Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1892 — ZEYNAEL ZEGAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ZEYNAEL ZEGAL

IrmsmMse’' w |r Afflmm&jSimri.

BY HOMER P. BRANCH

[COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR, 1830.]

CHAPTER IX—Continued. With this the two forms dissolved back into Invisibility. The young man could have been none other tnan old Ben's master, and if that venerable "black had been on hand he could have had the pleasure »f embracing his real “mnssa” instead of a person who resembled him. I went up stairs, and seeing the door of one of the forbidden rooms ajar, I entered. Upon the floor in the corner of this room stood a small iron safe with its door partly Pulling this door wide upon its hinges, I saw within a bunch of papers. Drawing this forth, a glance satisfied me that it was the last wili and te-tament and other papers of the late Montinni Securing these, I turned to withdraw from the room, when I was startled by a slight rustle of the gauze curtain around the couch, for •the room was a bedchamber. I stood looking at it for a moment, and was turning away again, when tlje curtain was drawn aside by invisible means. There, stretched upon the couch, prone and rigid, the bed for a bier, lay the body of Senor Montinni, in as perfect a state of preservation as if it had been embalmed that morning. The curtain fell back to its natural rest and I walked out of the room. When I reached the hall the door closed, seemingly of its own accord, and I heard the key turn in the rusty old lock.

CHAPTER X. AT THE SICK MAN’S BEDSIDE.. I went down-stairs, after the adventure described in the previous chapter, and stepped into the sick man’s room to give a few words of cheer. He put out his hand feebly to me, and taking it in mine I sat down by his side. His deepsunken eyes and wan, sallow look; the damp upon his lips, scalding and parching the tender skin, and the hot steam that came forth as breath, indicated that dread disease of the South, yellow fever. Friend Burton, thought I, thou art near to the sleep that knows no waking, but which gives to such as thee the everlasting dream of paradise. Thy spirit will break its earthly bounds to wander unrestrained in those celest’al regions which it has heretofore seen but in imagination. Thy fair Zeyna and thyself will end thy unhappy mundane courtship at the altar of the Supreme Thy wedding march will be down the vistas of the Happy Land, where thou needst not seek surcease of sorrow, for naught but joy is there “Hal,” said Burton, “I have been telling mother that you would be a son to her when lam gone. You will cherish her for my sake, won’t you, Hal?” I assured him that, so far as I was ablo, I would help and be a friend to his mother. Then his mind began to wander in delirium, a peculiarity of his disease, and in a rambling way he told how disappointed he was when he came to the spiritual festival, where all the people who have been connected with the proprietorship of the estate were to be, and found that his Zeyna was not of the throng; how he- had many and many times come and dwelt foi* weeks in the old house, alone in its awful dullness, that he might eatch but a glimpse of her, but ail in vain until he had seen her in the library th“ night before; how Montinni had appeared to him when I was sick in the hospital, and told him that I was to work out the problem of the haunted house; how his almost constant habitation among supernatural beings had cast a shade of the supernatural over himself, so that ho seemed unlike his fellow-mortals, and was oft3n the object of wonderment and dismay to superstitious peoplo; how he sometimes questioned himself as to his destiny, as to the nicbe he was to fill in the grand sura of the Creator's handiwork, as to whether he was really a mortal, or a spirit apparently clothed in flesh; how his tastes and thoughts so differed with those of others that he mingled not among men, but sought the grand and beautiful scenes of Nature and smothered in golden reaches of imagination the hankering grief for his loved one. Then his worrying delirium seemed to pass away, and he straightened down upon the couch and laid quite still for several hours, during which time I prepared a letter to Montinni’s heir, to be sent to him to Venice by telegraph and cable.

