A PAGE PROM THE BOOK OP FOLLY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 184, 17 August 1871, Page 7

A PAGE PROM THE BOOK OP FOLLY.

(From " Temple Bar. ") "That owned the virtuous ling and glass." II Penseiwo.

Chaptee I.

" Aurelia ! " <•' Otto 1 " " Must we then part ? " They weie folded in each other's arms. There never was such kissing.

" How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet lok^ns of onr undying affection, my Otto 1 "

"Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes- to acquaint thee that he cannot write."

" Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldst thou write thy Aurelia could not read. 0 these dark ages S : '

They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of fond perplexity. Suddenly the damsel's features assumed the aspect of one who experiences the visitation of a happy thought- Gently yet decidedly she pronounced : " We will exchange rings." They drew off their rings simultaneously.

" This, Aurelia, was my grandfather's."

This, Otto, was my grandmother's, which she charged me wich her dying breath never to part with save to him whom alone I loved."

" Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my Aurelia."

And, in fact, Aurelia's eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A liner stone conld not easily be found.

" Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a constancy enduring as they."

In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphire. The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.

"Beware, Otto," she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him an oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted knee-deep in rrud. "Bewai'e! — if my brother should be gazing from his chamber on the resplendent moon 1"

But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a less ■"Vdiiuucic uiiuiuer; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered hitn not. Chapter 11. Days, weeks, mouths had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign land, had heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well conceive how her ring was all iv all to him. He divided his time pretty equally between gazing iuto its cerulean depths, as though her lovely image were mirrored therein, and pressing its chilly surface to his lips, littie as ifc recalled the warmth and balminess of hers.

Tue burnish d glow of gold, tho chaste sheen of silver, the dance and sparkle of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he one evening perambulated, the streets of a great city. He beheld a jeweller's shop. Tne grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench withiu, sedulously polishing a streaked pebble by the light of a small lamp. A sudden thought struck Otto; he entered the shop, and, presenting' the ring to the jeweller, inquired iv a tone of suppressed exultation :

" What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?"

The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the ring from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone, somewhat more carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a pair of light scales, and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a tone and manner of the most entire indifference,

"The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence." " Caitiff of a huckster! exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the bench with such vigour that the pebbles leaned lip and fell rattling down, " Sayest thou this of a gem framed by genii iv the bowels of the earth V"

" Nay, friend," returned the jeweller with tho same imperturbable air, " that thy gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it doth principally consists of sand. But when thou speakest of lienii and the bowels of the earth, thou wilt not, I hppe, take ifc amiss if I crave better proof than thy word that the devil has taken to glas. -making. For glass, and nothing else, credit me, thy jewel is." " And the gold ? "' grasped Otto.

There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufticeth to handsomely gil«J alike superficies of brass, whioh is not saying much."

And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the hoop, the jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so evidently that Otto could hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when the lapidary laid his ring in the scales against another of the same size and make, and pointed to the inequality of the belance.

" Thou seest," he " that in our craft a very little gold goes a great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as tbon, albeit in no sort eminent for sipience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for thyself. Thou art evidently a prodigious fool !"

This latter disparaging^ observation could be safely ventured upon, as Otto had rushed from the shop, speechless with rage. Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived?

Should he execrate her, or her Yener able grandmother, or some unknown person ? The point was too knotty to be solved in the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it provisionally by execrating the entire human race, not forgetting himself. In a mood like Otto's a trifling circumstance is sufficient to determine the quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at. the time an inhabitant was traversed by a large river spanned by a quaint and many-arched bridge, to which his frantic and aimless wanderings had conducted him. Spires and gables and lengthy facades were reflected in the water, blended with the shadows of boats, and interspersed with the mirrored flames of innumerable windows on land, or of lanterns suspended from the masts or sterns of the vessels. The dancing ripples bickered and flickered, and seemed to say, " Come hither to us," while the dark reaches of still water in the shadow of the piers promised that whatever might be intrusted to them should be faithfully retained. Swayed by a sudden impulse, Otto drew his ring from his linger. It gleamed an instant aloft in the air; in another the relaxation of his grasp would have cosigned it to the stream. " Forbear ! " Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger was tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially concealed a flume coloured jerkin. A cock's feather peaked up in his cap ; his eyes were piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline ; the expression of his features sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more observant, or less preoccupied, he might have noticed that the stranger's left shoe was of a peculiar form, and that he limped some little with the corresponding foot. " Forbear, T say : thou knowest not what thou doest."

