But, soft! behold, lo, where it comes again!

I'll cross it, though it blast me.--Stay, illusion!

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me!--SHAKESPEARE.

"The Dubarrys," he began, "were a French Roman Catholic family of

distinction. A cadet of that family came over to Virginia among the

earliest English settlers of the colony.

"As in the case of the more important among his anglican comrades, he

obtained a very large tract of land by Royal patent. He built his hut

and fixed his abode here, not a hundred yards from the spot where this

church now stands.

"He took an Indian girl for a wife, and continued to live a wild

huntsman sort of life in the wilderness; only breaking it sometimes by

going down to Jamestown, twice a year, to buy such necessaries of

civilized life as the wilderness could not furnish, and to hear news

from any ship that might have come in from the old country; and above

all, to take a holiday among civilized pleasure-seekers--for such

existed even in the primitive settlement of Jamestown.

"In due course of time, a family of half-breed sons and daughters grew

up around him, and the little primitive hut gave place to a substantial

stone lodge.

"And the country around was becoming settled. The Berners had got a

grant of the Black Valley, and had built the first part of Black Hall,

which has since been added to in every generation, until it has grown to

its present dimensions.

"About this time also, Charles Dubarry was inspired with a certain

ambition for his eldest son, a densely ignorant, half-Indian youth of

nineteen; and hearing that the two young sons of Richard Berners of

Black Hall were to be sent to England to be educated, he proposed that

his own 'black boy,' as he called his handsome dark-eyed heir, should go

with them. And as the three lads had been forest companions for some

years, the proposal of old Dubarry was gladly accepted, and the three

young men sailed in company for England.

"They spent ten years in the old world, and returned, as as they had set

out, together. It was after their return that the close friendship of a

young lifetime was turned to the deadliest enmity. It happened in this

manner: "The country, during their absence, had grown a great deal in

population. Every rich valley among these mountains had its white

proprietor. In the Valley of the Roses--so named, because at the time it

was taken possession of by its first proprietor, it was fairly carpeted

and festooned all around and about with the wild-rose vine--dwelt one

Gabriel Mayo, a gentleman of fortune, taste, and culture. He had a

family of fair daughters, of whom old Charles Dubarry, with his national

gallantry and proneness to exaggeration, had said, that 'they were all

the most beautiful girls in the world, and each one more beautiful than

all the others.' "Be that as it may, it is certain that there were five lovely maidens,

ranging from fifteen years to twenty-one, to choose from. Yet who can

account for human caprice, especially in such matters? The three young

men--Louis Dubarry, and John and William Berners--all fixed their

affections upon Florette Mayo, the youngest beauty.




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