0 IE DOLLAR PER ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. TOWANDA: Thursday Morning,. August 18, 1859. [From Chambers' Journal.] POUDRE HOSE. [CONCLUDED.] The elasticity of hope is in youth rarely completely crushed : and before many days had gone by, Adrienne's brain was again busy with expedients for bringing aboat the family recon cilement upon which her mind was set with such morbid intensity ; and all the more eag erly, that the third annual visit of her relatives was close at hand. But the resources of tears, supplications, incantations, votive-offerings, having failed, what other device remained like ly to injure a fortunate result ? Mademoiselle Beaudesert was thus anxiously ruminating, when Lisette Mendon, a favorite and shrewd attendant, took occasion, whilst perfecting the transparent-tlioughted young lady's dinner toilet, to remark, with reference to a wedding soon to take place among the chateau servants, how extraordinary it was that ce gros vieux fivnsard should have won so easily the affec tions of young and pretty Fanchette Lenoir, who was, moreover, quite as well, if not better off, than he. "Certainly," she added with emphasis, " such a match could not have been brought about without the he'p of the poudre rose, or similar magic compound." " Poudre rose !'' murmured Adrienne, turn ing her unquiet, dreamy eyes upon the attend ant ; " I have heard that spoken of before.— What are its real or supposititious qualities ?" 1 can assure mademoiselle," replied Lis ette, " that there is no supposition in the case. The poudre rose is well known to possess ex traordinary virtues, though i should not 1 ke Madame de Vautpre or the Abbe Morlaix, both of whom have unreasonable prejudices upon such matters, to hear me say so. For example, there was Marie Devenlle, a widow with a strong cast in her eyes, four small chil dren, and not a liard's worth of property, who married, about a fortnight after she was seen to pay a sly visit to the late Madame Delpech, Jean Lucas, a good-looking young farmer, and one of the most prosperous in the commune. It must lie admitted that nothing short of very marvellous mag e could have accomplished such a marriage as that. For my part," added Lisette, " 1 should feel no scruple, if an op portunity oc.urred—But 1 am fatiguing made- UIOiM lie. " Not at all, Li>ette ; you interest me on the contrary. How is this precious poudre rose administered V " Nothing more simple, mademoiselle. The prescribed quantity is placed in a glass of wine, a cup of colfee—n" Adritunc explained ; Jules Delpech the while, as >he subsequently recalled to uiind, though too agitated and confused at the mo ment to appreciate its strange significance— Jules P. Ipech, I say, gazing the while into her eyes with a piercing intensity, as if more de sirous of reading there the secret of her soul, than of listening to the words of her mouth. " 1 understand you, Mademoiselle Braude scrt," said Delpech, with slow, stage solemnity of speech. " The poudre rose icill effect your pur|Kise in giving it to Madame de Vautpre." " Seriously, I am so glad ; for do you know, Monsieur Delpeech, I felt almost sure that you would say it was a childish, absurd illusion." '• When shall I place it in mademoiselle's hands ?" inquired Delpech. " To-morrow, if you please, at this place and hour " '• Be it so, mademoiselle ; I will bepuuctual and silent. " Almost a woman, and a charming one, too, person,'' muttered Delptcb, lookiDg after PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TO WANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH. Mademoiselle Beaudesert as she hurried back to where she had left the valet—"in mind, the veriest child ! The amiable Ursilines may prepare their pupils very well for heaven, but certainly they do not succeed in fitting them to deal with this wicked world. After all, Paul will make her an excellent husband ; and if, which is quite possible, we have deceived our selves as to the young lady's partiality for him, or at least that it is so decided as to induce her to stoop to a union with him from the height whereon a very few days, or I err great ly, will see her placed, it will require the iron link which I have so successfully begun to forge, to coerce and bind her prideful will.