[Illustration: J. Addison
ANGILA MERVALE
or
SIX MONTHS BEFORE MARRIAGE.
_Engraved Expressly for Graham's Magazine_]
GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.
VOL. XXXIII. PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER, 1848. No. 3.
ANGILA MERVALE;
OR SIX MONTHS BEFORE MARRIAGE.
BY F. E. F., AUTHOR OF "AARON'S ROD," "TELLING SECRETS," ETC.
"They say Miss Morton is engaged to Robert Hazlewood," said Augusta
Lenox.
"So I hear," replied Angila Mervale, to whom this piece of news had
been communicated. "How can she?"
"How can she, indeed?" replied Augusta. "He's an ugly fellow."
"Ugly! yes," continued Angila, "and a disagreeable ugliness, too. I
don't care about a man's being handsome--a plain black ugliness I
don't object to--but _red_ ugliness, ah!"
"They say he's clever," said Augusta.
"They always say that, my dear, of any one that's so ugly," replied
Angila. "I don't believe it. He's conceited, and I think disagreeable;
and I don't believe he's clever."
"I remarked last night that he was very attentive to Mary Morton,"
continued Augusta. "They waltzed together several times."
"Yes, and how badly he waltzes," said Angila. "Mary Morton is too
pretty a girl for such an awkward, ugly man. How lovely she looked
last night. I hope it's not an engagement, for I quite like her."
"Well, perhaps it is not. It's only one of the _on dits_, and probably
a mere report."
"Who are you discussing, girls?" asked Mrs. Mervale, from the other
side of the room.
"Robert Hazlewood and Miss Morton," replied Augusta, "they are said to
be engaged."
"Ah!" said Mrs. Mervale. "Is it a good match for her?"
"Oh, no!" chimed in both the girls at once. "He's neither handsome, nor
rich, nor any thing."
"Nor any thing!" repeated Mrs. Mervale, laughing. "Well, that's
comprehensive. A young man may be a very respectable young man, and be
a very fair match for a girl without being either handsome or rich;
but if he is positively 'nothing,' why, then, I grant you, it is bad
indeed."
"Oh, I believe he is respectable enough," replied Augusta, carelessly,
for, like most young girls, the word "respectable" did not rank very
high in her vocabulary.
"And if he is not rich, what are they to live on," asked Mrs. Mervale.
"Love and the law, I suppose," replied her daughter, laughing. "He's a
lawyer, is he not Augusta?"
"Oh!" resumed Mrs. Mervale, "he's a son, then, I suppose, of old John
Hazlewood."
"Yes," replied Augusta.
"Then he may do very well in his profession," continued Mrs. Mervale,
"for his father has a large practice I know, and is a very respectable
man. If this is a clever young man, he may tread in his father's
footsteps."
This did not convey any very high eulogium to the young ladies' ears.
That young Robert Hazlewood might be an old John Hazlewood in his turn
and time, did not strike them as a very brilliant future. In fact they
did not think more of the old man than they did of the young one.
Old gentlemen, however, were not at quite such a discount with Mrs.
Mervale as with her daughter and her friend; and she continued to
descant upon the high standing of Mr. Hazlewood the elder, not one
word in ten of which the girls heard, for she, like most old ladies,
once started upon former times, was thinking of the pleasant young
John Hazlewood of early days, who brought back with him a host of
reminiscences, with which she indulged herself and the girls, while
they, their heads full of last night's party and Mary Morton and
Robert Hazlewood, listened as civilly as they could, quite unable to
keep the thread of her discourse, confounding in her history Robert
Hazlewood's mother with his grandmother, and wondering all the while
when she would stop, that they might resume their gossip.
"You visit his sister, Mrs. Constant, don't you?" asked Augusta.
"Yes, we have always visited the Hazlewoods," replied Angila, "but I
am not intimate with any of them. They always seemed to me those kind
of pattern people I dislike."
"Is Mr. Constant well off?" inquired Mrs. Mervale.
"No, I should think not," replied Angila, "from the way in which they
live. They have a little bit of a two-story house, and keep only a
waiter girl. How I do hate to see a woman open the door," she
continued, addressing Augusta.
"So do I," replied her friend. "I would have a man servant--a woman
looks so shabby."
"Yes," returned Angila. "There's nothing I dislike so much. No woman
shall ever go to my door."
"If you have a man servant," suggested Mrs. Mervale.
"Of course," said Angila; "and that I will."
"But suppose you cannot afford it," said her mother.
"I don't choose to suppose any thing so disagreeable or improbable,"
replied her daughter, gayly.
"It may be disagreeable," continued Mrs. Mervale, "but I don't see the
improbability of the thing, Angila, nor, indeed, the disagreeability
even. The Constants are young people with a small family, and I think
a woman is quite sufficient for them. Their house is small, I
suppose."
"Oh, yes, a little bit of a place."
"Large enough for them," replied Mrs. Mervale, whose ideas were not as
enlarged as her daughter's.
"Perhaps so," said Angila, "but I do hate low ceilings so. I don't
care about a large house, but I do like large rooms."
"You can hardly have large rooms in a small house," remarked Mrs.
Mervale, smiling.
"Why, Mrs. Astley's is only a two-story house, mamma, and her rooms
are larger than these."
"Yes, my dear, Mrs. Astley's is an expensive house; the lot must be
thirty feet by--"
But Angila had no time to go into the dimensions of people's "lots."
She and Augusta were back to the party again; and they discussed
dresses, and looks, and manners, with great _goût_.
Their criticisms were, like most young people's, always in extremes.
The girls had either looked "lovely" or "frightful," and the young men
were either "charming" or "odious;" and they themselves, from their
own account, had been in a constant state of either delight or terror.
"I was so afraid Robert Hazlewood was going to ask me to waltz," said
Angila; "and he waltzes so abominably that I did not know what I
should do. But, to my delight, he asked me only for a cotillion, and I
fortunately was engaged. I was so glad it was so."
"Then you did not dance with him at all?"
"No--to my great joy, he walked off, angry, I believe."
"Oh, my dear!" remonstrated her mother.
"Why not, mother," replied Angila. "He's my 'favorite aversion.' Well,
Augusta," she continued, turning to her friend, "and when do you sail
for New Orleans?"
"On Monday," replied Augusta.
"On Monday!--so soon! Oh, what shall I do without you, Augusta!" said
Angila, quite pathetically. "And you will be gone six months, you
think?"
"Yes, so papa says," replied the young lady. "He does not expect to be
able to return before May."
"Not before May! And its only November now!" said Angila, in prolonged
accents of grief. "How much may happen in that time!"
"Yes," returned her friend, gaily, "you may be engaged before that."
"Not much danger," replied Angila, laughing.
"But remember, I am to be bridemaid," continued Augusta.
"Certainly," said Angila, in the same tone, "I shall expect you from
New Orleans on purpose."
"And who will it be to, Angila," said Augusta.
"That's more than I can tell," replied Angila; "but somebody that's
very charming, I promise you."
"By the way, what is your _beau ideal_, Angila, I never heard you
say," continued Augusta.
"My _beau ideal_ is as shadowy and indistinct as one of Ossian's
heroes," replied Angila, laughing; "something very distinguished in
air and manners, with black eyes and hair, are the only points decided
on. For the rest, Augusta, I refer you to Futurity," she added, gayly.
"I wonder who you will marry!" said Augusta, with the sudden fervor of
a young lady on so interesting a topic.
