* * *
(Continued from page 335.)
O moment for reflection! O innocence forever fled!--My children are
satisfied, and--I am miserable. O God of nature, hear my cries! I would
ask of thee forgiveness, for oh! the deed of yesterday hangs heavy on my
soul. What have I done?--I stopped the stranger, and asked his purse: he
refused. I clapt the murderous weapon to his breast and demanded it--he
hesitated.----In imagination I viewed my family perishing for food.
I could not wait--The flint struck--the stranger fell--and--O earth hide
me in thy bosom!--Wretch! how do the words escape my lips--I beheld my
father.----
When reason had regained its seat, I found myself in company with my
children, relieving their wants from out my father’s purse.
My wife questioned me as to the manner of my procuring the unexpected
boon. The truth I did not evade; but I related to her every
circumstance, except that the murdered person was the author of my
being. She shuddered at the tale. “O my husband!” she uttered, “why did
you not inform me of your intention? Sooner would I have perished of
hunger, than the crime should have been committed.” “Alas!” I returned,
“while yet conscious innocence held thine eyelids closed, the deed was
perpetrated.
“O my Euphemia! thou knowest not the extent of my villainy! If thou
didst, thou wouldest shun my sight, and think me a devil that had
assumed the form of man. What crime is worse than----But stop, thy
feeble frame cannot now stand the shock.--Summon all thy fortitude; soon
will the awful tidings sound dreadful in thine ears.”