— And yet, at all events, I can say beaujeu, bien jour; and, lest of all, should our audacious project, as it may be truly called, fail, neither Paul nor I shall be seriously compromised, as I will manage ; but it will not, cannot fail Madame Beaudesert and her daughter Clar isse had passed the stipulated number of hours at the Chateau d'Em, and were seated at breakfast with Madame de Vautpre, M Mor laix, a*;d Adrieune ; which repast concluded, the two visitors would be conveyed, in a car riage already in waiting, to the Messageries lioyales, Lyon, en route for Clichy. M. Mor laix could not help remarking that Adrienne was very much more restless, perturbed, ill at ease, thau on the like former occasions. And why were the burning eyes of the pale, agita ted girl turned with such intense, sudden scru tiny upon Madame de Vautpre's countenance when Madame and Ciarisse Beaudesert hand ed chocolate to that lady ? Was it that Ad rienne's solicitude was awakened by the signs of recent and severe suffering visible there, for Madame de Vautpre had passed a much worse night than usual, and at her own request hud received the sacrament soon after rising. The abbe would fain have believed so, but could not, knowing whathedid. It was rath er, lie greatly feared, that that young, and, as he once thought, guileless, unworldly heart, was agitated by criminal hopes, which those signs of probably mortal disease had quicken ed aud inflamed. A harsh but perhaps not unnatural judg ment ! Poor Adrienue's criminal hopes, were, in sooth, limited to the magical effect produced by the poudre rose. Certainly, Madame de Vautpre's demeanor was more gracious towards her mother and sister than on former occa sions ; and, unhoped-for condescension ! suffer ing aud feeble as she was, Madame la Baronne would accompany them down the grand stairs to the entrance-hall ; had shaken hands with Madame Beaudesert, and was abofit apparent ly to embrace Ciarisse, when she suddenly staggered, caught wildly at vacancy, aud fell heavily upon the tesselated pavement, before a hand could be stretched forth to save her. A medical gentleman, who had resided lor sev eral weeks at the chateau, was quickly on the spot, and opened a vein ; a few drops of dark blood flowed, and at the end of a few breath less minutes, the man of science announced, in a grave whisper, that Madame de Vautpre was dead—dead of apoplexy ! "Apoplexy ! you are certain of apoplexy !" said the abbe, addressing the surgeon, but with his stern glance fixed upon Adrienue's chang ing countenance, till she, overcome by a rush of contending emotion, lost her senses, and sank with a low, moauiug cry into her mother's arms. Towards evening ou the same day, and whilst Adrienne was still iu a manner stunned by the suddenness and magnitude of the event which had changed the aspect of her life, she received a message from the Abbe Morlaix, requesting to sec her immediately, and alone. She obeyed the summons, and divined its mean ing the moment she was in the abbe's presence. He wore his priest's stole ; and a velvet cush ion had betu placed beside his chair. " I have sent for you, Adrienne Beaudesert," said he, "on this day in which He, iu whose handsare the issues of life und death, has visited this house with such sudden judgment, in the hope, the confidence, that at such a solemn moment you will not refuse or delay to lay bare your whole heart to Hod." The abbe's word's and tone wounded the susceptibility of the young girl, who, with the hauteur inspired by conscious purity and inno cence, answered that she had no present inten tion of placing herself under Monsieur l'Abbe Morlaix's spiritual superintendence. The abbe was enraged beyond all bounds by such a re ply, and in t li e first movement of his anger, gave partial vent to the dreadful suspicions that hud arisen in his mind. Mademoiselle Beaudesert only appeared to comprehend iu his angry, menacing language and reproach, that she rejoiced at the death of Madame de Vautpre ; and even that wastoo much for her shaken strength ; and again losing conscious ness, as in the morning, she would have fallen on the floor but for the dismayed aud bewildered abbe. Directly assistance came, M. Morlaix left the loom, and soon afterwards the chateau, to seek counsel as to what course, under the circumstances, he was bound to pursue. Whatever that counsel may have been, re mained unknown to those whom it must have chictiv concerned, since it was not, visibly at least, developed in action. The routine of the chateau weut on as usual ; and on the appoint ed day, the corpse of Madame la Baronne de Vautpre was borne in state to the vaults of the Church of Assumption, to be laid by the side of that of her nephew. The funeral dis play was yet more splendid—the catafalque more gorgeously emblematic of the dignity that lay rotting beneath its imposing uphol stery, the crowd more dense, the oration more effective than ou the former occasion ; albeit the essentials of the show were identically the same in both cases : the same catafalque, only more splendidly bedizened ; the same crowd in larger numbers ; the same oration from the