"I don't know, only nobody that I have ever seen yet," replied Angila,
with animation.
"He must be handsome, I suppose," said Augusta.
"No," replied Angila, "I don't care for beauty. A man should have a
decided air of the gentleman, with an expression of talent, height,
and all that--but I don't care about what you call beauty."
"You are very moderate, indeed, in your requirements, my dear," said
her mother, laughing. "And pray, my love, what have you to offer this
_rara avis_ in return for such extraordinary charms."
"Love, mamma," replied the gay girl, smiling.
"And suppose, my dear," pursued her mother, "that your hero should set
as high an estimate upon himself as you do upon yourself. Your tall,
elegant, talented man, may expect a wife who has fortune, beauty and
talents, too."
Angila laughed. She was not vain, but she knew she was pretty, and she
was sufficiently of a belle to be satisfied with her own powers if she
could only meet with the man, so she said, playfully.
"Well, then, mamma, he won't be _my_ hero, that's all."
And no doubt she answered truly. The possession of such gifts are very
apt to vary in young ladies' eyes according to the gentleman's
perception of their charms. And heroes differ from one another,
according as the pronouns "mine and thine," may be pre-fixed to his
title.
"And such a bijou of a house as I mean to have," continued Angila,
with animation. "The back parlor and dining-room shall open into a
conservatory, where I shall have any quantity of canary-birds--"
"My dear," interrupted her mother, "what nonsense you do talk."
"Why, mamma," said Angila, opening her eyes very wide, "don't you like
canaries?"
"Yes, my dear," replied her mother, "I don't object to aviaries or
conservatories, only to your talking of them in this way, as matters
of course and necessity. They are all very well for rich people."
"Well, then, I mean to be rich," continued Angila, playfully.
"That's the very nonsense I complain of," said her mother. "It's
barely possible, but certainly very improbable, Angila, that you ever
should be rich; and considering you have been used to nothing of the
kind, it really amuses me to hear you talk so. Your father and I have
lived all our lives very comfortably and happily, Angila, without
either aviary or conservatory, and I rather think you will do the
same, my love."
"Your father and I!" What a falling off was there! for although Angila
loved her father and mother dearly, she could not imagine herself
intent upon household occupations, an excellent motherly woman some
thirty years hence, any more than that her _beau ideal_ should wear
pepper and salt like her father.
"It was all very well for papa and mamma," but to persuade a girl of
eighteen that she wants no more than her mother, whose heart happens
to be like Mrs. Mervale, just then full of a new carpet that Mr.
Mervale is hesitating about affording, is out of the question.
And, unreasonable as it may be, whoever would make a young girl more
rational, destroys at once the chief charm of her youth--the
exuberance of her fresh imagination, that gilds not only the future,
but throws a rosy light upon all surrounding objects. Her visions, I
grant you, are absurd, but the girl without visions is a clod of the
valley, for she is without imagination--and without imagination, what
is life? what is love?
Never fear that her visions will not be fulfilled, and therefore bring
disappointment--for the power carries the pleasure with it. The same
gift that traces the outline, fills up the sketch. The girls who dream
of heroes are those most ready to fall in love with any body--and no
woman is so hard to interest as she who never had a vision, and
consequently sees men just as they are; and so if Angila talked
nonsense, Mrs. Mervale's sense was not much wiser.
Angila was a pretty, playful, romantic girl, rather intolerant of the
people she did not like, and enthusiastic about those she did; full of
life and animation, she was a decided belle in the gay circle in
which she moved.
Miss Lenox was her dearest friend for the time being, and the proposed
separation for the next six months was looked upon as a cruel
affliction, only to be softened by the most frequent and confidential
correspondence.
For the first few weeks of Augusta's absence, the promises exchanged
on both sides were vehemently fulfilled. Letters were written two or
three limes a week, detailing every minute circumstance that happened
to either. But at the end of that time Angila was at a party where she
met Robert Hazlewood, who talked to her for some time. It was not a
dancing party, and consequently they conversed together more than they
had ever done before. He seemed extremely amused with her liveliness,
and looked at her with unmistakable admiration. Had Augusta Lenox been
there to see, perhaps Angila would not have received his attentions so
graciously; but there being nothing to remind her of his being her
"favorite aversion," she talked with animation, pleased with the
admiration she excited, without being annoyed by any inconvenient
reminiscences. And not only was Miss Lenox absent, but Miss Morton was
present, and Angila thought she looked over at them a little
anxiously; so that a little spirit of rivalry heightened, if not her
pleasure, certainly Hazlewood's consequence in her eyes. Girls are
often much influenced by each other in these matters--and the absence
of Miss Lenox, who "did not think much of Robert Hazlewood," with the
presence of Miss Morton who did, had no small influence in Angila's
future fate.
"Did you have a pleasant party?" asked Mrs. Mervale, who had not been
with her daughter the evening before.
"Yes, very pleasant," replied Angila; "one of the pleasantest
'conversation parties' I have ever been at."
And "who was there--and who did you talk to?" were the next questions,
which launched Angila in a full length description of every thing and
every body--and among them figured quite conspicuously Robert
Hazlewood.
"And you found him really clever?" said her mother.
"Oh, decidedly," replied her daughter.
"Who," said her brother, looking up from his breakfast, "Hazlewood?
Certainly he is. He's considered one of the cleverest among the young
lawyers. Decidedly a man of talent."
Angila looked pleased.
"His father is a man of talent before him," observed Mrs. Mervale. "As
a family, the Hazlewoods have always been distinguished for ability.
This young man is ugly, you say, Angila?"
"Yes--" replied Angila, though with some hesitation. "Yes, he is ugly,
certainly--but he has a good countenance; and when he converses he is
better looking than I thought him."
"It's a pity he's conceited," said Mrs. Mervale, innocently; her
impression of the young man being taken from her daughter's previous
description of him. "Since he is really clever, it's a pity, for it's
such a drawback always."
"Conceited! I don't think he's conceited," said Angila, quite
forgetting her yesterday's opinion.
"Don't you? I thought it was you who said so, my dear," replied her
mother, quietly.
"Yes, I did once think so," said Angila, slightly blushing at her own
inconsistency. "I don't know why I took the idea in my head--but in
fact I talked more to him, and became better acquainted with him last
evening than I ever have before. When there is dancing, there is so
little time for conversation; and he really talks very well."
"He is engaged to Miss Morton, you say?" continued Mrs. Mervale.
"Well, I don't know," replied Angila, adding, as she remembered the
animated looks of admiration he had bestowed upon herself, "I doubt
it--that is the report, however."
"Hazlewood's no more engaged to Mary Morton than I am," said young
Mervale, carelessly. "Where did you get that idea?"
"Why every body says so, George," said Angila.
"Pshaw! every body's saying so don't make it so."
"But he's very attentive to her," replied Angila.
"Well, and if he is," retorted Mervale, "it does not follow that he
must be in love with her. You women do jump to conclusions, and make
up matches in such a way," he continued, almost angrily.
"I think she likes him," pursued Angila. "I think she would have him."
"Have him! to be sure she would," replied George, in the same tone;
not that he considered the young lady particularly in love with his
friend, but as if any girl might be glad to have him--for brothers are
very apt to view such cases differently from sisters, who refuse young
gentlemen for their friends without mercy.
"But he's ugly, you say," continued Mrs. Mervale, sorrowfully, who,
old lady as she was, liked a handsome young man, and always lamented
when she found mental gifts unaccompanied by personal charms.