" And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass ? " " Thou errest, f riend ; thy 1 ing is not common glass. Had thy mistress surmised its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice ere exchanging it for thy diamond." " Wiiat may these virtues be ? " eagerly demanded Otto. " In the first place, it will show thee when thy niitftress may chance to think of thee, as it will then prick tby finger." "JSTow I know thee for a lyino: knave," exclaimed the youth indignantly. " Learn, to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I parted from Aurelia." " Which proves that she never once thought of thee."

'■ Villian !" shouted Otto, " say that again, and I will transfix thee." "Thou mayest if thou canst," rejoined the stranger, with an expression of such cutting scorn that Otto's spirit quailed, and he felt a secret but overpoweringconvictionof his interlocutor's veracity. Rallying, however, in some measure, he exclaimed:

" Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!" " Done!" screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a burst of diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the eaves and piers of the old bridge, and to be taken up by the goblin echoes from the summits of the adjacent towers and steeples. Otto's blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire hoarsely : " Wnat of its further virtues ?" " When it shall have pricked thee," returned the mysterious personage, " on turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy mistress whereever she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou wilt know what her thought of thee is ; and, if the third

time, thou wilt find thyself in her presence. But I give thee fair warning that by doing this thou wilt place thyself in a more disastrous plight than any thou hast experienced hitherto. And now farewell."

The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon tho bridge. He siw nothing around him hut the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he slowly and thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings. Cwapter 111. Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety with which Otto henceforth consulted his rin «j. He was continually adju»tin!j it to his finder, in a manner, as he fancied, to render the anticipated puncture more perceptible when it should come at last, rle would have worn it on all his (ins;r>rs in succession had the conformation of his robust hand admicted of its beiii'j; placed on any but the slenderest. Thousands of times he could have sworn that he felt the admonitory stint?; thousands of times he turned the trinket round and round with. desperate impatience; but Aurelia's form remained as invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable as before. His dread was that he might .be pricked in his sleep, on which account lie would sit up watching far into the morn. For, as he reasoned, not without plausibility, when conld he more rationally hope" for a plane jn Aurelia's thoughts that at that witching and sii'jjfjestive period ? She uii«tht surely think of him when she had nothing else to, do ? And Otto grew sick and livid with' jealousy. It of course frequently occurred to him to doubt and deridp"the virtues of the rinjj, and he was several times upon the point of

flinfjinw it away. But the more he pondered upon the appearance and manner of the stranger, the less able he felt to resist the conviction of his truthfulness.

At last a most unmistakable puncture ! the distinct, though slight, pang of a miniature wound. A crimson head of blood rose on Otto'a finder, swelled to its due proportion, and became a trickling blot

" She is thinking of me!" cried he rapturously, as if this were an instance of the most signal and unforseen condescension. All the weary expectancy of the last six month 3 wac forgotten. He would have railed at himself had the bliss of the moment allowed him to remember that be had ever railed at her. Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant. »ihe was stand inn before the mercer's boot.) in the chief «treefc of the little town which adjoined her father's castle. Her gaze was riveted on a silk mantle, trimmed with costly furs, which depended from a hook inside the doorway. Her lovely features wore an expression of extreme dissatisfaction. She was replacing a purse, apparently by no means weighty, in her embroidered <>irclle.

Otto turned the rin^ the second time, and Aurelia's silvery accents immediately became audible to the following effect : —

"If that Tool Otto were here he would buy it for me."

She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like the shriek of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the rin^ to turn it for the third time; but t ! ie stranger's warning occurred to him, and for a moment he forbore. In fiat moment the entire vision vauis'ied from before his eyes.