hame text, " Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serp ! ent shall bite him skilfully amplified to in clude certain special admonitions, which found their way to at least one conscience, if it might be fairly so inferred from the convulsive sobbing of,ostensibly,the chief mourner amongst that throng of seeming mourners ! The spec tators whispered to each other that Mademoi- " REGARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER." selle Beaudesert was more violently affected than at her father's fuueral ; and some others of the more observing sort noticed that Jules Delpech, present with liis son Paul, was again recognized by Madame de Vautpre's grand niece, as she left the church ; but this time with a start, shudder, a crimson suffusion of face and neck, rendered more striking by the instantly recurring paleness. What might that mean, coupled with the flashing looks in terchanged between the father and son ? A question that which Adrienne Beaudesert her self could not have answered, had she choseD to do so, except by saying, that since the death of Madame de Vautpre, immediately after drinking the chocolate in which poudre rose had been mixed, the idea of the men who had provided her with the unholy drug—it was Paul Delpech who was in waiting for her with the sealed packet at the second interview, Mademoiselle Beaudesert being accompanied by Lisette Meudon—had been associated iu her mind with images of death and sin ! Lisette Meudon could have given a more plau sible solution of the seeming mystery —name- ly, the conflict iu mademoiselle's mind of pride and high station, with the suggestions of a ; romantic attachment to haudsome Paul Del pech ; and Lisette, a young woman of strong , feeling, though lax in principle, would not have . hesitated to give up the money recompense she | was to receive of the Delpeehs, were not her marriage with the amiable son of miserly old j Simouet dependent thereon, if she might there by have assisted in breaking the ignoble fet ters in which a vagrant fancy, helped by cun ning arts, hud bound her gentle-miuded mis tress. But, ulas ! Lisette Meudon, keen aud ; warv as she deemed herself, had been as fatal ly duped by those cunning arts as Adrienne Beaudesert herself. So at least confidently | calculated the two Delpeehs The death-rites duly celebrated, the affairs of life regained regard and prominence ; and it was found that the large possessions of Mad ame la Baronne de Vautpre were secured to Adrienne Beaudesert, clogged by one condi tion only, that whosoever she married was to assume the name of Beaudesert; and it was also provided that during Adrienue's minority, Cardinal Retz aud the Abbe Morlaix were to have a certain control over her expenditure— M. Morlaix to reside of right during that pe riod at the Chateau d'Em, and to jeceive for life the same honoraries as had been paid him by the testatrix. The instruments by which 1 the property was thus devolved had been exe cuted only about three months previously. The brilliant future that had so long eluded the grasp und mocked the hopes of Madame I Beaudesert was at last more than realized, to ! her exuberant delight, unbounded exultation ; and it was not very long before the dark, fit ful fancies that haunted the imagination of Mademoiselle, her daughter, were chased awav, or superceded by the excitement attendant up on the novel and dazzling position to which Madame la Baronne's death had raised her.— The Abbe Morlaix, who kept himself very se cluded, rarely interfered with the management of affairs ; aud Adrienne, with her prouder, aud more elated mother and sister, seemed never wearv in realizing to themselves, in a , thousand ways, the intoxicating possession of riches, power, social supremacy. It was the acted fable, so far, of the beggar on horseback, , with the catastrophe of the dizzyiug ride to i come. After three months' enjoyment of home splendors, however, ennui began to arise, and a lengthened tour was projected by the ladies, through Switzerland und italy. During these three months, the Delpeehs had made no demonstration whatever. The father's timidity of temperament had operated to suspend the blow, the possible recoil of which might bring about his own destruction. Might —yes ; but not if his brain retained its mastering, guiding power. After all nothing could be w anting to iusure success, but raudace, el encore de I'audace. "Sucre bleu —yes ; we know that very well," sullenly exclaimed Paul, who had heard that soliloquy, or one very like it, a hundred times before ; "but wheu the moment of action ar rives, your heart is to be found in youi shoes, if anywhere. It was worth while, truly, to venture so far, only to