"Yes, he's no beauty, that's certain," said Angila, gayly.
"Has he a good air and figure?" pursued Mrs. Mervale, still hoping so
clever a man might be better looking after all.
"Yes, tolerable--middle height--nothing remarkable one way or the
other." And then the young lady went off to tell some piece of news,
that quite put Mr. Hazlewood out of her mother's head for the present.
When Angila next wrote to Augusta, although she spoke of Mrs.
Carpenter's party, a little consciousness prevented her saying much
about Robert Hazlewood, and consequently her friend was quite
unsuspicious of the large share he had in making the party she
described so pleasant.
Hazlewood had really been pleased by Angila. She was pretty--and he
found her lively and intelligent. He had always been inclined to
admire her, but she had turned from him once or twice in what he had
thought a haughty manner, and consequently he had scarcely known her
until they met at this little _conversazione_ of Mrs. Carpenter's,
where accident placed them near each other. The party was so small
that where people happened to find themselves, there they staid--it
requiring some courage for a young man to break the charmed ring, and
deliberately plant himself before any lady, or attempt to talk to any
one except her beside whom fate had placed him.
Now Angila had the corner seat on a sofa near the fire-place, and
Hazlewood was standing, leaning against the chimney-piece, so that a
nicer, more cosy position for a pleasant talk could hardly be
conceived in so small a circle. Miss Morton was on the other side of
the fire-place, occupying the corresponding situation to Angila, and
Angila could see her peeping forward from time to time to see if
Hazlewood still maintained his place. His back was turned toward her,
so if she did throw any anxious glances that way, he did not see them.
Angila met him a few evenings after this at the Opera, and found that
he was a passionate lover of music. They talked again, and he very
well, for he really was a sensible, well-educated young man. Music is
a favorite source of inspiration, and Hazlewood was a connoisseur as
well as amateur. She found that he seldom missed a night at the Opera,
and "she was surprised she had not seen him there before, as she went
herself very often."
"He had seen her, however;" and he looked as if it were not easy not
to see _her_ when she was there.
She blushed and was pleased, for it evidently was not an unmeaning
compliment.
"Mr. Hazlewood's very clever," she said the next day; "and his tastes
are so cultivated and refined. He is very different from the usual run
of young men." (When a girl begins to think a man different from the
"usual run," you may be sure she herself is off the common track.)
"There's something very manly in all his sentiments, independent and
high-toned. He cannot be engaged to Mary Morton, for I alluded to the
report, and he seemed quite amused at the idea. I can see he thinks
her very silly, which she is, though pretty--though he was two
gentlemanly to say so."
"How, then, did you find out that he thought so," asked George,
smiling.
"Oh, from one or two little things. We were speaking of a German poem
that I was trying to get the other day, and he said he had it, but had
lent it to Miss Morton. 'However,' he added, with a peculiar smile,
'he did not believe she wanted to read it, and at any rate, he would
bring it to me as soon as she returned it. He doubted whether she was
much of a German reader.' But it was more the smile and the manner in
which he said it, than the words, that made me think he had no very
high opinion of her literary tastes."
"He may not like her any the less for that," said George, carelessly.
"I think your clever literary men rarely do value a woman less for her
ignorance."
But there was an expression in Angila's pretty face that seemed to
contradict this assertion; for, like most pretty women, the was vainer
of her talents than her beauty--and she thought Hazlewood had been
quite struck by some of her criticisms the night before.
However this might be, the intimacy seemed to progress at a wonderful
rate. He called and brought her books; and they had a world to say
every time they met, which, whether by accident or design, was now
beginning to be very often.
"You knew old Mr. Hazlewood, mamma, did not you?" said Angila. "And
who did you say Mrs. Hazlewood was?" And now she listened very
differently from the last time that her mother had launched forth on
the topic of old times and friends. Angila was wonderfully interested
in all the history of the whole race, for Mrs. Mervale began with the
great grandfathers, maternal and paternal; and she kept the thread of
the story with surprising distinctness, and made out the family
pedigree with amazing correctness.
"Then they are an excellent family, mamma," she said.
"To be sure they are," replied Mrs. Mervale, "one of the oldest and
best in the city."
It was wonderful what a quantity of books Angila read just about this
time; but Hazlewood was always sending her something, which she seemed
to take peculiar pleasure in surprising him by having finished before
they met again. And her bright eyes grew brighter, and occasionally,
and that not unfrequently, they had an abstracted, dreamy look, as if
her thoughts were far away, occupied in very pleasant visions--whether
they were now of Ossian-heroes, dark-eyed and dim, we doubt.
She was rather unpleasantly roused to a waking state, however, by a
passage in one of Augusta Lenox's last letters, which was,
"What has become of your 'favorite aversion,' Robert Hazlewood? When
are he and Mary Morton to be married? I give her joy of him--as you
say, how can she?"
Angila colored scarlet with indignation as she read this, almost
wondering at first what Augusta meant.
She did not answer the letter; some consciousness, mixed with a good
deal of vexation, prevented her.
Hazlewood's attentions to Angila began to be talked of a good deal.
Her mother was congratulated, and she was complimented, for every body
spoke well of him. "A remarkably clever young man with excellent
prospects," the old people said. The young girls talked of him
probably pretty much as Angila and Augusta had done--but she did not
hear that, and the young men said,
"Hazlewood was a devilish clever fellow, and that Angila Mervale would
do very well if she could get him."
That the gentleman was desperately in love there was no doubt; and as
for the young lady--that she was flattered and pleased and interested,
was hardly less clear. Her bright eyes grew softer and more dreamy
every day.
Of what was she dreaming? What could her visions be now? Can she by
any possibility make a hero of Robert Hazlewood? Sober common sense
would say "No!" but bright-eyed, youthful imagination may boldly
answer, "Why not?" Time, however, can only decide that point.
Two more letters came from Augusta Lenox about this time, and remained
unanswered. "Wait till I am engaged," Angila had unconsciously said to
herself, and then blushed the deepest blush, as she caught the words
that had risen to her lips.
She did not wait long, however. Bright, beaming, blushing and tearful,
she soon announced the intelligence to her mother, asking her consent,
and permission to refer Mr. Hazlewood to her father.
The Mervales were very well pleased with the match, which, in fact,
was an excellent one, young Hazlewood being in every respect Angila's
superior, except in appearance, where she, as is the woman's right,
bore the palm of beauty. Not but that she was quick, intelligent, and
well cultivated; but there are more such girls by hundreds in our
community, than there are men of talent, reading, industry and worth
to merit them; and Angila was amazingly happy to have been one of the
fortunate few to whose lot such a man falls.
And now, indeed, she wrote a long, long letter to Augusta--so full of
happiness, describing Hazlewood, as she thought, so distinctly, that
Augusta must recognize him at once--so she concluded by saying,
"And now I need not name him, as you must know who I mean."
"I must know who she means!" said Augusta, much perplexed. "Why I am
sure I cannot imagine who she means! Talented, agreeable, with
cultivated tastes! Who can it be? 'Not handsome, but very
gentlemanlike-looking.' Well, I have no idea who it is--I certainly
cannot know the man. But as we sail next week, I shall be at home in
time for the wedding. How odd that I should be really her bridemaid in
May after all!"
Miss Lenox arrived about two months after Angila's engagement had been
announced, and found her friend brilliant with happiness. After the
first exclamations and greetings, Augusta said with impatient
curiosity,
"But who is it, Angila--you never told me?"
