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49 ' | lewis m. grist, proprietor, j ^it Jnbejienknt Jfcmilg ^ttfospitpcr: Jfor fjje |)romott<m of % |)alitieal, Sccial, Agricultural areb Cffutntcrctal Interests of % S?oitf|. jTERMS?$3.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE. I VOL. 20. YOEKVILLE^ S. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1874. , 3STO. 4. | JUi (OvigiuiU Jdfltg. Written for tlio Yorkvillo Enquirer. DESTINY; OR, HOUNDED DOWN. BY NELLY MARSHALL McAFEE. CHAPTER XIII. Oid Mrs. Katrine McDonald was lying in chains in the county prison ; Colonel Vaughn Fessenden was dead ; the sheriff was mortally wounded, the news of his death being anticiknur onrl another man was jmicu O?VIJ uwui y wounded severely, though it was believed that with extreme care and caution he would sur-1 vive. Beyond those, the shots fired in the , subterranean passage had not taken effect. The old lady had behaved, "out and out," like one of the Furies of the Commune; nnd j seeing her, none doubted whence came the ; son's inheritance of daring. When she was arrested, her face was dusky, and her lips, especially, livid with passion. Her gray hair had become loosened,and hung in dishevelled r - tangles about her ferocious face; her eyes, too, were gleaming with a courage that was over-! strained to the pitch of madness, and blazed i defiance on those who had her at their mercy.; They succeeded in arresting her; but she was ; shot in the arm, and thus disabled, before they | could conquer her at all. The rage of the j people against her was intense, and it was be-: lieved that mob law would prevail in her case before the civil law could be enforced. Guards were kept around the prison for two j days and two nights; and then, all seeming J quiet, they were disbanded and the jailer left i to fulfill his duties unaided, because danger j was no longer expected. Qne night, a fearful ' storm arose?lightning, wind, thunder?and \ rain that fell in absolute torrents?pouring j down, like a second deluge. In tins dark-1 ness, while the elements were at war, there j I came upon the door of the prison, rap after i rap. Presently the jailer appeared, and de- j manded from within? "Who comes there ?" "A friend !" answered a voice. "Who ?" "A frieud!" again replied the voice. "But give your name. I have strict com-1 raands to open the door to no man," answered i the jailer, resolutely. Then there was a silence, and, standing within doors, quaking in j his shoes, he heard murmuring voices with-1 out. Then the first speaker said again? "Open the door?I will drown in this del- i uge." "Return, then, whence you came," answered j the prison functionary. The murmuring j without grew louder, and then the spokesman again cried out? "Open the door, else we will batter it down. The jail is surrounded. If you refuse, it will be the worse for you ; there is no escape." The jailer shuddered, as he opened the ' massive portals wide; but he knew there was i no way to give the alarm and bring assistance, J and that single-handed resistance would eventuate in defeat and death. Once opened, thirty or forty armed men rushed into the vaulted passage, all disguised i in black masks and cloaks, and demanded the clanking keys at the jailer's hands. "Do you come for my prisoner?" he asked,! with a convulsive gasp. "Yes ; we came to unburden the world from so dangerous a wretch. She is to suffer tonight." At these words, the hands of the : jailer clenched themselves tightly ; his teeth ; were closed fasc; and the cry which arose in j his throat never found utterance. "You cannot see her," said he. The masked men looked at him. "Blessed Lord !" ejaculated one, in open- j eyed astonishment at his audacity in attempt-1 ing to maintain his official duties. "I am answerable to a higher authority for the prisoner," answered the jailer, gathering aucugiu. I "We don't care for that. To-night she is i to be put out of the world with secrecy, clev- j erness, privacy and dispatch," answered an- j other. The jailer shuddered. "Surrender the keys," shouted the leader. He obeyed. "Where is the wretch confined ?" was the next enquiry. In reply, the jailer pointed over his shoulder. "Down that arched passage ?" "Down that arched passage," he answered, still trembling and irresolute. "Which of these keys fit the lock of the ' prisoner's cell-door ?" questioned the leader, i The jailer once more reluctantly designated. _ The maskers then proceeded along the before-mentioned passage, which echoed every J footfall, and every breath they drew. At length they came to an iron-plated door, secured with several massive bolts, and with a huge lock. Here they paused, placed their light upon the ground and glanced around thern. The jailer cuUlcl hear the heating 01 his own heart, and for a moment there was no sound else in that dreary place. Then the key was fitted in the key-hole, the wards were turned?the bolts all drawn away? the heavy door yielded and was wide open. "Katrine McDonald!" cried a voice in hoarse and disguised utterance. "Who's there?" answered she, in choked tones of wonder ; and the massive frame of the woman partially raised itself from her straw pallet and looked in bewilderment and amaze at the intruders, whose faces, owing to the fact that the lantern was behind them, were concealed from her view, and consequently her recognition. "I do not know you," she said ; "you have opened my