CHAPTER XI. THE LAWYER’S GHOST. The morning sun smiled placidly through the fast evaporating fog that a light breeze was lifting from its night’s rest upon the bosom of the bayou, and the usual solumn hush reigned about the deserted old house. Four days had elapsed since the arrival of the Senora Arold. These four days were uneventful in interest. Dull monotonous days they were, of watdhing by the sick man’s bedside, and examining legal documents belonging to the estate. Upon the morning in question Old Ben had come noislessly to the door and handed in a sealed envelope directed to me. It contained a telegram from Montinni’s heir, stating that he would most graciously Submit to my demands in behalf of tho Senora Arold, and that he would ship for New Orleans by the steamer Don Juan, due at that pbrt in fourteen days. After absorbing this intelligence I went to Burton’s room, and, after his mother had withdrawn for a moment, laid the whole matter before him. The sick man raised himself to a sitting posture in the bed and extending his hand for a glad shake, said, wftlt a pleasant smile upon his lips: “Hal, I’m the happiest man in 'the world, although I am on my death ;bed. My only trouble was about imother. Now I know that she will be able to live comfortably.” He laid down Again and I called his mother back, so that I could retire and think matters over. I always like to saunter about when in a reflective mood, and upon this occasion I went out and walked around the shade and fruit trees that surround* ed the house. After a half flour of walking and (thinking T turned toward the house when I felt a touch upon my arm, and upon turning around saw a dapper little gentleman, who tipped his bright silk tile to me jauntily and said: •This is Senor Mala, I believe. Well, business is business, whether it’s a wholesale funeral ora chattel mortgage. To be candid with you, I am, a ghost—a downright spook—but you’ve seen plenty of them lately, so you won’t be scared. I was formerly the lawyer who settled all the little legal quibbles arising on this estate The worthy proprietors, prho are in another state —or rather ter-

ritory—of existence, want a little business done. It will perhaps be agreeable to you to learn that there are five corpses up stairs that need to be interred down there in the burying ground. They are those ot El Muza and wife, El Zegal and wife, and Montinni. The whole family died of the yellow fever epidemic some years ago, myself among the rest, as I came down with the disease while up here on business. Nearly all of us were buried, but we were dropping off so fast the niggers all got scared and ran away, leaving the persons whose names I have mentioned to pass away in a lonesome sort of style that was very unpleasant to the participants. The bodies ware laid out and embalmed by the spirits that bad inhabited thorn in their original existence. The bodies have been here ever since, and things were left in such a dire state that we have had to stay around here and guard the place and frighten people away and resort to all manner of schemes to preserve the secret of our dead all these years. Until we found you we knew of no medium that we could consult with to the end of getting our dead taken care of and the estate straightened up. As soon as these remains are buried the house ceases to be haunted. Old Ben can dig the gravffs, and with your aid as a medium wo can do everything alf right Dave the graves and caskets ready by to-morrow night at twelve o’clock. We’d have buried these bodies long ago, "but it was impossible for spirits to dig in the ground. Excuse me if I haven’t handled this subject quite so delicately as you mortals customari y do. We of the spirit world attach no romance or sanctity to the matter of death. With us it is something that has Dast, and therefore of little consequence. Good day:”

CHAPTER XII. THE WEIRD FUNERAL. Five rusty-hinged doors swung creaking open on the north side of the old hall up stairs, and shadowy forms in sable covering floated to and fro in the rooms of mystery. In each room a pale corpse lay still and cold upon the beir awaiting to be deposited in the dark casket that sat so grimly beside. fto tear of sorrow came to call for sympathy at this weird funpral. The mourners wore happy smiles and spoke cheerful words; for they wore not the frail beings known as mortals. Each and all had undergone the earthly death, and the spirits of the corpses then under charge were present with the throng. El Zegal and his wife, whom I had not seen before, came forward from the crowd, greeted me kindly, and thanked me for my solicitude in behalf their daughter and her lover. They had done wrong in parting tho two, but earthly judgment is ever apt to err. All sorrow between them would soon be over. El Muza and his wife also came to me and spoke gladly of the means which were bringing about a reconcilliation between them and their eldest daughter, and were pleased at the provisions being made for her maintainancc. Burton and the Senora knew nothing of tho arrangements going on up-stairs, and were both sound asleep when midnight had arrived, Precisely at 13 o’clock the spectral procession filed silently out of the old house, and bearing the coffined dead wended its way to the cemetery in the valley. Old Ben had performed his work well; the five graves were ready. Down into them the caskets wore lowered, and the startling, hollow sound of the falling dirt as the faithful old negro plied the shovel, looking around dazed and scared upon the phantom crowd, awoke the solemn echoes of the night. When all was done, the Senor Montinni stepped forward and warmly thanked us for our help, assuring us that, we would not lack in reward; then bade us good night, and disappeared with all the rest. It had beon dark and cloudy, but as Old Ben and I turned to go from the spot the clouds in the zenith broke away as if cut in twain, and the full round moon and twinkling stars illumined the whole landscape- round, and revealed to us that the new-made graves gave no sign of fresh earth, but were covered with moss and grass growing flowers. Old Ben looked curiously at me when he had noticed this, and said: “Massa, dis am queeah,” I answered: “I like it; it Is well. ” CHAPTER XIII. THE MYSTIC MAHRIAOE. The Villa Montinni was a haunted house no more. Every door and window was open, and tho pleasant air and sunshine wandered through the house as if searching out tho gloomy corners to brighten and cheer them up. There was ono sad shadow though that air and sunshine couldn’t brighten up. The shadow of death was resting on the brow of the widow’s son. Not that he saw it, for he looked beyond to a scene brighter than poor earthly sunshine; but the mother, she saw and felt that cloud. It was in the fore part of the day and I had sat at the head of his couch for some hours keeping the cool, damp cloths upon his brow, that they might fill as much as possible the grateful mission of soothing the fever in the brain. His mother sat upon the couch*by his side holding both his hands in hers and watching every movement of his pale thin lips as each breath went forth upcn its last mission. He had not spoken for some time, and we were almost startled when his feeble voice gently broke silence with the exclamation: “Mother, Hal see!” He had raised his head from the pillow and was pointing toward the large folding doors at the end of the halL We followed his direction and as we gazed the great doors swung abroad, and a breath of flowers floated in; then gentle music, such as we hear in dreams, came whispering along the air as if it were too holy-glad to speak its happiness aloud. A haze of perfumed atmosphere filled the room, lighting it with a phosphorescent glow that rendered delicately throughout the rainbow’s almost inimitable tints. “She comes, mother.” whispered Burton, as he raised still higher, and stepping upon opposite sides of the couch we held the pibows to his head. “Senora," said I, “the hour is here, ‘the spirit and the bride say come.’ ” A bright and happy light came to his eyes as heard me say this, and he stretched out one hand to me He turned his face toward his mother that she might take the farewell kiss, and as he did so the fairy vision floated in that was to bear his soul away upon its upward flight We saw not the death gasp, we heard no moan/for the perfumed, rainbow-tinted vapint settled dense about the couch, and the music of an angel host swelled sweetly in, to charm away the anguish of that last moment We knew the soul had left its earthly house, the body, for there under an archway festooned with roses and hung with dreamy drapery we saw standing, smiling happily upon each other, the Spirit forms of the lovely

