In the name of truth, and justice, explain your-elt,' T breathed. He waved his hand feebly, saying: " Waifc, I have something else to tell you. Some months after her separation from you, your wife became the mother of a living Child.' "Just Heaven! this happened and you never told me of it !' I exclaimed, overwhelmed by astonishment, indignation and grief, and scarcely able to restrain myself

from calling down curses upon him, dying man though he was. " Why should I have told you?' he resumed. 'You had frustrated me, and I hated yon.' " ' May the Lord forgive you, Hiram Slaughtor, for I fear I never can. Where is my child ?' i "' Heaven knows ! — I don't know. She must bo able to tako care of herself whereover she is, for she must be ovor thirty j years old by this time. ' " ' Tho child was a girl, too ! thrown out a poor, motherless girl baby, on this bitter world ! Thirty years old now and able to take care of herself, is sho ? At what age is an averago woman able to take cave of herself in this world ? What chance do men give her to do so ? Hiram Slaughter, before you dare to leavo this earth, I charge you tell me all you know of this miserable matter, that I may have so ne clue by which to seek and find my lost daughter !' I solemnly adjured him. " ' Not for your sake, you villain ! not because yon ' charge ' me, you rascal, but because £ have already resolved to clear my breast of it, 1 do so,' he faltered, glaring at me through sunken and inflamed eyes. " I bowed in silence, "Then he asked mo, or rather ordered me, to give him another dose of the restorative on the stand. " I poured out a small glass of the cordial and put it to his lips. "Ho swallowed its contents with difficulty, drew a laboured breath, and then began to tell me the terrible story, speaking at first clearly and coherently enough, but gradually growing weak and disjointed and utterly inconsequent in his discourse. "Yet from his disconnected narrative I gathered the fact which I musb now tell you in my own word*, for it would be next to impossible to <^ixe it to you in his. " This was what I learned from his incoherent utterance. It seems that when ittle Lily Yale was orphaned by the los^ of both her parents, who died of cholera within a few hours of each other, at their j plantation in one of the islands of Chesa- I pcake Bay, the grandfather, General ►Slaughter, was called as executor and guaidian to sottlo up the estate and take charge of the infant heiress. ' ' Lily was 1 eally sloven years old when he bought her, a little stranger, to his own home here in West Virginia, but she was very small and shy for her "ago ; so that when her guaidian, for the sake of having a longer term of authority o\ er her and her fortune, gave her out to be two years younger than she really was, his statement was readily believed. " This deception was kept up by her fraudulent guardian through all the growing years of Lily's life, and long after t-lie had parsed her majority ; so that when, by the cruel despotism of (General Slaughter, she was so leluctantly driven from her home and forced to find refuge in a union with me, she was really over twenty-two years old, instead of under twenty one, and therefore she was of full legal age anil quite capable of contracting lawful marriage ; thus the marriage ceremony solemnised between us in tho Old Colonial Episcopal Church, at Alexandria, was legal as it was sacted, and the little girl afterwards j bom of that marriage w as the child of law as well as of love. " But I am getting befoie my story. " While Lily was in his power, and at his mercy, he took her to New York, where he deadened her sensibilities by the administration of drugs, and while she was in a lethargic state he would have married to another man the already wedded wife, -whoso husband his (General Slaughter's) fal«o testimony had consigned ton prison. " Fortunately, Captain Dulany, a man of the world, was acute enough to perceive her condition, and bold enough to inform her guardian that she needed a physican ! more than a husband. " This news, of course, threw the tyrant into a furious rajje, as has been already said, and he not only sent fora physieui, but after having received the phyfienn'b leporfc he hurried lii^ waid off to London, and concealed her in a private hospital, w here, in due time, she became the mother of a little girl. "This child he took away, and put out to nurse with a poor woman in the heart of London. He gave the woman twenty pounds for taking it, and promised to remit the same sum quarterly for its suppoi t ; but he never ga\e hi-> real name and addicts, and never afterwards senb any moie money to the nur^e, or heard any moie news of the pool little forsaken child. " As soon as powblo after LilyV convalescence, he took her from the private hospital and bi ought her back to this country. "He .stopped -with her at Richmond. Again, with potent drugs, he deadened her -en.Mbilitie<, while, with diabolical falsehood, he misled her mind. He persuaded her that her child and her husband wote both dead. To Ju /•, indeed, they wer? dead, since the husband wa.s hummed in a prison, and the child wab lost in the w ildernes.s of London. " While she was in this apathy, physicall}' produted by drugs, and mentally by de.