prison-doors. Do you come to lead me out to freedom V "Ask no questions, but prepare to accompany us." "Prepare ?" she exclaimed ; "you forget that I am weighted down with heavy, accursed chains?the heaviest the jailer could find!" "You will not have far to carry them," answered one of the maskers ; "follow us !" .Slowly the unhappy woman raised herself to her feet. Her face was haggard ; but the fire iu her eve was not extinguished, and her majestic dignity remained still unchanged. "You bid me ask no questions ; but I cannot help expressing my astonishment at this?" "There is no time to waste in words of any kind! Come! we must hence without delay !" interrupted the leader, hurriedly." "But where do you propose taking me?"' said Mrs. McDonald, reluctantly. | "You shall see !" they replied, i And so they left the prison,^pushing and j dragging between them the unfortunate wo- j man, who tottered and struggled and finally ; ! fell down, under the blows that were shower-1 I ed down upon her, when she refused to go ! further. Iler face was bleeding and her hair was streaming down her back, from which the | I clothing had been partially torn. On they j dragged her, followed by a hooting mob, till j I they reached the distance of a mile from I 1 town, and there they propped her up agaiust \ ' a tree, already half-dead from the treatment j she had received. The crowd ranged itself in a circle, the j ? ' f ?xi i gasping, snrinKing ngure m inu wmc. .1 ?u>. a picture it was, in its perfect and complete j details of horror, darkness and loneliness! ; Presently two revolvers were discharged, and she fell forward in a pool of blood. The popular thirst for vengeance was satis- j fied, and the crowd dispersed, their masks ! keeping the secret of their identity. CHAPTER XIV. The morning succeeding the night of the ; terrible tempest, the entire county was in a ; state of amazement. Mrs. Katrine McDon- j aid?it was said?had escaped from the jail : in which she was confined, and the ends of j justice were thwarted and defeated. ? ' The hapless jailer was found, tied securely j with ropes; tied by McDonald himself, no j doubt, and the public outcry against the fatn- j ily rose louder than ever. "The old woman , should be shot down, like a brute, the moment j they caught her!" everybody exclaimed.! "There was no need of a trialnot a voice in the land could be raised but in condemnation ! | But the motion of the tongues was checked, j and people stood about dumb with horror and i cousternation, when later, on the self-same j day, a dead body, on a roughly-constructed J bier, was carried'through the principal street j of the town. "Blessed Virgin !" cried a man, with his cobbler's apron on, to a woman who stood j near his shop-door, with her child in his arms, j "what has happened? Au accident? Who j was killed?" The woman paused not to answer him, but: joined the stream of people, and now he fol- J lowed too; but laying hold of the arm of the I first man whom he approached, he cried out again? "Tell me the news, Robards. What is the j meaning of all this?" And he pointed to the j moving mass of people and the bier in their j midst. The man crossed himself piously, and lifting ; his eyes upward, ejaculated? "God defend us all! But to the wayward j and the erring his vengeance is always swift j and sure! Just see! That wicked woman,! whose evil deeds are so dark and so numerous, j acn.%fmm nrionn hut. wns overtaken and ' it wi?? j/> .ww..j #*.? .. ^ riddled with balls." "Of what woman aro you talking, Robards ? ! Who was shot?" interrupted the cobbler, impatiently. "Well if you're in such a hurry about get- ! ting to the end of the story, suppose I stop ; aud let you guess at it. I certainly will, if I j mayn't tell it in my own way ! You ask who j is shot. Why, nobody, more nor less, than ' the mother of the counterfeiter, McDonald, i who shot two or three men to save his un- i worthy life!" "Is that the corpse of Katrine McDonald ?" ! returned the cobbler, in a voice of awe, point-! ing,at the same time to the stretcher on which j the majestic proportions of the woman's figure j reposed in the stillness of death. "Aye, that is the harness clay of Katrine j McDonald, which, when it was warm with ! life, made men tremble before it am. go down j like dead leaves !" j "The Lord protect us!" murmured a woman ; standing near, instinctively clasping her child 1 closer to her breast. "And the son?the son? j what has become of him ?" "Yes, sure enough ; and who is going to , tell the truth of that?" "His wife ought to know !" "His wife ? No ; she is ill, and he has dis-; appeared, no one knows whither. She knows ! less about him than anybody." "Who, then?" ! "Well, if anybody could know, that Mrs. Vaughn Fessenden ought?she who has been I widowed. They say she and McDonald were lovers." "What ? Who found it out ? How ? i When ? Where ?" j "There vt>u are, impatient as ever ! Why, j they were overheard, one day, when out on a | ! scenery hunting excursion !" 