"But surely you guessed at once," said Angila, incredulously.
"No, indeed," replied her friend, earnestly, "I have not the most
distant idea."
"Why, Robert Hazlewood, to be sure!"
"Robert Hazlewood! Oh, Angila! You are jesting," exclaimed her friend,
thrown quite off her guard by astonishment.
"Yes, indeed!" replied Angila, with eager delight, attributing
Augusta's surprise and incredulous tones to quite another source. "You
may well be surprised, Augusta. Is it not strange that such a man--one
of his superior talents--should have fallen in love with such a
mad-cap as me."
Augusta could hardly believe her ears. But the truth was, that Angila
had so long since forgotten her prejudice, founded on nothing, against
Hazlewood, that she was not conscious now that she had ever
entertained any such feelings. She was not obliged, in common phrase,
to "eat her own words," for she quite forgot that she had ever uttered
them. And now, with the utmost enthusiasm, she entered into all her
plans and prospects--told Augusta, with the greatest interest, as if
she thought the theme must be equally delightful to her friend--all
her mother's long story about the old Hazlewoods, and what a "charming
nice family they were," ("those pattern people that she hated so," as
Augusta remembered, but all of which was buried in the happiest
oblivion with Angila,) and the dear little house that was being
furnished like a bijou next to Mrs. Constant's, (next to Mrs.
Constant's!--one of those small houses with low ceilings! Augusta
gasped;) and how many servants she was going to keep; and what a nice
young girl she had engaged already as waiter.
"You mean, then, to have a woman waiter?" Augusta could not help
saying.
"Oh, to be sure!" said Angila. "What should I do with a man in such a
pretty little establishment as I mean to have. And then you know we
must be economical--Mr. Hazlewood is a young lawyer, and I don't mean
to let him slave himself to make the two ends meet. You'll see what a
nice economical little housekeeper I'll be."
And, in short, Augusta found that the same bright, warm imagination
that had made Angila once dream of Ossian-heroes, now endowed Robert
Hazlewood with every charm she wanted, and even threw a romantic glow
over a small house, low ceilings, small economies, and all but turned
the woman-servant into a man. Cinderella's godmother could hardly have
done more. Such is the power of love!
"Well," said Augusta, in talking it all over with her brother, "I
cannot comprehend it yet; Angila, who used to be so fastidious, so
critical, who expected so much in the man she was to marry!"
"She is not the first young lady who has come down from her pedestal,"
replied her brother, laughing.
"No, but she has not," returned Augusta, "that's the oddest part of
the whole--she has only contrived somehow to raise Hazlewood on a
pedestal, too. You'd think they were the only couple in the world
going to be married. She's actually in love with him, desperately in
love with him; and it was only just before I went to New Orleans that
she said--"
"My dear," interrupted her mother, "there's no subject on which women
change their minds oftener than on this. Love works wonders--indeed,
the only miracles left in the world are of his creation."
"But she used to wonder at Mary Morton's liking him, mamma."
"Ah, my dear," replied her mother, "that was when he was attentive to
Mary Morton and not her. It makes a wonderful difference when the
thing becomes personal. And if you really love Angila, my dear, you
will forget, or at least not repeat, what she said six months before
marriage."
A NEW ENGLAND LEGEND
BY CAROLINE F. ORNE.
[The subject of the following ballad may be found in the "Christus
Super Aquas" of Mather's Magnalia.]
"God's blessing on the bonny barque!" the gallant seamen cried,
As with her snowy sails outspread she cleft the yielding tide--
"God's blessing on the bonny barque!" cried the landsmen from the shore,
As with a swallow's rapid flight she skimmed the waters o'er.
Oh never from the good old Bay, a fairer ship did sail,
Or in more trim and brave array did court the favoring gale.
Cheerily sung the marinere as he climbed the high, high mast,
The mast that was made of the Norway pine, that scorned the mountain-blast.
But brave Mark Edward dashed a tear in secret from his eye,
As he saw green Trimount dimmer grow against the distant sky,
And fast before the gathering breeze his noble vessel fly.
Oh, youth will cherish many a hope, and many a fond desire,
And nurse in secret in the heart the hidden altar-fire!
And though young Mark Edward trode his deck with footstep light and free,
Yet a shadow was on his manly brow as his good ship swept the sea;
A shadow was on his manly brow as he marked the fading shore,
And the faint line of the far green hills where dwelt his loved Lenore.
Merrily sailed the bonny barque toward her destined port,
And the white waves curled around her prow as if in wanton sport.
Merrily sailed the bonny barque till seven days came and past,
When her snowy canvas shivered and rent before the northern blast,
And out of her course, and away, away, careered she wild and fast.
Black lowered the heavens, loud howled the winds, as the gallant barque
drove on,
"God save her from the stormy seas," prayed the sailors every one,
But hither and thither the mad winds bore her, careening wildly on.
Oh, a fearful thing is the mighty wind as it raves the land along,
And the forests rock beneath the shock of the fierce blasts and the strong,
But when the wild and angry waves come rushing on their prey,
And to and fro the good ship reels with the wind's savage play,
Oh! then it is more fearful far in that frail barque to be,
At the mercy of the wind and wave, alone upon the sea.
Mark Edward's eye grew stern and calm as day by day went on,
And farther from the destined port the gallant barque was borne.
From her tall masts the sails were rent, yet fast and far she flew,
But whither she drove there knew not one among her gallant crew,
Nor the captain, nor the marineres, not one among them knew.
Now there had come and past away full many weary days,
And each looked in each other's face with sad and blank amaze,
For ghastly Famine's bony hand was stretched to clutch his prey,
And still the adverse winds blew on as they would blow alway.
And dark and fearful whispered words from man to man went past,
As of some dread and fatal deed which they must do at last.
And night and morn and noon they prayed, oh blessed voice of prayer!
That God would bring their trembling souls out of this great despair.
And every straining eye was bent out o'er the ocean-wave,
But they saw no sail, there came no ship the storm-tost barque to save.
The fatal die was cast at length; and tears filled every eye
As forth a gentle stripling slept and gave himself to die.
They looked upon his pure white brow, and his face so fair to see,
And all with one accord cried out, "Oh, God! this must not be!"
And brave Mark Edward calmly said, "Let the lot fall on me."
"Not so," the generous youth exclaimed, "of little worth am I,
But 'twould strike the life from out us all were it thy lot to die."
"Let us once more entreat the Lord; he yet our souls may spare,"
And kneeling down the gray-haired man sent up a fervent prayer.
Oh mighty is the voice of prayer! to him that asks is given,
And as to Israel of old was manna sent from heaven,
So now their prayer was answered, for, leaping from the sea,
A mighty fish fell in their midst, where they astonished be.
"Now glory to the Father be, and to the Son be praise!
Upon the deep He walketh, in the ocean are His ways,
'Tis meet that we should worship Him who doeth right always."
And then from all that noble crew a hymn of joy arose--
It flowed from grateful hearts as free as running water flows.
Day after day still passed away, gaunt Famine pressed again,
Each turned away from each, as if smit with a sudden pain.
They feared to meet each other's eyes and read the secret there,
And each his pangs in silence strove a little yet to bear.
The eye grew dim with looking out upon the weary main,
Wave rolling after wave was all that answered back again.
But night and morn and noon they prayed--oh blessed voice of prayer!
That God would bring their trembling souls out of this great despair.