-.paii, her old mi it or, Captain Dudley, le-appraiod, a»ul with him General Slaughter had a talk and negotiated a marriage. "Lily, half idiotic from tho infernal arts practised upon her mind and frame, submitted to all that wa^ ananged for he) 1 , and thoic is no doubt that bhe would really have been deluded into a marriage w ith Captain Dulaney had not General Slaughter, ftom the fear that, at the last moment, she mi^ht arou.io hei^olf and resist the mauiago, given her an overdose of the deadly di u£, and sent her into a lolhaigy that ended in death. '■ Thufc, he unintentionally murdered her body, and so released herself. Ah, 1 have already told you how swiftly she lied to me as .soon as she wa.s fiee ; how often she has come to me since ! " Oh, what a gloiious freedom that must be of the newly delivered spirit, which no bolts nor baro can ever confine again, no time or space over Aveary for evermore ! What a beautiful event for both spiiit and flesh is the glorious new bhth which wo miscall death, for neither spirit nor flesh ever perishes ! The spiiit, released fiom the weight of the flesh, rises to her higher, fuller, happier life. The poor fle.sh, freed from the wearying service of the spiiit, rests in the bosom of its mother earth, and parses through the grand laboratory of Nature to other form- of life. " With the murder of Lily tho confession of Hiram Slaughter was completed. The effort of making ib had greatly prostrated him " I was about to ring for his attendants, when he signed to me to give him another dose of the elixir. When ho had drunk it he signed to me again that I should sit down and wait. '■ ] complied, and then he told mo that Lily's daughter, if living, was, as his own great-grand-daughter and solo descendant, the heiicss of Hill Top Hall, Wilde Lodge and Cave Court in West Virginia, and as the solo representative of the Vales of Stonylonesome, the heiress of Stonylonesome Island and Manor on the Chesapeake. But to make all sure, he said he had intonded to mako a will and leave all his possessions to the daughter of Gabriel Haddon and his wife, Lily Vale, and to her heirs for ever.

" After adding these words, which he uttered with the greatest difficulty, the dying man sank so fast that I arose and rang sharply for his attendants. *' JELis lofty niece and his black nurse entered the room and hurried to his bedside, but they were only in time to receive his last breath. " When all was over I left the house. " The storm was past, day was breaking, and I set out on my return home. " The old man's story ends here, Gertrude. There is nothing now for me to do but to go to London and seek for my lost daughter. She must, if living, be a grave matron by this time— a wife and mother, with many children, perhaps ; or a widow, possibly. Or she may be — No ! Heaven of heavens ! I will not even think it ! Whatever or wheiever she may be, if she lives upon this earth I will find her." " Have you any satisfactory clue to seek her by, dear grand ?" sympathetically inquired Gertrude. " I have the name of the private hospital in which my Lily was concealed when her child was born. It was Dr. Brown's,Churchstreet, Chelsea, London, W. I have also the address of the nurse— Jane Kobinson, Clam Court, Drury Lane, London, E. " As soon as General Slaughter's funeral is over, I shall place the ferry in charge of my trusty John, and take you and start for London. You would like to go abroad, Gertrude ?" "Oh ! yes, dear grand, better than anything in this world !'' said the young girl with a girl's glee. "I thought so. Then pack up just enough clothing to last us both on a two weeks' voyage in an ocean steamer. You need take nothing more, for I can give you a complete outlit as soon as we reach Liverpool." As Gabriel Haddon spoke theso words there came the sound of a horn, blown from the opposite side of the river, followed by a voice shouting : "Boat!" " It is the messenger returning with the undertaker. I must go and fetch them over," said the old ferry-man, rising and leaving the room. Gertrude sat where the old man had left her, her delicate cheek resting on her hand, her dark eyes iixed on the floor. Not even her prospect of going to Europe could quite distract her thoughts from dwelling on the strange story she had heard. Bhe sat there, lost in reverie, until she was aroused by the le-entrance of her ran dfather. "Adams, the undertaker, from Wildeville, has gone up to Hill Top Hall. The funeral is iixed for to-morrow. Adams and his men will be going and coming all day long, I suppose." said the old ferry-man, a^ he sank down in his arm-chair. Gertrude arose, and took her work, and brought it and sat down beside him to sew. The old man's prediction proved true. The ferry-boat was in requisition all day long for solemn funeral duties, so that, at night, the ferry-man and his assistants went to bed well nigh worn out. The next day was busier still, for the ferry-boats were employed all the forenoon in bringing over carriages for the funeral. At noon, however, Gabriel Haddon left the ferry in charge of his assistant, John, and, accompanied by hi'? granddaughter, Gertrude, went up to Hill Top Hall to attend the obsequies of General Slaughter. The venerable Mr Barnard, chaplain of Hill Top Manor Chapel, performed the funeral ceremonies, and pronounced a panegyric on the departed, which, it is to be hoped, was as sincere as it was protracted ; after which the mortal remains of Hiram Slaughter were deposited in the family vault under Hill Top Chapel, and the funeral guests separated and set out for their several homes. Much wonder was expressed that no will had been found, and it seemed a moot point whether the estates of the late Hiram Slaughter would descend to his eldest niece, Miss Rowley, or to his grand-niece, Geraldine Fitzgerald, who was already the wealthiest heiress in the countiy. The greater number of opinions were given in favour of Miss Rowley, who was the eldest daughter ol his deceased and only sister.