1 "Mrs. Fessenden and McDonald f" "Have I not said it once?" "Who overheard ?" "Ah ! who can truly answer that ? You're a trump for questions!" "How strange! And how did the mother 1 get out of prison ? Could her son have helped ! her ?" "Nobody knows. She was found all in a heap at the foot of a tree, at the edge of town, ' shot through and through. Likely as not it . was Judge Lynch, and not her son, who took . her out of jail." j "It was!" said another man, coining up ; j I "the jailer was found tiod up with ropes, and ; many footprints are on the jail floors, from the muddied boots and the rain, showing that one man alone did not save her?and after; wards lose her?to the justice's, for she is i t i ui uisuu iiuu uuuhjii i "Poor woman! She must have loved her i son. They say he was handsome, if he was ; . wicked!" "Some women arc so weak !" cried out an i old dame, shrilly. 1 "Well!" answered another, "I could love a | handsome man, if he was courageous, though : he was cunning as a fox, fierce as a wolf, and I cruel as a tiger !" A companion received this speech with a ; shrug and a sigh ; and with nods of farewell,! the parties walked away and disappeared amongst the crowd. j .? CHAPTER XV. We must now return to poor Gertrude, who, you may remember, was carried, by the orjderofher mother-in-law, in a state of utter insensibility, to her apartment, after that. | dreadful night, when she learned who and what her husband was. Many days?many dark and dreadful nights?had to be lived i I through, before Gertrude, with the burden of I sorrow on her heart and brain, recovered con-' sciousness or strength. While she lay ill, the guests to whom lionor had so long been done, rifled her house of; its pictures and objects of virtu, and its gold- j i en services. The servants, too, departing,! took all they could conveniently secrete. For j; they knew well that tlve property would be confiscated, and they determined to reap some ! of the booty themselves. No one remained to j serve the sufferer but Lide?who was con- i stantly beside her?and acting upon her own i i authority, had brought Benna Dinwiddle to i: serve in the kitchen, and the old grandmother to aid her in her faithful watch by the sick- i bed of her benefactress. ! i She had reciprocated the generous kindness shown to her in many ways. After the dread-1 ful scene in the vault, she had gone down in j the darkness and sought out Irving McDon-; i * ' ?t? x. l:? i:?? ?..,i i aid ; fiaa put water arid wine iu ma njio auu summoned two trust)- followers to bear him ' hence, upon a stretcher, to a place of safety, j i It would take too much space to recount the gratitude that was expressed and felt by 1 the man. Once away in another State, con- j scious that his guilt might not be traced, he : made public the cause of Fessenden's malign- J ments; and tracing his property to the guests i who had purloined it, he demanded restitu-! tion or threatened disgrace. Not an article but was returned to him, I; with assurances that they had been taken for ! friendship's sake, in order to preserve them ; from confiscation. So easy is it to turn as ! the tide turns, whether it drifts rich argosies j' to shore, or washes grand wrecks into un-1 known and stormy seas! But he never returned to the town of Bris- ] tol. He sold out his property there, and held j i the position of one who had been persecuted, '; rather than that of an offender of the law. j ; He made no mention of revenge for his moth-1 er's death. In defense of him, she had shot j i two or three men ; but hor own life had ex-; i, piated the bloody deed. 1j The chiefest thought with McDonald was1 that Mrs. Vaughn Fessenden was a free wo-j? man ; and down in his soul he swore to win j her. The man's whole nature was darkened j with sin and crime. The one desire with him, i now, was to get rid of the faithful and beau- i tiful wife, who grieved over his dishonor and j disgrace, and would not be comforted. Ac for Lide Halstead, he had not quite de- , cided what to do with her. Let her go out of j ( his life, when of late days her beauty had , begun to burn in his blood, he never would ; . but he must be wary ; he must not alarm her, \ else he would lose her. One love, more or j less, usually never counted with him. But j she was no ordinary woman. There was the I charm?the spell?for him ! And it bound . him as in iron gyves, and even the memory of j, Mrs. Vaughn Fessenden could not still the j) passion again, when once awakened. The shadow of his dead mother's prophecy ' had at last fallen, like a blight, on the beauty j i and purity of Lide Halstead. It remains j yet to be proven whether she withstood the j i strength and the sweep of the storm ; or ! whether she fell, shuttered and unredeemable ; forever. One day, about a week after the Bristol j property was sold, a letter came to Gertrude j from him, telling her to join him in Rich-! raond, Virgiuia, with the greatest speed her ; ( health would allow, and to bring Lide with j, her. She accepted this as an evidence of his j devotion ; for he knew how she loved her protcgce, and joyfully commuuicated the news to : the young girl, who as joyously received it.!, Preparations were hastily made for the jour- , ney, and two days after the letter was re- , ceived, they were en route, all speed, to Richmond. Arriving there, instead of her husband, a strange gentleman presented himself, saying ; Mr. McDonald being a dear friend of his, and i he having fouud him quite indisposed at the , hotel?had proposed taking him to his htfme ; for change of scene; but that he had told him,' in excuse, that he was expecting his wife eve- j ry day and could not leave. However, upon his sacred promise to return for them himself, he had yielded and gone out to his residence for several weeks. , Gertrude was unhappy. "My dear Mr. Stansbury," (as Stansbury ' the man had