Again the fatal die was cast; a man of powerful frame
Slowly and with reluctant step to the dread summons came.
Large drops of anguish on his brow--his lips were white with fear--
Oh 'tis a dreadful death to die! Is there no succor near?
They looked around on every side, but saw no sight of cheer.
"It is not for myself I dread," the sailor murmured low,
"But for my wife and little babes, oh what a tale of wo!"
"It shall not be," Mark Edward cried, "for their dear sakes go free.
I have no wife to mourn my fate, let the lot fall on me."
"Not so, oh generous and brave!" the sailor grateful said,
"The lot is mine, but cheer thou her and them when I am dead."
And turning with a calmer front he bade the waiting crew
What not themselves but fate compelled, to haste and quickly do.
But who shall do the dismal work? The innocent life who take?
One after one each shrunk away, but no word any spake.
Still hunger pressed them sore, and pangs too dreadful to be borne.
"Be merciful, oh Father, hear! To thee again we turn."
Then in their agony they strove, and wrestled long in prayer,
Till suddenly they heard a sound come from the upper air,
A sound of rushing wings, and lo! oh sight of joy! on high
A great bird circles round the masts, and ever draws more nigh.
In lightning play of hope and fear one breathless moment passed,
The next, the bird has lighted down and settled on the mast.
And soon within his grasp secure a seaman holds him fast.
"Now glory be unto our God--and to His name be praise!
Upon the deep he walketh, in the ocean are his ways,
From ghastly fear our suppliant souls he royally hath freed,
And sent us succor from the air in this our sorest need."
But day by day still passed away, and Famine fiercer pressed,
And still the adverse winds blew on and knew no change or rest.
Yet strove they in their agony to let no murmuring word
Against the good and gracious Lord, from out their lips be heard.
But with their wildly gleaming eyes they gazed out o'er the main.
Wave rolling after wave was all that answered back again.
On the horizon's distant verge not even a speck was seen,
But the cresting foam of breaking waves still shimmering between.
And fiercer yet, as hour by hour went slowly creeping by,
The famine wrung their tortured frames till it were bliss to die.
And hopes of further aid grew faint, and it did seem that they
Out on the waste of waters wide of Heaven forgotten lay.
But night and morn and noon they prayed--oh blessed voice of prayer!
That God would save their trembling souls out of this great despair.
Again the fatal die was cast, and 'mid a general gloom,
Mark Edward calmly forward came to meet the appointed doom.
But when they saw his noble port, and his manly bearing brave,
Each would have given up his life that bold young heart to save.
They would have wept, but their hot eyes refused the grateful tear,
Yet with sorrowful and suppliant looks they drew themselves more near.
Mark Edward turned aside and spoke in accents calm and low,
Unto a man with silver hair, whose look was full of wo,
And bade him if the Lord should spare, and they should reach the shore,
To bear a message from his lips to his beloved Lenore.
"Tell her my thoughts were God's and hers," the brave young spirit cried,
"Tell her not how it came to pass, say only that I died."
Then with a brief and earnest prayer his soul to God he gave,
Beseeching that the sacrifice the lives of all might save.
Each looked on each, but not a hand would strike the fatal blow,
It was a death pang but to think what hand should lay him low.
And sick at heart they turned away their misery to bear,
And wrestled once again with God in agony of prayer.
As drops of blood wrung from the heart fell each imploring word,
Oh, God of Heaven! and can it be such prayer is still unheard?
They strained once more each aching orb out o'er the gloomy main,
Wave rolling after wave was all that answered back again.
They waited yet--they lingered yet--they searched the horizon round,
No sight of land, no blessed sail, no living thing was found.
They lingered yet--hope faded fast from out the hearts of all.
They waited yet--till black Despair sunk o'er them like a pall.
They turned to where Mark Edward stood with his unblenching brow,
Or he must die their lives to save, or all must perish now.
They lingered yet--they waited yet--a sudden shriek rung out--
"A sail! A sail! Oh, blessed Lord!" burst forth one joyful shout.
New strength those famished men received; fervent their thanks, but brief--
They man their boat, they reach the ship, they ask a swift relief.
Strange faces meet their view, they hear strange words in tongues unknown,
And evil eyes with threatening gaze are sternly looking down.
They pause--for a new terror bids their hearts' warm current freeze,
For they have met a pirate ship, the scourge of all the seas.
But up and out Mark Edward spake, and in the pirates' tongue,
And when the pirate captain heard, quick to his side he sprung,
And vowed by all the saints of France--the living and the dead--
There should not even a hair be harmed upon a single head,
For once, when in a dismal strait, Mark Edward gave him aid,
And now the debt long treasured up should amply be repaid.
He gave them water from his casks, and bread, and all things store,
And showed them how to lay their course to reach the destined shore.
And the blessing of those famished men went with him evermore.
Again the favoring gale arose, the barque went bounding on,
And speedily her destined port was now in safety won.
And after, when green Trimount's hills greet their expectant eyes,
New thanks to Heaven, new hymns of joy unto the Lord arise.
For glory be unto our Lord, and to His name be praise!
Upon the deep he walketh, in the ocean are his ways.
'Tis meet that we should worship him who doeth right always.
SONG OF SLEEP.
BY G. G. FOSTER.
Oh the dreamy world of sleep for me,
With its visions pure and bright,--
Its fairy throngs in revelry,
Under the pale moonlight!
Sleep, sleep, I wait for thy spell,
For my eyes are heavy with watching well
For the starry night, and the world of dreams
That ever in sleep on my spirit beams.
The day, the day, I cannot 'bide,
'Tis dull and dusty and drear--
And, owl-like, away from the sun I hide,
That in dreams I may wander freer.
Sleep, sleep, come to my eyes--
Welcome as blue to the midnight skies--
Faithful as dew to drooping flowers--
I only live in thy dreamy bowers.
The sun is purpling down the west,
Day's death-robes glitter fair,
And weary men, agasp for rest,
For the solemn night prepare.
Sleep, sleep, hasten to me!
The shadows lengthen across the lea;
The birds are weary, and so am I;
Tired world and dying day good-bye!
THE CRUISE OF THE RAKER.
A TALE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
BY HENRY A. CLARK.
(_Continued from page_ 74.)
CHAPTER III.
_The Chase and the Capture._
On the deck of the pirate craft stood a young man of powerful frame,
and singularly savage features, rendered more repulsive by the
disposition of the hair which was allowed to grow almost over the
entire mouth, and hung from the chin in heavy masses nearly to the
waist. With his elbow resting against the fore-mast of the vessel, he
was gazing through a spy-glass upon the brig he had been so long
pursuing. A burly negro stood at the helm, holding the tiller, and
steering the brig with an ease which denoted his vast strength,
scarcely moving his body, but meeting the long waves, which washed
over the side of the vessel, and rushed in torrents through the
hawse-holes, merely by the power of his arm.
"Keep her more in the wind," shouted the commander, with an oath, to
the helmsman.
"Ay, ay sir," responded the negro gruffly.
"Don't let me hear a sail flap again or I'll score your back for you,
you son of a sea-cook."
With this pleasant admonition the young man resumed his night-glass.
The captain of the pirate brig was an Englishman by birth; his history
was little known even to his own crew, but it was remarkable that
though always savage and blood-thirsty, he was peculiarly so to his
own countrymen, evincing a hatred and malignancy toward every thing
connected with his native land, that seemed more than fiendish--never
smiling but when his sword was red with the blood of his countrymen,
and his foot planted upon her conquered banner. It was evident that
some deep wrong had driven him forth to become an outcast and a fiend.
