"Before morning the doctor arrived. But the convulsions and the delirium

of the lady increased in violence until just at the dawn of day, when

she gave birth to an infant boy, who breathed and died.

"Then, just before her own death, she recovered her senses and grew very

calm. She asked to see her child. When the nurse brought it, she kissed

its cold face, and bade her lay it by her side. Then the lady called her

husband, and whispered so faintly that he had to lean his ear to her

lips to hear her words. She said: "'The vision is realized in the dead mother and the dead babe! But,

Philip! for whose sin do we die?' "Before he could make a reply, if any reply had been possible, she was

gone.

"The mother and babe were buried together. The company at Shut-up

Dubarry broke up in the greatest consternation. The story of the vision,

real or imaginary, that had caused the lady's death, got out. All the

neighborhood talked of it, and connected it with the fate of the hardly

used gipsy girl, whose spirit was said to haunt the house.

"Mr. Dubarry became a prey to the most poignant grief and remorse. He

shut himself up in his desolate house, where he was abandoned by all his

neighbors, and by all his servants, with the exception of the old

housekeeper and house-steward, whose devotion to the family they had

served so long, retained them still in the service of its last and most

unhappy representative.

"But awful stories crept out from that house of gloom. 'Twas said that

the master was always followed by the spectre of the gipsy girl--that he

could be heard in the dead of night walking up and down the hall outside

of his chamber door, raving in frenzy, or expostulating with some

unknown and unseen being, who was said to be the spectre that haunted

the house.

"At length, unable to endure the misery of solitude and superstitious

terrors, Mr. Dubarry took an aged Catholic priest to share his home.

Under the influence of Father Ingleman, Philip Dubarry became a penitent

and a devotee. At that time this church was but a rude chapel, erected

over the old family vault. But now, by the advice of the old priest, Mr.

Dubarry rebuilt and enlarged the chapel, for the accommodation of all

the Catholics in the neighborhood. He also added a priest's house. And

Father Ingleman said mass every Sunday, while waiting for another priest

to be appointed to the charge.

"This rebuilding and remodelling amused the miserable master of the

manor, during the latter part of the summer and the autumn following his

wife's death. But with the coming of the winter, returned all his gloom

and horror. And the good old priest, so far from being able to help his

patron, was himself so much affected in health and spirits by this

condition of the house, that he begged and obtained leave to retire to

the little dwelling beside the church.




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