Twice-Told Tales

per. This slight mark of respect and gratitude, as he handsomely observed, was far less than the ingenious tale-teller, and I, the humbl

avenue which gives access to the historic precincts of the Province House. In short, if any credit be due to the courteous assurances of Mr. Thomas Waite, we had brought his forgotten mansion almost as effectually into public view as if we had thrown down the vulgar range o

in the province-house from Queen Anne's days to the Revolution. The occasion was rendered more interesting by the presence of a venerable personage whose own actual reminiscences went back to the epoch of Gage and Howe, and even supplied him with a doubtful anecdote or two of Hutchinson. He was one of that small, and now all but extinguished, class whose attachment to royalty, and to the colonial institutions and customs that were connected with it, had never yielded to the democratic heresies of after-times. The young queen of Britain has not a more loyal subject in her realm-perhaps not one who would kneel before her throne with such reverential love

away the governor's choicest wine and forgot to reveal the secret on his death-bed. Peace to his red-nosed ghost and a libation to his memory! This precious liquor was imbibed by Mr. Tiffany with peculiar zest, and after sippi

ther to her childhood, and was now anxious to receive her in the hope that a beautiful young woman would be exposed to infinitely less peril from the primitive society of New England than amid the artifices and corruptions of a court. If either the governor or his lady had especially consulted their own comfort, they would probably have sought to devolve the responsibility on other hands, since with some noble and splendid traits of character Lady Eleanore was remarkable for a harsh, unyielding pride, a haughty consciousnes

tirrups and pistols at their holsters. Through the large glass windows of the coach, as it rolled along, the people could discern the figure of Lady Eleanore, strangely combining an almost queenly stateliness with the grace and beauty of a maiden in her teens. A singular tale had gone abroad among the ladies of the province that their fair rival was indebted for much of the irr

blic street. It was an awkward coincidence that the bell of the Old South was just then tolling for a funeral; so that, instead of a gladsome peal with which it was custo

had recently brought despatches to Governor Shute. "The funeral should have be

ion of the popular party, "whatever the heralds may pretend, a dead beggar

ernor Shute descended the flight of steps from his mansion to assist Lady Eleanore in alighting. But the governor's stately approach was anticipated in a manner that excited general astonishment. A pale young man with his black hair all in disorder rushed from the throng and prostrated himself beside th

e same time lifting his cane over the intrud

men seek only to be trampled upon, it were a pity to deny them a favor so easily granted-and so well deserved!" Then, though as

ditary pride trampling on human sympathies and the kindred of nature than these two figures presented at that moment. Yet the spectators were so s

eside Dr. Clarke. "If he be in his senses, his impertinence demands the bastinado; i

save the mind and soul that nature gave him; and, being secretary to our colonial agent in London, it wa

aspire," observed

l humiliation overtake this lady who now treads so haughtily into yonder mansion. She seeks to place herself above the sympathies of our common na

ndignantly-"neither in life nor wh

uch extravagance of eulogy, the spectacle might even be termed splendid, for, according to the fashion of the times, the ladies shone in rich silks and satins outspread over wide-projecting hoops, and the gentlemen glittered in gold embroidery laid unsparingly upon the purple or scarlet or sky-blue velvet which was the material of their coats and waistcoats. The latter article of dress was of great importance, since it enveloped the wearer's body nearly to the knees and was perhaps bedizened with the amount of his whole year's income in go

was invested with magic properties, so as to lend a new and untried grace to her figure each time that she put it on! Idle fancy as it is, this mysterious mantle has thrown an awe around my im

icipate in the enjoyment of other human souls. Whether or no the recollections of those who saw her that evening were influenced by the strange events with which she was subsequently connected, so it was that her figure ever after recurred to them as marked by something wild and unnatural, although at the time the general whisper was of her exceeding beauty and of the indescribable charm which her mantle threw around her. Some close observers, indeed, detected a feverish flush and alternate paleness of countenance, with a corresponding flow and revulsion of spirits, and once or twice a painful and helpless betrayal of lassitude, as if she were on the point of sinking to the ground. Then, with a nervous shudder, she seemed to arouse her energies, and

chair, apparently overwearied either with the excitement of the scene or its tedium; and while, for an instant, she was unconscious of voices, laughter and music, a young man stole forward and knelt down at her feet. He bore a salver in his hand on which was a chased silver goblet filled to the brim

ut with a kindlier feeling than she ordinarily permitted h

hly and heavenly welfare, I pray you to take one sip of this holy wine and then to pass the goblet round among the guests. And this shall be a symbol

