Cruel As The Grave
Page 161"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
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
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
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.