introduced himself,) "take me to him without delay," she cried, in earnest tones. ; "And your companion also?" "Certainly." "Well, I have a private carriage, and we ' can start just as soon as you wish." Soon they were on their way. They drove !, all day, and when night came they rested at j way-side houses, and were off by day dawn j again. "Why, Mr Stansbury, I imagined, from i your speech, that you lived a short distance' from Richmond," said Gertrude. "True ; true; only a few miles," he answered, and waived the conversation. At last, Gertrude became alarmed, and she , could see that Lidc Ilalstead shared her anx-; iety, although she endeavored to disguise her suspicions under the veil of a gentle pleasantry i that whiled away the weary hours of travel. j They finally, after traversing the length of1 many and many a mile, drove into the pleas-; ant and well-ordered grounds of Mr. Stans-1 bury, and alighting, were escorted up a flight: of handsome stone steps, and on through a spacious hall, into a drawing-room elegant in : every compartment. Ilere Mr. Stansbury excused himself to go ' and find Mr. McDonald and apprize him of the ; arrival of the guests he was so impatient to see. I Going out, he closed the door softly after him. j Gertrude, with a face all aglow with expec-. tation, but which still bore traces of anxiety, said in a half-whisper to her silent compan- j ion? "Lide, I am so glad we are here at last. I i did not know where he was conveying us. j i The whole thing seemed like a terrible dream tome. I'm so glad we are to see Irving, when it will all be over!" Lide answered? 1. "Once I was so alarmed that I thought of, attempting to escape, only the man seemed made of muscles ; and looking at him, I felt that the stronger our resistance was, the' stronger would be his clutches on us, and I did not struggle. I, too, am glad it is over !" "Faith! but I believe he would have measured the depths of some of those ravines we passed, by casting us in, if we had ottered any opposition. Now, that we are where Irving is, we will be treated like queens. Suppose we had raised a row?it would have been dif- \ ferent, wouldn't it?" said Gertrude, laughing softly. i "Yes; decidedly different! Hut has the I idea ever occurred to you"?Lide replied in perplexed syllables and trembling with vague, undefined fear?"that we don't know who this man is, nor whether Mr. McDonald is here at all ?" "Tut?tut! Let us be patient," Gertrude answered, the little anxious frown coming back to her face. "But"?protested Lide? "Holy Saints ! We are in the house of my husband's friend. That assuranceshould con- i tent you !" ejaculated Gertrude, in a reproachful tone. "A friend,? I don't believe it! Look at those bars across the windows! and," Lide continued, in a low, agitated voice, going to the door and turning the knob, "we are locked \ ' "* J Ill / )} t UT(Z ill?tt?'ill u nwuQj-i "A mad house ?" cried Gertrude with a shriek of horror, and then fell to weeping convulsively. "I felt it all along," continued Lido ; "because no questions were asked?no curious looks were bestowed by the inmates of the houses where we paused to rest." Just as she finished speaking, the door softly opened again, and Mr. Stansbury walked across the threshold. Pausing, he looked closely at them and then gave a little careless laugh. Lide refcovered her self-command at once, and asked gravely? "Mr. Stansbury, can you tell me where we are ?" "My dear lady, certainly ; you are in ray house?my honored guests." "But my husband ?" interrupted Gertrude. "Is lying down. I thought it would be a happy surprise if I escorted you to his room, so that when he opened his eyes he would sec pou and bo overjoyed. If you object to my little plan, I will waken him, of course !" Gertrude's face cleared instantly. She had no longer any fears with which to contend. If she was to see Irving, all would be well; harm could not approach her in his presence. "I will co with you immediately," she said, starting up with an eager smile. Then, turning to Lide, added? "Remain here until I return or send for you." Then again to Mr. Stansbury, as they wentout together, "you are very kind, sir, and you must forgive my tears. My anxiety about my husband, and the long journey, have overcome mc, my health being naturally very delicate." Stansbury gave the careless little laugh in answer, and replied? "No thanks are due. Your husband is my friend, and I only regret that you are wearied. You must lie down and be refreshed." As bespoke, he turned from the main hall, and led the way along a low, vaulted passage, and thence up a flight of broken stone steps, never pausing until he arrived at a narrow, iron door, deep set in a thick stone wall. Turning suddenly, he laid hold of her wrist and opening the door, led her into the cell? for it was nothing more?beiug nearly in total darkness, with a damp, unearthly odor. She started back, trembling, and uttering a cry of agitation and fright, demanded of the man? "Why have you brought me here? Where is my husband ? You will not leave me alone in this horrible place? Am I a prisoner? Oh ! what have I done ! Oh ! why do you not answer me??why don't you?" "You may as well cease troubling yourself to ask so many questions, for I shall answer none of them," interrupted Stansbury; "you are deprived of your freedom, but you will be cared for?I assure you of this much?and sometimes your companion"?jerking