A close inspection of his features developed the outlines of a noble
countenance yet remaining, though marred and deformed by years of
passion and of crime. His crew, which numbered nearly fifty, were
gathered from almost every nation of the civilized world, yet were all
completely under his command. They were now scattered over the vessel
in various lounging attitudes, apparently careless of every thing
beyond the ease of the passing moment, leaving the management of the
brig to the two or three hands necessary to control the graceful and
obedient craft.
For long hours the captain of the pirate brig stood following the
motions of the flying merchantman; he thought not of sleep or of
refreshment, it was enough for him that he was in pursuit of an
English vessel, that his revenge was again to be gratified with
English blood.
He was roused by a light touch of the arm--he turned impatiently.
"Why, Florette."
A beautiful girl stood beside him, gazing into his face half with fear
and half with love. Her dress was partly that of a girl and partly of
a boy; over a pair of white loose sailor's trowsers a short gown was
thrown, fastened with a blue zone, and her long hair fell in thick,
luxuriant masses from beneath a gracefully shaped little straw
hat--altogether she was as lovely in feature and form as Venus
herself, with an eye blue as the ocean, and a voice soft and sweet as
the southern breeze.
"Dear William, will you not go below and take some rest?"
"I want none, girl; I shall not sleep till every man on yonder vessel
has gone to rest in the caves of ocean."
"But you will eat?"
"Pshaw! Florette, leave me; your place is below."
The girl said no more, but slowly glided to the companion-way and
disappeared into the little cabin.
The long night at length wore away, and as the clear light of morning
shone upon the waters the merchant vessel was no longer visible from
the deck of the pirate.
"A thousand devils! has he escaped me. Ho! the one of you with the
sharpest eyes up to the mast-head. Stay, I will go myself."
Thus speaking, the captain mounted the main-mast and gazed long and
anxiously; he could see nothing of the vessel. He mounted still
higher, climbing the slender top-mast till with his hand resting upon
the main-truck he once more looked over the horizon. Thus far his gaze
had been directed to windward, in the course where the vanished brig
had last been seen. At length he turned to leeward, and far in the
distant horizon his eagle eye caught faint sight of a sail, like the
white and glancing wing of a bird. With wonderful rapidity he slid to
the deck, and gave orders to set the brig before the wind. The
beautiful little bark fell off gracefully, and in a moment was swiftly
retracing the waters it had beaten over during the night.
"The revenge will be no less sweet that it is deferred," exclaimed the
pirate captain, as he threw himself upon the companion-way. "Thirty
English vessels have I sunk in the deep, and I am not yet
satisfied--no, no, curses on her name, curses on her laws, they have
driven me forth from a lordly heritage and an ancient name to die an
outcast and a pirate."
Pulling his hat over his dark brow, he sat long in deep thought, and
not one in all his savage crew but would have preferred to board a
vessel of twice their size than to rouse his commander from his
thoughtful mood.
Captain Horton for some hours after it had become dark the preceding
night, had kept his vessel on the same course, perplexing his mind
with some scheme by which he might deceive the pirate. At length he
gave orders to lower away the yawl boat, and fit a mast to it, which
was speedily done. When all was ready, he hung a lantern to the mast,
with a light that would burn but a short time, and then putting out
his own ship-light, he fastened the tiller of the yawl and set it
adrift, knowing that it would keep its course until some sudden gust
of wind should overcome its steerage way. As soon as he had
accomplished this, he fell off before the wind, and setting his brig
on the opposite tack, as soon as he had got to a good distance from
the light of the yawl, took in all sail till not a rag was left
standing. He kept his brig in this position until he had the
satisfaction of seeing the pirate brig pass to windward in pursuit of
his boat, whose light he knew would go out before the pirate could
overtake it. When the light of the chase had become faint in the
distance, he immediately crowded on all sail, and stood off boldly on
his original course.
None of his crew had gone below to turn in, for all were too anxious
to sleep, and his passengers still stood beside him upon the
quarter-deck; John with a large bundle under his arm, which, in answer
to an inquiry from the merchant, he said was merely a change of dress.
"I think we have given them the slip this time, Mr. Williams," said
Captain Horton.
"I hope so, captain."
"You can sleep now without danger of being disturbed by unwelcome
visiters, Miss Julia."
"Well, captain, I am as glad as my father you have escaped. I wish we
had got near enough to see how they looked though."
"We ought rather, my dear girl, to thank God that they came no nearer
than they did," said her father half reproachfully.
"True, father, true," and bidding Captain Horton good-night, they
retired to the cabin.
"You did fool them nice, didn't you, captin?" said John.
"Yes, John, it was tolerably well done, I think myself," replied the
captain, who, like all of mankind, was more or less vain, and prided
himself peculiarly upon his skill in his own avocation.
"I shouldn't ha' been much afraid on 'em myself if they had caught
us," said John.
"You wouldn't, ah!"
"No! I should ha' hated to see all the crew walk on the plank as they
call it, specially Dick Halyard, but I thinks I should ha' come it
over 'em myself."
"Well, John, I hope you'll never have such occasion to try your powers
of deceit, for I fear you would find yourself wofully mistaken."
"Perhaps not, captin, but I'm confounded sleepy, now we've got away
from the bloody pirates, so I'll just lie down here, captin; I haint
learned to sleep in a hammock yet. I wish you'd let me have a berth,
captin, I hate lying in a circle, it cramps a fellow plaguily."
John talked himself to sleep upon the companion-way, where the
good-natured master of the brig allowed him to remain unmolested, and
soon after yielding the helm to one of the mates, himself "turned in."
As the morning broke over the sea clear and cloudless, while not a
sail was visible in any quarter of the horizon, the revulsion of
feeling occasioned by the transition from despair to confidence, and
indeed entire assurance of safety, was plainly depicted in the joyous
countenances of all on the Betsy Allen. The worthy captain made no
endeavor to check the boisterous merriment of his crew, but lighting
his pipe, seated himself upon the companion-way, with a complacent
smile expanding his sun-browned features, which developed itself into
a self-satisfied and happy laugh as Mr. Williams appeared at the
cabin-door, leading up his daughter to enjoy the pure morning air,
fresh from the clear sky and the bounding waters.
"Ha! ha! Mr. Williams, told you so, not a sail in sight, and a fine
breeze."
"Our thanks are due to you, Captain Horton, for the skillful manner in
which you eluded the pirate ship."
"Oh! I was as glad to get out of sight of the rascal as you could have
been, my dear sir, I assure you; now that we are clear of him, I ain't
afraid to tell Miss Julia that if he had overhauled us we should have
all gone to Davy Jones' locker, and the Betsy Allen would by this time
have been burnt to the water's edge."
"I was not ignorant of the danger at any time, Captain Horton."
"Well, you are a brave girl, and deserve to be a sailor's wife, but
I'm married myself."
"That is unfortunate, captain," said Julia, with a merry laugh, so
musical in its intonations that the rough sailors who heard its sweet
cadence could not resist the contagion, and a bright smile lit up each
weather-beaten countenance within the sound of the merry music.
"Well, I think so myself, though I wouldn't like Mrs. Horton to hear
me say it, or I should have a rougher breeze to encounter than I ever
met round Cape Horn--ha! ha! ha! You must excuse me, Miss Julia, but I
feel in fine spirits this morning, not a sail in sight."
