"
"Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband? Wilt thou obey him and
serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health, and
forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall
live?"
The downcast eyes were covered with the drooping lids, and the voice was
faint and low, but what a world of love was in the simple, "I will."
As the young minister, very solemn and dignified now, paused for each
reply, there came ever nearer and ever louder the ringing of the
hoof-beats. Once he stole a hurried glance through the window which gave on
the turnpike. Not half a mile away, their figures black against the
sky-line, fiercely lashing their tired horses to fresh effort, were three
desperate riders. The couple before him did not raise their eyes.
And now the concluding words of the service had been reached, and the
minister had begun, "Those whom God hath joined together--" when the rest
of the sentence was lost in the old General's angry shout, as he flung
himself from his horse, and, with his sons at his heels, rushed into the
church. At the threshold they stopped with blanched faces, for, as they
entered, the girl, uttering a faint cry, her face whiter than her gown,
down which a little stream of blood was trickling, reeled and tottered, and
fell senseless into her husband's arms.
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