his thumb in the direction of the hall?"sometimes your companion can visit you ; that is, if we find that Mr. McDonald has no objection to such an arrangement between us." After that, he went out through the door, and securely locked it after him. The captive made no resistance?no outcry. She was overpowered with utter misery. She sank upon a low stone soat, and burying her face in her hands, burst into a fit of hysterical weeping. Surolv alio was n nrisoner. The door had closed upon her. She had heard the key turn in the rusty lock outside, and afterward the drawing of heavy bolts. It was too true ! A prisoner?a prisoner in a Mad House! Why had she been brought hither? For what cruel fate was her life probably preserved ? She recollected now, clearly, the scenes which she had overheard between her husbaud and Mrs. Vaughn Fessendcn, 011 the eveuing of the terrible affray at McDonald Manor; but she did not remember the shriek that had escaped her lips when the knowledge of who and what he was, reached her ears. She had maintained silence and secrecy hitherto, and could so keep 011 to the bitter end. Could it be that he doubted her power to do this thing ? As she sat there, almost in complete darkness, with her temples painfully throbbing and the hot tears coursing down her wan cheeks, she tried to find some reason for being placed in her present alarming position ; but the more she endeavored to unravel the mystery, the more obscure it became to her. Not even Lido was left to her to brighten her prison life. Alone to live?alone to die? unpiticd and friendless. She thought and thought and thought, until her reason left her, and the cold white stars of the night looked in on her through the iron bars at the casement of her cell, and saw her through the night hours?wondering?wondering? wondering?a beautiful creature, half-crazed with grief and fever and despair ; and so the daylight found her. CHAPTER XVI. Stansbury had hardly disappeared with Gertrude McDonald to seek her husband, when a tall, heavy-set woman with beetling black brows, entered the room they had left, and advancing toward Lide said, with a jeal- j ous scowl upon her face? "Who arc you?" "My name is Lide Halstead," I answer you, madam, through courtesy; although I do not see your right to address a stranger in so abrupt and unwarranted a manner. "A stranger, eh ? And you don't recognize me, then ? Decent clothes have altered me so much." Something in the intonation of her voice made Lide start back and gaze at her, while the pallor of a great horror whitened her face. "You are?you are?my unworthy sister, Miriam Halstead, who deserted me and robbed my friends, when I lay insensible with fever, and who, in spite of your cruelty, nursed nieback to life?and to sorrow. Yes, to sor-' row; I see that to-day J" answered Lide, in slow, agonized tones? "Christ! don't be a fool! You have found out there's no use fighting against Fate ! You might as well have made money by the Mc- j Donald man as not. Now, it is too late; and he will take you without price!" "What inean you ? Why are you here ?" "I live here?am the matron?Und the j friend of Dr. Stausbury. You two were sold beautifully. The other woman is doomed, and so are you?one to die; the other?to live !" And she broke out in a devilish laugh that made Lide's blood run cold. "Come ! Kiss me, and make yourself at home. Remember that all things work together for good to those [ who love?Irving McDonald and Dr. Staus bury!" As the wicked creature uttered these words, she leaned toward Lide, as if to caress her ; I but the pure girl shuddered and shrank from her polluting touch, as 3he would have shrunk from that of some poisonous reptile. At that instant she would gladly have accepted death itself, rather than have lovingly greeted her unworthy and debased sister. But she knew that she could do nothing to avert her fate, at present, whatever it might be ; so she sat there before her sister in the silence of apprehension and woe. After awhile she was shown to a comfortable room ; but tired as she was, and needful of food and rest as she was, she neither slept nor ate?thinking of her poor unhappy friend. All night she sat, looking out at the full, bright moon as she flooded the earth with silvery light. When the gray dawn of morning came, and the cold white stars paled before the golden beams of the rising sun, she sat in the same chair and in the same attitude in which she had fallen the day previous to the i 1 liot. vowororl fripnrb capiure turn cuj;i>ivii.jr ui ..v.. ? , and refused to be comforted. Then Dr. Stansbury appeared. "Will you take ine to my friend?" Lide ventured, timidly, seeing a kiud smile upon his face? "You cannot see her. You are more fond than she; she has never asked for you. But you must not fret and chafe; this is to l)& your home." "Home !" echoed Lide, with a cold shiver. But she was a girl of the finest and quickest perceptions. She knew she must be wary, and closely watch every manoeuvre, and catch every chauce word. Despair, she inwardly vowed she would not. So pretending to be pleased with his overture, she unbent, and finally abandoned her reserve to an ease and grace of gesture and speech which she could rl/%11r*\y fnrl Qfonahnrv SCU UCH^libVU tjbOiivwuij t On this ttte-a-tcte the breakfast-hell charged the sound of interruption. At the table the men?the wildest, fiercest looking Lide had ever seeu?cast questioning glances