"Sail ho!" shouted the look-out from the main cross-trees.
"Ah!--where away?"
"Right astern."
"Can it be that they have got in our wake again. I'll mount to the
mast-head and see myself."
Seizing the glass the captain ascended to the cross-trees, where he
remained for a long time, watching the distant sail. At length he
returned to the deck.
"They've got our bearings again somehow, confound the cunning rascals;
and, by the way they are overhauling us, I judge they can beat us as
well afore the wind as on a tack."
"Well, Captain Horton, we must be resigned to our fate then. It
matters not so much for me, but it is hard, my daughter, that you
should be torn from your peaceful home in England to fall a prey to
these fiends."
"They are a long way from us yet, father; let us hope something may
happen for our relief, and not give up till we are taken."
"That's the right feeling, Miss Julia," said the captain. "I will do
all I can to prolong the chase, and we will trust in God for the
result."
Every device which skillful seamanship could practice was put in
immediate operation to increase the speed of the brig. There was but a
solitary hope remaining, that they might fall in with some national
vessel able to protect them from the pirate. The sails were frequently
wet, the halyards drawn taut, and the captain himself took the helm.
When all this was done, each sailor stood gazing upon the pirate as if
to calculate the speed of his approach by the lifting of his sails
above the water. The greater part of his top-sails were already in
sight, and soon the heads of her courses appeared above the wave,
seeming to sweep up like the long, white wings of a lazy bird, whose
flight clung to the breast of the sea, as if seeking a resting-place.
By the middle of the day the pirate was within three miles of the
merchantman, and had already opened upon her with his long gun.
Captain Horton pressed onward without noticing the balls, which as yet
had not injured hull or sail. But as the chase approached nearer and
nearer, the shots began to take effect--a heavy ball made a huge rent
in the mizzen-topsail--another dashed in the galley, and a third tore
up the companion-way, and still another cut down the fore-topmast, and
materially decreased the speed of the vessel.
Noticing this the pirate ceased his fire, and soon drew up within hail
of the merchantman.
"Ship ahoy--what ship?"
"The Betsy Allen, London."
"Lay-by till I send a boat aboard."
Captain Horton gave orders to his crew to wait the word of command
before they altered the vessel's course, and then seizing the trumpet,
hailed the pirate.
"What ship's that?"
"The brig Death--don't you see the flag?"
"I know the character of your ship, doubtless."
"Well, lay-by, or we'll bring you to with a broadside."
Perceiving the inutility of further effort, Captain Horton brought-to,
and hauled down his flag.
In a short time the jolly-boat of the pirate was lowered from the
stern, and the commander jumped in, followed by a dozen of his crew.
The vigorous arms of the oarsmen soon brought the boat to the
merchantman, and the pirate stood upon the deck of the captured
vessel.
"Well, sir, you have given us some trouble to overhaul you," said he,
in a manner rather gentlemanly than savage.
"We should have been fools if we had not tried our best to escape."
"True, true--will you inform me how you eluded our pursuit last night.
I ask merely from motives of curiosity?"
Captain Horton briefly related the deception of the boat.
"Ah! ha! very well done. Here Diego," said he to one of the sailors
who had followed him, "go below and bring up the passengers."
The swarthy rascal disappeared with a malignant grin through the
cabin-door, and speedily escorted Mr. Williams to the deck, followed
by Julia, and, to the surprise of Captain Horton and his crew, another
female.
"Now, captain," said the pirate, with a fiendish smile, "I shall
proceed to convey your merchandize to my brig, including these two
ladies, though, by my faith, we shall have little use for one of them.
After which I will leave you in quiet."
"I could expect no better terms," said Captain Horton, resignedly.
"O, you will soon be relieved from my presence."
Julia clung to her father, but was torn from his grasp, and the good
old man was pushed back by the laughing fiends, as he attempted to
follow her to the boat. The father and daughter parted with a look of
strong anguish, relieved in the countenance of Julia by a deep
expression of firmness and resolution.
John was also seized by the pirates, but he had overheard the words of
their captain that they would soon be left in quiet, and had already
commenced throwing off his woman's dress.
"Hillo! is the old girl going to strip? Bear a hand here, Mike,"
shouted Diego, to one of his comrades, "just make fast those
tow-lines, and haul up her rigging."
Mr. Williams, who immediately conceived the possible advantage it
might be to Julia to have even so inefficient a protector with her as
John, addressed him in a stern tone.
"What, will you desert your mistress?"
John stood in doubt, but he was a kind-hearted fellow, and loved Julia
better than he did any thing else in the world except himself; and
without further resistance or explanation, allowed himself to be
conveyed to the boat, though the big tears rolled down his cheeks, and
nothing even then would have prevented his avowing his original sex,
but a strong feeling of shame at the thought of leaving Julia.
For hours the pirate's jolly-boat passed backward and forward between
the two brigs; the sea had become too rough to allow the vessels to be
fastened together without injury to the light frame of the pirate
bark; and night had already set in before all the cargo which the
pirates desired had been removed from the merchantman; but it was at
length accomplished, and once more the pirates stood upon the deck of
their own brig.
In a few words their captain explained his plan of destruction to his
crew, which was willingly assented to, as it was sufficiently cruel
and vindictive. Three loud cheers burst from their lips, startling the
crew of the Betsey Allen with its wild cadence, and in another moment
the pirate-captain leaped into his boat, and followed by a number of
his crew, returned to the merchantman.
Still preserving his suavity of manner, he addressed Captain Horton as
he stepped upon the deck, after first ordering the crew to the bows,
and drawing up his own men with pointed muskets before the
companion-way.
"Captain Horton, as you are, perhaps, aware it is our policy to act
upon the old saying that 'dead men tell no tales,' and after
consultation among ourselves, we have concluded to set your vessel on
fire, and then depart in peace, leaving you to the quiet I promised
you."
"Blood-thirsty villain!" shouted the captain of the merchantman, and
suddenly drawing a pistol, he discharged it full at the pirate's
breast. The latter was badly wounded, but falling back against the
main-mast, was able to order his men to pursue their original design
before he fell fainting in the arms of one of his men, who immediately
conveyed him to the boat.
The savages proceeded then to fire the vessel in several different
places, meeting with no resistance from the crew, as a dozen muskets
pointed at their heads admonished them that immediate death would be
the consequence.
As soon as the subtle element had so far progressed in its work of
destruction that the hand of man could not stay it, the pirates jumped
into their boat, and with a fiendish yell, pulled off for their own
vessel.
For a very short time the crew of the merchantman stood watching the
flame and smoke which was fast encircling them, then rousing their
native energies, and perceiving the utter impossibility of conquering
the fire, they turned their attention to the only resource left--the
construction of some sort of a raft that would sustain their united
weight.
The progress of the flames, however, was so rapid, that though a score
of busy hands were employed with axes and hatchets, the most that
could be done was to hurl overboard a few spars and boards, cut away
the bowsprit and part of the bulwarks, before the exceeding heat
compelled them to leave the brig.
Mr. Williams, who had remained in a state of stupor since the loss of
his daughter, was borne to the ship's side, and hurriedly fastened to
a spar; and then all the crew boldly sprung into the water, and
pushing the fragments of boards and spars from the burning brig, as
soon as they attained a safe distance, commenced the construction of
their raft in the water. This was an exceedingly difficult
undertaking; but they were working with the energies of despair, and
board after board was made fast by means of the rope they had thrown
over with themselves; and in the light of their burning vessel they
managed at length to build a raft sufficiently strong to bear their
weight.