What boote it to describe Otto's feelings upon this revelation of Aurelia's sentiments. For lovers, des-. cription would be needless; lo wiser people, incomprehensible. Snffice it to say, that as his lady deemed him a fool he appeared bent on proviug that she did not deem amiss.

A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the ring. Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse ; perhaps she had found her purse-bearer. The latter view uf the v:\se appeared mn.'u plausible to Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.

At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt the sharp puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again lie turned the ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber, but not alone. Her companion was a youth of Otto's age. She was in the act of p'aciuj; Otto's brilliant upon his finder. Otto turned his own ring, and heard her utter, with singular distinctness.

"This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he iinagiue that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and bliss in the arms of ray Arnold. My venerable grandmother "

The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.

Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the rinj; with him Otto, glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of the apartment with his sword unsheathed. Was he about to u?e ifc? None can s.vy ; for at this moment the young Baron burst into the room, and, without the slightest apology for the liberty he was taking, passed his sword through Otto's body.

Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron ungently reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features with evident su -prise and dissatisfaction.

"It is not Arnold, after all!" he muttered. " Who would have thought it ?"

"Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions," observed Aureiia, with an air of injured but not implacable virtus. "As for this* abominable ravisher " Her feelings forbade her to proceed.

The brother looked mystified. Toere was was something beyond his comprehension in the aff.iir; yet lie could not but acknowledge that Otto w:is tie person who had rushed by him as '•«• lav in wait upon the stairs. H, j , tiuillv determined that it was best to say nothing about tho matter: a resolution the easier of performance as he was not wont to be Uivish of his words at any time, rlti wiped his sword on 'ms sister's curtains, aivl wis-.i'vmfc to withdraw, when Aurdia again spoke:

" Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to rin-i the bell, and desire the menirils to remove this carrion from my apartment." The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to lm chamber.

The attendants carried Otto's bodr forth. To the honour of her sex be it recorded, that before- this wis doiv Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to the corpse of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. " And he has actually worn ifc all tins time!" thought she.

" Would have outraged my daughter, would ho ?" said the old Baron, when the trans'iciion was reporto.i to him. " Lpt him' be .buried in a concatenation accordingly."

- " What the guy "dickens be a concatenation, G-eoffrey?"' interrogated Gribbs.

:': ' Mefchrnks it is Latin for a ditch," responded Geoffrey.

This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the retainers, Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, ju«t under Aurelia's window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The magic ring, which no one thought worth appropriating, remained upon the corpse's finger. Thou mayest probably find it there, reader, if thou searchest long enough.

.The first visitor to Otto's humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia herself, who alighted thereon the following night after letting herself down from her casement to fly with Arnold Their escape was successfully achieved upon a pair of excellent horses, the proceeds of Otto's diamond, which had become the property of a Jew. On the third ni<;ht an a^ed monk stood by Otto's uravo, and wppt plentifully. He carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. "He was my pupil," sobbed tho good old man. "It were meet to contribute what in me lies to the befitting perpetuation of his memory."

Setting clown the lantern, be commenced work, and with pious toil engraved on the stone in the Latin of the period : '' HAC MAGNUS STULTTJS JACET Ilf FOSSA SKPULTUS. MULTER CUI CREDIDIT MOETUUM ILLUM REDDIJDIT." Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of liir Latin.

" Boshrew my old arms and brains !" he sighed.

" Hem !" coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.

The uionk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and fiamecoloured jerkin was standing over him.

" Good monk," said the fiend, " what dost thou here ?"

" G-ood fiend," said the monk, " I am inscribing an epitaph to the Tiemory of a departed friend. Thou in lghtest kindly aid me to complete it."

" Truly," rejoined the demon, "it would become me to do so, seeing that 1 have his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ the lanyuaire of the Church. Nathll'Sß. I 8('(» not ivliorofow I he vernacular 'may not serve as well."

A ud, taking tho mallet and chisel, he completed the monk's inscription with the supplementary legend :

BEHTED HTM RIGHT.