at Stansbury and his fair companion, who in her rich dress, with her soft, white hands, and delicately tinted, lustrous-eyed face, formed a strange picture amongst the half-savage group about the tables. And the women scowled, and uttered iealous mutterin<rs?especially Miriam, J u the sister of the bereft unci beautiful girl. "I sec- now why you have brought her here!" cried Miriam, approaching them and addressing Stansbury, as he escorted Lide back to the parlor; "she another man's lighto'-love, with whose safe keeping he has entrusted you?and paid you in gold ! I understand?I understand!" "Hold your tongue, Miriam!" returned Stansbury, brusquely. "I will be answered when I speak!" she replied, stormily. "You will be a fool, as you always were !" said he, scornfully. "Better be a fool than a knave; and you're that?you well know; so do I." "Well, if you know it, let that knowledge satisfy you !" growled the man. "Then you have brought her here foryour! self?because she's beautiful ?" persisted Mi j nam, following close on their steps, as he led ' the trembling girl toward a sofa at the extreme ! end of the great drawing-room ; "you always i went crazy over beauty in women!" | "Hardly, Miriam, else I should never have I chosen so ugly a wretch as you to share my j solitary hours !" retorted Stansbury, sharply, 1 ending his speech with a mocking laugh. "Devil 1" exclaimed she. And in another ; instant she had snatched out of its sheath a 1 knife she wore by her side, and was brandishj ing it in the air. On seeing the sharp blade glistening high j in her sister's hand, Lide shrieked out loudly, | aud would have dropped to the ground in ! terror, had not Stansbury thrown a protecting j arm about and upheld her. j "Curse you !?you vixen !" cried Stansbury, ! in an awful rage; "would you seek to injure ; your own sister, and McDonald's love, when I he is in the house f" "In the house?" repeated Miriam, at once I lowering the knife and softening the tones of I her voice in the most marvelous manner; "what? Is he here?" Stansbury made her no reply ; but pursuI ing his way to the sofa, still supported Lide | with his strong arm. "Let me stay with her?I can attend to her," said Miriam, still jealous, and disliking to see Stansbury paying attention to any woman save herself. The man paid no heed to her words, but steadily pursued his way, and with great ostentation of courtesy aud admiration, seated ' the trembling girl. I "Oh! he!" exclaimed Miriam, "I undcr1 stand?I understand !" I'May the devil lay hold of and shorten I that infernal tongue of thine !" muttered the man, turning round to her and shaking his j clenched fist in a threatening manner; "I | have ray orders from McDonald concerning j this matter; and those orders will be obeyed, whether ^ou like it or not!" And then, after i a slight pause he pushed her through the open i door, and Lide was leftalpue in the luxurious ! gloom of the well-appointed drawing-room, j She did not rise to leave the room, after the two disputants departed ; for she knew, as well as if she had tried, that the bolt was ! slid in its groove. Ten minutes later she started back, tremj # ' bling, when Irving McDonald entered by another door?and she knew she was completei ly at his mercy ! ! CHAPTER XVII. ! When Stunsbury next intruded upon the poor captive, Gertrude, he brought with him ; some roasted meat, nice white rolls, and a I bottle of Rhine wine, and found her stretched out upon the floor of her prison, burning up i with fever, and utterly delirious. In sudden fear, he went after Miriam, and after they had talked with one another for some time, they concluded it would be best to ! remove their patient into their own apartment, where for many days Stansbury bestowed upon her every needful attention, and Miriam nurs- J ed her with the gentlest care, which showed i j that her soul was not quite dead?that out of i : the night of depravity, one star of humanity ; still shone with unquenchable beauty, j The fatigue of the rapid journey, and ex- i I citeraeut of mind, had completely prostrated j | the hapless wife; and it was a whole month j before she was so far convalescent as to leave the couch on which she had so long lain,racked with pain of oiind and weariness and i prostration of body. "You have quite lost ! your fever, Mrs. McDonald," remarked MiI riam, early one morning, as she accompanied Gertrude in her first walks in the grounds? Gertrude being assured that the whole housej hold was locked in sleep, and that they would | be likely to encounter no living creature save i the dogs belonging to the mansion. Gertrude walked slowly along, with Stansbury's mistress by her side. Both were sii lent; but Miriam had much to say to her companion, and was wondering how sheshould commence the tale she had to tell. Frequently she moved her lips, as if about to speak ; but feeling, intuitively, that her intelligence ! would be received by Gertrude with mingled j sentiments of grief and terror, she hesitated . before she delivered to her the unwelcome news with which her own heart was charged. "Do you feel weak, Mrs. McDonald ?" j Miriam at length began, j "Yes; so weak?so very weak, indeed,"? i Gertrude answered, as she spoke heaving a I deep-drawn sigh. "I am very sorry for this," Miriam remarked, uneasily; "but I suppose it is natural that j one's strength should be a good while in re: turning, when one has had such an attack of ' fever as you have had, Mrs. McDonald." "You are right, no doubt," said Gertrude, j wearily. | Then there was a pause?profound, intense. I I "I hate to have to tell you," suddenly Mij riam broke out, "for it will, no doubt, shock you greatly; but Mr. McDonald has been I here, and has fled, taking Lide Halstead with ! him." [ "My husband ??Irving McDonald!" cried Gertrude, pausing abruptly in her walk, aud looking, with a scared expression, into the bronze face of Miriam ; "are you speaking of him ?" "Of whom but him?and the girl, Lide Halstead ? They have fled together." . At this, Gertrude staggered back a pace or | two, and then sank down on the ground at j the roots of some hazel bushes. "Irving?my husband! Lide?my friend ! I "EMorM Tmnnssihle !" she. bv and bv. found power to exclaim. Miriam shook her head very gravely. "Ah! madam, I wish it were so that I could cry 'impossible', with you ; but I know positively to the contrary." Gertrude's countenance, rendered pale by sickness, now assumed the pallor of death, and she clasped her little hands over her I heart, as if to still its violent palpitations. "Tell me all?everything," she said, after a : moment's hesitation, in a voice that was scarcej ly audible. "I hate to tell you, madam, for it will grieve you ; but you will know it some day?and the sooner the better, I think?knowing, as I do, j the fate that awaits you here!" [ "Tell on, then 1" i Then Miriam proceeded to relate how Ger! trude had first fallen into the trap set for her i unwary feet; how she had been imprisoned ; had become ill; and how she had taken her I to nurse her back to life and health ; how Ir-! ving McDonald had seen her, and looked cold J and unpitying; and commanded that she j should be kept in the asylum forever, that no j one living would be able to clear up the mys-! tery; and lastly, how he had disappeared, j > taking Lide Halstead as the companion in his I flight. j Gertrude sat like a figure of stone, while i Miriam related her tragic tale, and at its conI elusion, she still sat, rocking her body to and i I froond moaning feebly, j Miriam watched her with an expression of j deep sympathy upon her worldly, sin-hardenj ed face. i Gertrude was attired in one of Miriam's | | simple calico dresses, and wore altogether a 1 : very different appearance from that which j she displayed when first introduced to our read-1 i er on the streets of Bristol. The elegant silk ! j carriage robe had disappeared, and the heavy, | J magnificent hair which had once been dressed j | in wavy locks and shining braids, now hung i . loose upon her shoulders, thiued and broken j ' - - ? i / | ? I by fever, and threaded by many silver unesoi i sorrow. "But I have not told you the worst yet, by ' a good deal, Mrs. McDonald," pursued Mi-* i riara, a dark scowl shadowing all her brow, j j Gertrude lifted up her eyes with a look of11 ; alarm. "Not told the worst?" she repeated ; j' i "for pity's sake, say on then, and let me be at! i peace in my despair." | "McDonald having deserted you, Stansbury ! becomes your master. Do you understand i me, madam ?" "Yes?yes; I understand." "Well, I heard these two men?McDonald ! i and Stansbury?deciding what should be done | i with you, and McDonald said Stansbury could ( take you for his own, entirely, for what he ; i cared; and?, ! "Oh ! God, what ffill becprae cried.! ! Gertrude, with great agitation sudcJep-L fear. "Listen yet further, madam," continued the woman, "and try to keep as cool and calm as you can. I need not tell you that these ' two men are monsters?Stansbury as well as 11 McDonald. I became acquainted with Staus-1; ' bury and loved him dearly; and he had no j ] trouble in persuading me to live with him, j i unwedded, aud afterward to follow him I ] t home?to this home in which you, madam, J < have been sheltered. His lawlessness did not j shock my soul, and I would have loved him j all the same, had I beeu pure and good, when ; : he first won me for his own. But Stansbury ; has a burning eye for beauty in a woman ; he 11 lias always had such, and he has cast that eye | on you ! He will throw me aside?make a | I drudge of me?or shoot me if he can succeed j1 ; in obtaining so young and fair a lady-love as , , yourself. This is all. You see your dreadful j fate; and it remains with you, and you only, j I whether you will remain hero and face your I doom, or whether you will flee hence, before it proves too late." *0,1 must fly!" cried Gertrude, attempting to rise, and then falling back again upon the ground ; "fly?but where ??0, where ? Will God have no pity on me I Will he not protect and help me! I will flee into the woods and die there?die of starvation?rather than become tbe victim of these cruel men. 0, Miriam! Miriam! help me?help me I Advise me-^guide me?I implore you!" She lifted up her clasped hands in a beseeching attitude, and then raising herself on her knees, crouched at the woman's feet. "What must I do ? What can I do ? Where can-I go?" "Oh! Mrs. McDonald, my heart bleeds for you !" returned Miriam ; "I don't know what to advise. You are so weak, you see that you cannot walk and run away, as I could, if anv dancer threatened me. And I have no J O t means on earth of procuring any other mode of conveyance for you. If I had, and did it, fl I would pay for the deed with my life. Stans bury would not hesitate a minute to snatch I out a pistol or a knife, and to send me to I 'kingdom-come' before