Christmas Eve Tragedy

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Although it is very near Christmas, when everybody should rejoice, a sailor bound for a dangerous expedition takes leave of his wife, and the poor woman is seen following with dim eyes the departing ship, her heart apparently heavy with grief. After having cried and prayed on a cross, the grass-widow returns to the farm to resume her duties and takes a sack of wheat to the next mill. The miller, knowing of the sailor's departure, and finding the lass very agreeable and charming, after having seen to the wheat bag, gives his whole attention to the young woman, and he does not seem to mind very much the clumsy advances made by the workingman. They part after a rather excited confab, and have evidently made an appointment for the evening at the church, for it is a Christmas celebration. We follow the two young people in the chapel, then to a bonfire dance, and lastly we see them both driving away in a country cart. They arrive at the sailor's home, leave the carriage before the door, go in, and then all is stillness, until the sailor, returning unexpectedly from his trip, finds the horse and cart waiting at his door, understands his misfortune, and, blind with rage, breaks in. The lover, conscious of his danger, jumps from a top window down into the waiting vehicle and is galloping madly away when his pursuer, getting a glimpse of the retreating man, dashes after him, and after a wild chase manages to overtake his enemy, and, jumping on the cart, a fierce struggle ensues. The miller is knocked down by the infuriated sailor, and then, in a paroxysm of hatred and thirst for revenge, the robbed husband backs the horse and cart with its driver down a terrible precipice into the sea. They are all seen being dashed to atoms on the protruding rocks, and the last picture is that of the sea angrily beating against the rocks as if in mute protest against this terrible deed.