* * *
“And now, which way so ere I look or turn
Scenes of incessant horror strike my view;
I hear my famish’d babes expiring groan,
I hear my wife the bursting sigh renew!”
Ah! cruel fortune, thou hast driven me to this! Ah, my father! thou wilt
not relieve my wants, because I wedded the woman of my choice and not of
thine. Once was I stiled my father’s darling, the son for whom he only
lived; and yet, for acting once contrary to his will, he banished me his
presence, with a pension barely sufficient to support life--That pension
now has ceased; for what reason I am totally ignorant. An amiable wife
and two children are perishing for want, and unless I bring them
something, they cannot exist. I went to my father’s house, with an
intent of informing him of our wretched condition: I sent in my name, he
would not see me!--Must my babes starve? They are young, and my wife
lies ill--and I am indeed a wretch for thus joining her to poverty!--
Here I am alone on this dreary heath--and what have I brought with
me?--A pistol charged with death.--What light was that?--My fears
transform every thing into enemies--It is the sun! Why dost thou shed
thy beams on one, whom dire necessity hath made the foe of man?--
* * * * * *
Here I am, plunged yet deeper in this forest’s gloom, like the insidious
serpent thirsting for his prey. On man--on a being formed like myself,
am I to avenge my want of bread?--My family must live--despair, do what
thou wilt!----
--Hark! what noise is that? Sure it resembled a horse’s tread. Undone
man, what fate hath bid thee pass this way? He approaches--how unlike
me.--Serenity is pictured in his countenance. He little thinks, that
like the harmless bird who flies unto the fowler’s snare, he is
hastening to destruction. Oh! My wife!--My children!--He comes!--
--“Stop, traveller!”----