en that sacramental vessel?" ex

gnized as appertaining to the communion-plate of the Old South Church, and, f

d," half whispered the

ain's throat!" cried t

houlder that the sacramental cup was overturned and its contents sprinkled upon Lady Eleanore's

him out of my sight, if such be your pleasure, for I can find in my heart to do nothing but laugh at hi

stness offered a new and equally strange petition to Lady Eleanore. It was no other than that she should throw off the mantle, which

ng his hands in an agony of entreaty. "It may not yet

her head in such a fashion as to give a completely new aspect to her beautiful face, which, h

d she. "Keep my image in your re

her aspect, and that shall be the image that must abide within me." He made no more resistance to the violent efforts of the gent

ician, Dr. Clarke, with whom he had held some casual talk on the day of her arrival. The doctor stood apart, separated from Lady Eleanore by the w

arms of this queenly maiden," said he, hoping thu

or two for his private ear. Good-night!" He accordingly advanced to Governor Shute and addressed him in so low a tone that none of the bystanders could catch a word of what he said, although the sudden change of His Excellency's hitherto

s ravages. At first, unlike its ordinary course, the disease seemed to confine itself to the higher circles of society, selecting its victims from among the proud, the well-born and the wealthy, entering unabashed into stately chambers and lying down with the slumberers in silken beds. Some of the most distinguished guests of the province-house-even those whom the haughty Lady Eleanore Rochcliffe had deemed not unworthy of her favor-were stricken by this fatal scourge. It was noticed with an ungenerous bitterness of feeling that the four gentlemen-the Virginian, the British officer, the young clergyman and the governor's secretary-who had been her most devoted attendants on the evening

oison, or to grasp the hand of a brother or friend lest the grip of the pestilence should clutch him. Such was the dismay that now followed in the track of the disease or ran before it throughout the town. Graves were hastily dug and the pestilential relics as hastily covered, because the dead were enemies of the living and strove to draw them headlong, as it were, into their own dismal pit. The public councils were suspended, as if mortal wisdom might relinquish its devices now that

o room for doubt that the contagion had lurked in that gorgeous mantle which threw so strange a grace around her at the festival. Its fantastic splendor had been conceived in the delirious brain of a woman on her death-bed and was the last toil of her stiffening fingers, which had interwoven fate and misery with its golden threads. This dark tale, whispered at first, was now bruited far and wide. The people raved agains

shook fitfully, as if to fling abroad the contagion that it typified. At length, climbing one of the pillars by means of the iron balustrade, he took down the flag, and entered the mansi

e, extending his cane to guard himself from contact. "The

king the red flag aloft. "Death and the pestilence, who wears the aspect of the Lady Elean

cloak across his mouth. "What matters his miserable life, when none of

dman's impulse to struggle with and rend asunder his opponent, he found himself powerless beneath a calm, stern eye which possessed the mysterious property of quelling frenzy at its height. The

t is your purpo

ore," answered Jervase

hreshold of that fatal chamber. Know ye not that never came such a curse to our shores as this lovely Lady Eleanore, that her bre

old her in her awful beauty, clad in the regal garments of the pestilenc

ge with fantasies the more magnificent the more evil she has wrought? Thus man doth ever to his tyrants. Approach, then. Madness, as I have noted, has that good efficacy that it will guar

by enchantment she scattered round about her. He dreamed, no doubt, that her beauty was not dimmed, but brightened into superhuman splendor. With such anticip

Lady Eleanore?

replied th

re. There, on yonder table, I behold the sparkle of a diamond which once she wore upon her bosom. There"-and he shuddere

tered, which, listening intently, Jervase Helwyse began to distinguish as a woman's

scorched," murmured the

ins. "Whose voice hast thou stolen for thy murmurs and miserable petitions, as if Lady Eleanore could be

se of Heaven hath stricken me because I would not call man my brother nor woman sister. I wrapped myself in pride as in a mantle and scorned the sympathies of nature, an

uined life and love that had been paid with cruel scorn, awoke within the breast of Jervase Helwyse. He shook his finger

o worthy to be the final victim as herself?" Impelled by some new fantasy of his cra

effigy, and a strong wind came and swept away the ashes. It was said that from that very hour the pestilence abated, as if its sway had some mysterious connection, from the first plague-stroke to the last, with Lady Elcanore's mantle. A remarkable uncertainty broods over that unhappy lady'

esent case, we may repose perfect confidence in the veracity of him who tells it. For my own part, knowing how scrupulous is Mr. Tiffany to settle the foundation of his facts, I could not have believed him one whit the more faithfully had he professed

fany, having no cause to dread a rival, immediately besought him to favor us with a specimen; my own entreaties, of course, were urged to the same effect; and our venerable guest, well pleased to find willing auditors, awaited only the return