short when the prize was in sight—within hand-clutch, as you well know ! Not long to remain so," added the young man bitterly, "for it is quite certain the Bcaudeserts leave France for one, perhaps two years; but whether one or two, Mademoiselle will not return, we may fully assure ourselves, says Lisette Meudon—the confiding simpleton she is, or more correctly, had been." " Yon have seen Lisette Meaudon ?" " I hare seen Lisette Meudon, who through me, returns the three Napoleons you once lent her, with her compliments, and a polite intima tion that, for the future, she must decline the honor of our acquaintance." " The insolent baggage !" " That polite peremptory intimation," con tinned Paul, " did not prevent her from cou doling with me UJKJII the sad blight to my hopes caused by the discovery that .Mademoi selle Beaudesert cares no more for my facia a ting self than for any other of the country clods upon which the light of her countenance may have occasionally fallen." "And what, pray, may he the meaning of all that insolence ?" "The meaning is plain enough ; la demois elle Meudon, thanks to the powerful interposi tion of her mistress, will be Madame Claude Simonet iu a day or two ; elevated, therefore, above our position in life—and, cent diablcs ! that is true, too," added Paul Delpech, with an explosion of savage temper. "True ! Surely, Paul" " True—yes, certainly it is true," interrupt ed the son, with a heat inflamed by the liquor he had oeen drinking, " but it shall not be for long. Hear, cow, my unalterable resolve, if you please, sir. Having striven so far, hav ing suDk so deep, I at least will not hesitate at the final leap or plunge ; and since you will not evoke the power you have acquired over Adrienne Beaudesert, I will do so myself ; ard but a few hours shall have passed before that yoaDg lady is made to thoroughly uaderstaad that the sole choice left her is between marri age with Paul Delpech, and public exposure, followed by shameful death !" " You would fail, Paul—utterly fail," trem bled from the ashen lips of Jules Delpech. " I —I, since you are so resolved, will get about the—the business at once—by letter first—ob scure, preparatory hints, awakening preludes to the else overwhelming thunder burst. Don't you think it will be best so, Paul ?" As you please ; only, if possible, get rid of your coward fears. A bold, determined throw must win ; but a shaking hand will lose both fortune and fair lady, skillfully as the dice have been loaded." Thus urged, Jules Delpech managed to screw his courage to thesticking-pluue ; and Madem oiselle Beaudesert, while busied with prepara tions for the impending journey, was surprised and startled at receiving several brief notes— -1 not disrespectfully phrased, but indirectly men j acing in toue, subscribed D. "D 1" thought Adrienne—a child disporting itself iua parter re of gorgeous flowers, from amidst which a serpent suddenly uprears its flaming crest, de laying only to strike—"D ! that must mean Delpech. What cauAr require of me? What shall I do ?" It was difficult to say. Lisette was unfor tunately absent—just set oil upon a wedding trip to her relatives iu Paris ; aud after con siderable hesitation, arising from an unacknowl edged dread lest the vague, sliudowv terrors which the letters had excited in herowu mind, should, were those letters submitted to the clearer, stronger vision of others, assume tan gible shape and substance, Adrienne Beaudes ert determined upon showing them to her moth er and sister. "How absurdly nervous you are, Adrienne," said Madame Beaudesert, after running tliem over. "The man of whom you, silly goose, obtained that precious poudre rose, wants to be handsomely paid for his nostrum ; but, lrom a wholesome dread of the law, does not choose to distinctly specify the nature of his demaud. 1 oila tout, chrr eJUIe." " I hope so," said Adrieune, only partly re assured ; "and yet, would that Lisette were here ; she would go aud conclude the affair at once." Madame Beaudesert remarked that Li.