I could wink. I some- I times wonder that he hasn't killed me; we've I had so many jealous and bitter quarrels with I each other." M At this moment there was a stir araongs' the hazel bushes. Miriam grew white, a' trembling with undefined fear, listened. ^Hj "Why don't you tell me what to dr riam ?" moaned Gertrude. "Hist! I fancied I heard some one stiwJ^P among those bushes. Hush !" After a pause Gertrude said, "There is no one there." Miriam, half doubtingly, shook her head, and said in a low voice, while an expression of x e 1 1 -J great, rear suauuncu uci iow? "I am not so certain; Stansbury may have tracked us to this spot." "0 Miriam, you have been so kind to me? so very kind?that I should be unhappy always if I were to be the cause of any raisfor-' tune overtaking you ! I am perfectly wretched?nearly crazy; yet my grief and my despair are not so wholly selfish as to render me devoid of anxiety for your welfare and your safety. I do not, therefore, ask you to aid me in escaping hence. I will go, and put my trust in God only." Miriam looked upon the unhappy lady, with a gaze of deep compassion, aud said, mournfully? "It is more than likely that when you are missing Stansbury will suspect me of having betrayed him to you ; and if he does, my life, in his devilish hands, will not be worth a pinch of snuff! I have loved Stansbury as much as my nature can love; but I know what fate awaits me, if I remain, and therefore I am resolved to share your fortunes with you?good or ill." Gertrude rose and pressed her hand in silence. They walked on through the grounds, with rapid steps, and gained the large gate-way. Here Miriam paused to fit a huge key in the ponderous lock. She had scarcely succeeded, nerore ciose behind them they heard the sharp click of a pistol, and then, almost instantly, followed the report of a shot and Miriam fell to the ground. "Stansbury has murdered me!" she gasped, and then there was a quiver of her limbs ; her black eyes set themselves in a glazed stare under her beetling brows; her heavily-stained lips paled ; and the quick, convulsive gasp of death shook Jaer from head to heel. A moment later, she was still as stone?save for the blood trickling from her wounded side. [to be continued next week.] PALMETTO STATE IMMIGRATION AGENCY. I?Its Object.?The object of this agency' is to introduce and settle in South Carolina the best possible classes of laborers and citizens from other countries, and thereby aid in developing the resources of the State. Its immediate work is the directing of the tide of immigration into South Carolina, to supply the great demand for labor and citizenship. II?Its Nature.?Theagency is under control of no society, board or coproration, but is composed of proprietor, agents ana pairous, who are actuated by motives of personal and public benefit. The ordinary principles of honest enterprise shall govern the Agency in its operations. It is the design of this enterprise to make a careful selection of persons ordered, and to give special attention to the introduction of families into the State. Farmers, gardeners, mechanics, domestics, &c., of almost any nationality, can be furnished, but preference is givep to English, Irish, Scotch, Swiss and Germans. III?Expenses and Fee.?The Agency will require persons ordering immigrants to to pay 815 for each adult, and $10 for each child between the ages of fourand fourteen, to defray the expenses of transportation and board from New York to any railroad town or station in the State; and, also a fee of $5 for each person over four years old, one-half of which the employer will pay, and the other half will be charged to the immigrant. The person ordering must, therefore, forward 820 for each immigrant over fourteen, and 815 for each child between four and fourteen years of age, charging the one 817.50, and the other $12.50, himself paying $2.50 (half the fee) for each. No charges for transportation or fee will be made for children under four years of age. The money must, in all cases, be forwarded before the orders can be filled. IV?General Remarks.?1. The Agency makes contracts with common laborers at 812 for men, and 88 for women, per month, including board. This can be changed by ' ' ?-i ?i i the mutual consent 01 tne employer auu cmploy?. 2. The Agency suggests that employers allow their immigrants to return the atnounts advanced fcfr expenses in small 'installments, paringWish for" each month. It wcmW.b^Srrell, "also, to use every effort to make these strangers'-who come in our midst contented, prosperous and cheerfuh-v " 3. Local agents are solicited in every county in the State, to secure and forward orders and money,-and to co-operate in delivering the persons od AVtiving at their respective places, for which a liberal commission will be paid. 4. Money must be sent by express, check or post office order, and all communications addressed to TILMAN R. GAINES, Columbia, S. C. The Virginius Wreck.?The latest accounts from Wilmingtv? N. CJ., state that the wreck of the Virginius is still sinking in the sands, her mizzen-mast yet protruding somewhat, haviug sank down several inches. Although the wreck lies in the track of vessels going in and out over the main bar, it is not thought that it will prove a serious impedir ment to navigation in the port of Wilmington. If, however, a vessel should run foul of it and be damaged, the Government may have to foot the bill.