Zeyna and noble Burton Arold, surrounded by the host of angels and spirits fair that had glided so beautifully through that very room on the night of mystic revelry. Seemingly in obedience to a motion from Burton, the fair Zeyna bent, forward and kissed the brow of the mother, whose saintlike beauty as she gazed upon the happiness of her son was a true representation of her kindness of heart, inexpressible in its holy significance This fond salutation done, tho lovers joined in spiritual marriage floated out with their angel escorts, and ud to the realms that knew no death or shadow. ~ CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUSION. * It Is fit to end this ptory now, as I have foi owed the two chi,ef characters to tho end of my knowledge of them; but there are a few things left in connection with the house of which the reader may demand to know as to the conclusion of affairs concerning my mission there. They can be told in a few words. The legal papers of the estate were in a bad plight. 1 employed an honorable and competent attorney to help me straighten them out and get them In order. At the end of my stipulated time I opened the roll of parchment which had been placed in my charge by the phantom lady, and found that it contained a will bequeathing to Ei Muza or his heirs the disposal of a one-eighth portion of an estate near Madrid, Spain. The Kenora had been disinherited by her father, but the attorney, who was a good Spanish scholar, uron looking the matter up, found that in Spain a man caunot without action o tho Government disinherit the last heir in his legitimate family line, in a matter wherein any considerable real estato is concerned. We communicated with our minister plenipotentiary at Madrid concerning the matter, fully establishing the Sonora’s identity. We received answer that tho property, along with tho whole estate to which it belonged, was held by the crown in default of many years’ taxes due, but if the Senora would throw off forty per cent of her claim she could at any time demand and got the balance, which would yield her an ample competency for life. A settlement was soon effected and tho Senora given her portion. The Don Juan landed in New Orleans near the time expected, and Montinni’s heir came up to see his property. He was a gentleman and a business man, and we soon settled everything satisfactorily. The young man had not been there a week before he had lumber upon tho grounds, and carpenters, masons, and painters fixing over the old house. Somewhere or other he picked up an energetic farmer and installed him as overseer, and in less than two months the erstwhile haunted villa and weed-grown plantation was all bustle and life. The Senora has a fine home at the villa, and kind friends and attendants among whom to spend her declining years Her only care is to attend to two vine-hung graves down in the valley burying ground, and her Joy is to make her presence a pleasure in tirao of health and a comfoit in time of illness to every tenant of the place, and to meditate upon the time in the future life when she will be with her boy and his spirit bride. [the end.]