-e tte would be back again in quite sufficient time to attend to such a bagatelle ; ai.d chang ed the conversation to other topics. Not, unhappy maiden, not to be so conclud ed even by clever and zealous Lisette, as the following note, received the next day, too plain ly showed : " Mademoiselle Beaudesert, 1 have already sent you three letters, which, though ouly signed by the initial of my sirnamc, must have been perfectly intelligible to you, request ing an interview at an address enclosed. Has the elevation to which Mademoiselle has been so suddenly raised, precisely eight days after her interesting conference icith me, seven after that uith my son, turned her brain, blinding her to the fatal consequences of a refusal to reward, in the only manner reward is possible, the love, the devotion—nt what cost evinced Mademoiselle Beaudesert Ico well knows—of that son ? I demand, then, for the lust time, a strictly iuterview with Mademoiselle Beau desert, to take place within the %xt tweutv four hours— JUI.ES DELF CH." "What, manum —what mean those wild looks, this pale lace ?" gasped Adrienne, a> her mother, having glanced over the letter, stood transfixed as by the stroke of a dagger. —"speak, or 1" "My child—my precious, innocent child," interrupted the mother, clasping, straining ad rienne in her embrace, with terrified, convul sive tenderness ; " I see it, understand ir ail now. The villain of whom you had the—the poudre rose, means, 0 Hod ! —means to assert that you—you, beloved Adrienne—you, sweet, sinless child—knowingly obtained—obtained, under the pretence of poudre rose, a drug of him to—to O Father iu Heaven, cau such things be ?'' "What things?" exclaimed Ciarisse.— " Speak, mother. You are killing Adrienne." "'lhat—that Adrienne obtained a drug of him—to—to shorten the life of Madame de Vautpre." \\ ith those words, the flame-crested ser pent leaped at Adrieune's throat, and life for a time forsook her. It was long before the distracted mother and sister could recall her to consciousness, and to what eou.-ciousmss, when successful ? What else but this, that she, Adrieune Beaudesert, was the murderess of her relative aud benifuetrevs—in fact, though not, blessed be Hod, iu purpose—that she held her life, and (minor, but stiil bitter conse quence), the splendid position which had so lifted her up with pride, at the mercy of a mis creant whose forbearance could only lie pur chased, it seemed, by the abhorred pollution of a marriage. But no; she would lite a thousand deaths first ! For all this, however, before the expiration of the stipulated twenty four hours, a message reached Delpech to the effect that Mademoi selle Beaudesert wished to sec him early in the forenoon of the morrow at the Chateau d'Em. The hoary-headed conspirator did not fair to' attend at the time appointed, sprucely attired, and prepared with a number of careful conned phrases in deprecation of thcoutburst of wrath ful terror with which he expected to be assail ed if the young lady or her mother had fath omed, and he could hard believe they had n< t fathomed, the true purport of his menacing letters. "But the first flash of the tempest over," argued Jules Delpech, " the stern neces sity of tjie" The current of his thoughts were checked, and he himself staggered back in dismay from before the apparition, as it were, of Adrienne Beaudesert, who, with her face the color of the loose white morning robe she wore, her hair in disorder, her eyes flaming with insane excitement, came swiftly towaid.s him fioni a door which silently closed after her, grasped his arm, and whilst perusing his countenance with intensest scrutiny, said in low, rapid, earn est accents : " I have consented to see yon, sir, not to defy, to curse you—human maledictions could not reach fiead-aatcre such a? yonrs—but to VOL.. XX. —NO. 11. say this : your object in inventing the horri ble lie !—yes, lie, lie, lie 1 with which you have sought to stab my life, is, must be, money.— Well, confess that it is a lie ; give uie proof, easy for you, that it is one ; proof that .Mad ame de Yautpre died—as she did die—a nat ural death, and I will secure to you the half of all I possess ! The half, did 1 say ? Ah, all, will I give iu exchange for unstained life —in redemption of my else lost soul !" Adrieune's voice ceased, not so the fierce in quisition of her eyes ; and Jules Delpecb, amazed nud shaken by tbe wild distraction of her aspect, could with difficulty stammer out, iu a low, husky undertones, that Mademoiselle's own words betrayed a knowledge complete as his own—though not so much as hiuted at iu his letters of—of—the cause of Madame de Vautpre's death—of what the pretended poudre rose really was. As these words, slowly distilling from the man's poison-lips, fell upon Adrienue's ear, her erect, rigid form seemed to collapse, and pres ently tossing her arm distractedly iu the air, she turned away with a scream of terror, made as if to flee from Delpech's presence, and was received in the embrace of her mother, who, with Clarisse, had been a trembling listener close without the door. Delpech, quite satis fied with his progress so fur, now hastened to be gone, first, however, muttering to Madame Beaudesert, that such violence aud agitation were absurd, uncalled for, as the profoundest secrecy would of course be observed—at all eveuts, till a defiuite understanding was arriv ed at ; aud that there was not perhaps one great family iu all France whose private ar chives, if brought to light, would not reveal secrets of a similar kiud. Mademoiselle Beaudesert did not leave her bed for mar.y days after this; and Delpech's negotiation with the wretched feuiily at the chateau—M. Morlaix, as it happened, was, fortunately or unfortunately, abseut in Paris was carried on through her mother. The sub stantive position of tbe two parties, the Del pechs and Beaudeserts. was set forth by Jules Delpech at those interviews, with a quiet cool ness, derived from the poor lady's panic fears, that looked courageous, bold-faced ruffianism. Madame Beaudesert has since frequently declared, that while listening to Delpech's atrocious ta-k, she felt as in the actual pres cuce of a fiend from the bottomless pit, speci ally commissioned to achieve the perditiou, body and soul, of herself and children ! Once or twice, iudeeed the thought, piercing with momentary light the thick darkness, glanced across her mind, that it was surely impossible a man, however reckless, who had really com mitted the dread crime of murder, could speak of it with that calm cynicism, prate so glibly of the awful penalty he by his own showing —if that showing were true —bad primarily incurred. But how to act upou that blessed hope? Write to already deeply prejudiced M. Morlaix, cutreating his immediate return, and, upon his arrival, lake counsel of his judg ment, his knowledge of the ways of uieu, and all too iale, find Delpech's assertions confirm ed ! Impossii le—utterly impossible to iueur that tremendous risk—to desperately stake character, life, the inuoceut life of her child, upon that fcariu! issue ! Finally, for the suggestions of unreasoning fear prevailed, and Adrieune Beaudesert was at last subdued—terrorized into consenting to a compromise, by which it was settled that the civil and legally binding fonu of marriage was to lie gone through by her and Paul Del pech—the blessing of the Church, unessential to the validity of the contract, she would not a.-k for such constrained, unnatural vows—im mediately after which, and in accordance with the provisions of u solemn instrument subscrib ed and attested beforehand, the nominal wife and husband were to separate and remaiu strangers to each other forever. Adrieune—- till such time as arrangements could be made, without attracting too much public attention, for her seclusion for life in a convent—to in habit with her relatives one wing of the cha teau—the Delpeelis the other ; and the dispo sition of the property was settled by the same document, which Jules Delpech drew up in imposing wordy form. It was formally exe cuted, and the civil marriage, it was agreed, should take place on that day s'enuight. la the meantime, it had been industriously set about, that the seclusion of Mademoiselle Beaudesert, the anxiety and consternation ob servable in the demeanor of her mother aud sister, were caused by the thwarted but obati nate determination of the young lady to wed one so far beneath her in station as Paul Dcl pech, with whom, it was asserted, she had all along bceu upon terms of secret lover intimacy —one note addressed by her to the young man, appointing a private interview, it id beeu seen by Madame Sabin, a most r spectable person, well acquainted with her handwriting ; and her impulsive, affectionate recognition of the older Delpech amidst the crowd iu the Church the As.-umption at her father's funeral, was cited as corroborative proof, if any were want ing, ot the early, deep-rooted attachment which had gained strength and intensity with every day of her life ! Scarcely any thing else would, one may he sure, be talked of or writ ten about by the go-sips in the vicinage of the Chateau d'Fm ; and it thus fell out that Mad ame Claude Simonet, or Lisette.ns I may cou tinue to call her, beard, in Paris, of the as tounding marriage on the very day the same intelligence reached M. Morlaix ; the imme diate result being, that Li-e'te and her hus band and the able nut a few hours afterwards at the bureau of the Lyon diligence, aud were fellow, and exceedingly communicative, pas sengers during the journey homewards. Instantly upon reaching the Chateau d'Em M Morlaix demanded an andicuce of Made moiselle Beaudesert. It was peremptorily re fused, in accordance with an understanding come to with the Delpecbs ; and the half-de mer.tod abbe could on'y extract from Madame and Clarisse Beaudesert that Adrienue was determined upon the marriage, aud would not suffer hcr-elf to be importuned upou the subject. M. Morlaix had next recourse to the Lawyers, with equally disheartening result— the mother's consent, he was informed, being.