Your last, so fraught with genuine distress, arrived at a moment when my
whole soul was agitated by a pathetic fact, which has recently occurred
in this city.--Alas, my dear girl, it is not you alone whom calamity
visits:--the sons and daughters of affliction are as numerous as the
votaries of humanity:--Sympathy need never be idle; and the tear of pity
may unceasingly trickle from the eye of tenderness, while bigotry,
avarice, and vanity violate the susceptive bosom of innocence and love.
Since our establishment in this city, among the acquaintances we have
formed, a family of the name of Williams, consisting of a respectable
father and mother, and three dutiful sons, has not been the least
flattering and agreeable. My earliest observation in it, was the sincere
passion which the eldest son constantly avowed for a neighbouring
female, whose parents, though not in the habit of intimacy with his,
were ever cordial and polite to his addresses. A mutual and unvaried
affection had subsisted between them from their infancy, and, “growing
with their growth,” the time had now arrived in which they anticipated
the unbounded fruition of their juvenile hopes. Their parents, having
heretofore tacitly acquiesced in their union, beheld with unutterable
pleasure the ceaseless constancy of their children, which could be
productive of nothing but the most unmingled happiness to all. The day
of festive gladness was appointed, and Mr. Williams, in order to
equalize his son’s estate with the expected affluence of his
daughter-in-law, purchased an elegant house, and furnished it with every
article of grandeur and convenience; besides a handsome donation in
cash, which he reserved for the day of celebration. The blissful and
expectant hour opened to the warm feelings of the young lovers a
thousand scenes of untasted joy--a thousand sources of ineffable
delight. Louisa already looked upon Henry as the plighted husband of her
soul, and poured into his bosom her unrestrained confidence; while he,
with feelings equally elated, made her the supreme mistress of his
thoughts!--Thus did the rapturous scene glow in their vivid
imaginations, and tantalize expectation, when the sordid parents of
Louisa, taking her to their closet, thus addressed her:--“Dear Louisa,
your happiness and future comfort being the only hope and object of our
lives, we have with pleasure beheld, and cherished with parental
indulgence, the virtuous passion you have long felt for Henry Williams.
In three days more our period of duty and authority will expire; and
before this we earnestly wish, by one dictate of prudence, well to
conclude the work ever nighest our hearts.”--The astonished Louisa,
unable to discern the tendency of this ambiguous exordium, remained
pensively silent; and her father continued:--“You know the disparity of
young Williams’ fortune, and the thoughtlessness of men of his
profession and years--Let us then beseech you as you regard your future
welfare and our solemn request, the last perhaps we shall ever enjoin,
previous to your marriage, to call for an attorney and confirm on your
children the fortune left you by your uncle: what we are able to bestow
will equal, if not exceed the fortune of your husband.”--Louisa was all
comprehension, and looking with an eye of affection first at her
attentive mother, and then her father, she exclaimed, “Is it possible,
father, that he, to whose honour and fidelity I am to commit my person
and precious happiness, is deemed unworthy to be trusted with a trifling
sum of paltry gold!”--and turning, with a sigh acceded to the
proposition of her parents, as the only means of reconciling them to
participate in their approaching bliss. An attorney was obtained, and
her fortune of five thousand pounds secured to the offspring of her
legal marriage, and forever wrested from the touch of her husband.
Their exulting parents beheld the nigh approach of their children’s
happiness, with accumulated transport! The enraptured Henry forsook the
world; and devoted his time to the retired society of his amiable
Louisa;--Louisa disclosed the ungenerous deed she had been obliged to
perform.--Its suspicious aspect, and concealed process, enraged the
pride of his soul!--He flew to his father, related the insiduous act,
and with aggravated frenzy cursed the foul and penurious
machination!--His father, naturally of a high and independent spirit,
heard his son with mortified ambition, and in flames of vindictive
manliness hastened to the presence of the parents of Louisa--They
received him with cordiality; but their demeanour was soon changed into
coldness and reproach, by his unbridled vehemence; and after a clamorous
altercation, in which the agonized Louisa mingled her tears, he left
them with a solemn denunciation of the match, and an imprecation on
their iniquitous penury. All intercourse between the parties was
interdicted; the house, furniture, &c. purchased by Mr. Williams,
re-sold, and the intended solemnization annihilated.
--Here, Caroline, pause, and enquire of your soul, if this horrid tale
could thus conclude? Say, my sister, is it possible to your conception,
that the divine and unadulterated fervor of this young pair, could, by
this interposition of avarice, be resolved into apathy and
indifference?---Could that celestial passion, whose weakest votary has
survived the shocks of fate, become extinct by a mere artifice and
parental covetousness?---No, Caroline, it is inconsistent with nature,
and nature’s God.
Louisa’s anguish at this disastrous event is not to be described!--After
uttering her grief in the agony of tears and lamentation, she drooped
into a settled melancholy. Immured in her chamber, and refusing the
comfort of the world, her lonely reflections aggravated the deletary
influence of her misfortune: She gradually declined; and in a few
months, her relentless parents beheld the awful advances of their
child’s dissolution; which she viewed with a placed benignity of soul.
“Death, like a friend” indeed, seemed to succour her affliction: and by
a gradual and mild operation, terminated the bitter pangs of her heart.
Yet even at the solemn period of her decline, her mind dwelt on the
constancy and love of Henry with delightful extacy; and in departing
from her sorrowing friends, forever closed her quivering lips in
pronouncing his beloved name! Her fate reached the ears of the frantic
Henry, who, until this time, had been kept ignorant even of her
indisposition! He flew to the house--but at first was denied this last
sad pleasure of beholding his lifeless Louisa!--He was, however,
admitted for a few minutes, on cruel conditions. Leaning on the arm of
his younger brother as he crossed the aisle which conducted to the
solemn apartment, his weakened senses started at the melancholy idea,
and for a time an universal agony rendered him unconscious of his real
situation.--He entered the darkened room, and approaching the coffin,
beheld his lately blooming love beautiful even in the frozen arms of
death!--“Oh!” he exclaimed; but his surcharged heart gushing from his
eyes, obstructed the farther utterance of his grief. He gazed on the
cold eloquence of her face; touched with his hand her palsied cheek; and
with a kiss whose ardor seemed to breath his soul to the object, was
dragged from the tragic spectacle!
He attended the funeral rites; and since has been continually absorbed
in silent sorrow! His soul, at times, seems abstracted from his body,
and in relapsing from his reveries, he often fervently exclaims, “I have
seen my Louisa! She is with her kindred spirits in bliss; and I shall
soon be happy!”--While he thus paces in pursuit of the same grave which
incloses his hopes of life and felicity, his loving parents, oppressed
with age and affliction, are hourly progressing towards their end.
Sorrow has raised her banner in the family; while the parents of Louisa,
in performing the pageantry of mourning, forget the cause and object of
their grief.
From this interesting narrative, my love, you will perceive, that,
although others of your sex endure not the same distresses to which you
are destined, they are not wholly exempt from the asperities of fate.
Alas, be not covetous of distress: but learn from this reflection, that
all are either the Victims of Sentiment or the dupes of passion,
desirable it is to acquire a mind patient in suffering, and a soul
indignant of complaint.