Then seating themselves upon it, they almost gave way to despair; they
had lost the excitement of occupation, and now, in moody silence,
watched the mounting flames. They were without food, and the sea ran
high; their condition did, indeed, seem hopeless--and their only
refuge, death.
CHAPTER IV.
_The Escape._
The fire had made swift work during the time the unfortunate crew were
occupied in building the raft, and the little brig was now almost
enveloped in smoke and flame. A burst of fire from her main hatchway
threw a red glare over the turbulent waters, and showed the vessel's
masts and rigging brightly displayed against the dark sky above and
beyond them. The main-sail by this time caught fire, and was blazing
away along the yard fiercely; and the flame soon reached the loftier
sails and running rigging; the fire below was raging between decks,
and rising in successive bursts of flame from the hatchways. The
vessel had been filled with combustible material, and the doomed brig,
in a short space of time, was one mass of flame.
To a spectator beholding the sight in safety, it would have been a
magnificent spectacle--the grandest, the most terrific, perhaps, it is
possible to conceive--a ship on fire at night in the mid-ocean. The
hull of the vessel lay flaming like an immense furnace on the surface
of the deep; her masts, and the lower and topsail-yards, with
fragments of the rigging hanging round them, sparkling, and scattering
the fire-flakes, rose high above it, while huge volumes of smoke ever
and anon obscured the whole, then borne away by the strong breeze,
left the burning brig doubly distinct, placed in strong relief against
the dark vault of heaven behind. The lofty spars, as their fastenings
were burnt through, fell, one by one, into the hissing water, and at
length the tall masts, no longer supported by the rigging, and nearly
burnt into below the deck, fell over, one after the other, into the
deep.
Suddenly Captain Horton started to his feet,
"It is, it is a sail--look, do you now see it coming up in the light
of the brig?"
"It is so, captain," responded his men one after the other.
"Thank God we shall yet be saved! If the pirate had scuttled the ship
we should have had no chance; but his cruel course has saved us, for
the flame has attracted some vessel to our succor."
"Perhaps the pirate returning," remarked Mr. Williams.
"No, that kept on before the wind, and this is coming up. God grant it
be an English vessel, and a swift one, and we may yet save your
daughter!"
This remark struck a chord of hope in the heart of Mr. Williams, and
roused him to his native manliness.
"But," said he, "our own vessel has drifted far from us, and we shall
not be seen by this one."
"I think they will come within hail; they will at least sail round the
burning vessel, in the hopes of picking up somebody. Come, my men,
let's make some kind of sail of our jackets, a half a mile nearer the
ship may save us all our lives."
With a cheer as merry as ever broke from their lips when on board
ship, the reanimated sailors went to work, and soon reared a small
sail made of their clothing, which caught enough wind to move them
slowly onward.
"Steer in the wake of our own vessel, my men, and the strange sail
will come right on to us--get between them."
"Ay, ay, sir!"
As the approaching vessel drew nearer, the crew of the Betsy Allen
sent up a cheer from their united voices which, to their great joy,
was answered from the strange sail.
"Ahoy, where away?"
"Three points on your weather bow--starboard your helm, and you'll be
on us."
"Ay, ay."
In a very short time the shipwrecked crew stood on the deck of the
privateer Raker, which, attracted by the light of their burning brig,
had varied somewhat from its course, to render assistance if any were
needed. Captain Greene and his men soon became acquainted with the
history of the crew of the lost brig, and every attention was shown to
them.
Captain Horton gave them a brief account of the pirate's assault, and
the abduction of Julia.
"O Captain Greene, save my child, if possible. She is my only one,"
exclaimed Mr. Williams.
"Which way did she steer, Captain Horton?"
"She went off right before the wind, sir, and is not three hours ahead
of us."
"Mr. Williams I will immediately give chase, and God grant that I may
overtake the scoundrels."
"A father's thanks shall be yours, sir."
"Never mind that--you had all better turn in; I will steer the same
course with the pirate till morning, sir; and if he is then in sight,
I think he is ours--for there are few things afloat that can outsail
the Raker."
The crew of the Betsy Allen, whose anxiety and exertions during the
last few hours had been excessive, gladly accepted the captain's
offer, and were soon snoring in their hammocks. Captain Horton and Mr.
Williams remained on the deck of the Raker, the one too anxious for
revenge upon the pirate who had destroyed his brig, to sleep, and the
other too much afflicted by the loss of his daughter, and the painful
thoughts which it engendered, to think of any thing but her speedy
recovery.
The long night at length wore away, and with the first beams of the
morning sun the mists rolled heavily upward from the ocean. To the
great joy of all on board the Raker, the pirate-brig was in sight,
though beyond the reach of shot from the privateer.
Although the captain of the Raker had sufficient confidence in the
superior speed of his own vessel, yet to avoid the possibility of
being deceived, he decided to pretend flight, well assured that the
pirate would give chase. He accordingly bore off, as if anxious to
avoid speaking him, and displaying every sign of fear, had the
satisfaction of perceiving the pirate change his course, and set all
sail in pursuit.
In order to test the relative speed of the two vessels he did not at
first slacken his own sail, but put his brig to its swiftest pace. He
had reason to congratulate himself upon the wisdom of his manoeuvre
when he perceived that in spite of every exertion the chase gained
upon him, and it was evident that unless he was crippled by a shot, he
might yet escape.
As the pirate bore down upon his brig, Captain Greene perceived, by
aid of his glass, that the number of the crew on board was
considerably superior to his own, even with the addition of the crew
of the Betsy Allen. In consideration of this fact, he determined to
fight her at a distance with his long gun. This he still kept
concealed amidships, under the canvas, desiring to impress fully upon
his opponent the idea of his inferiority.
Leaving the vessels thus situated, let us visit the pirate again.
Julia, and John in his disguise, were conveyed to his deck, where they
were speedily separated. Julia was conducted below, where, to her
surprise and joy, she found a companion of her own sex, in the person
of Florette.
The wounded commander of the pirate was also conveyed to his berth,
where Florette, with much grief, attended to nurse him. It was in her
first passionate burst of sorrow that Julia discovered her love for
the pirate, from which circumstance she also derived consolation and
relief; and having already, with the natural firmness of her mind,
shaken off the deep despondency which had settled upon it when first
torn from her father, she began to resolve upon the course of action
she would pursue, in every probable event which might befall her.
During the long night the pirate lay groaning and helpless; but such
was the strength of his will, and the all absorbing nature of his
hatred, that when informed on the succeeding morning that a vessel was
in sight, he aroused his physical powers sufficiently to reach the
deck, where, seating himself on the companion-way, he watched the
strange sail with an interest so intense, that he almost forgot his
painful wounds.
He had hardly taken his position before the captain of the Raker
uncovered and ran out his long gun, and to the surprise of all on
board the pirate, a huge shot, evidently sent from a gun much larger
than they had supposed their antagonist to possess, came crashing
through their main-sail.
Too late the pirates perceived the error into which they had fallen;
and were aware of the immense advantage which the long gun gave their
opponent, enabling him, in fact, to maintain his own position beyond
the reach of their fire, and at the same time cut every mast and spar
on board the pirate-brig to pieces, unless, indeed, the latter might
be fortunate enough, by superior sailing, to get beyond the reach of
shot without suffering material injury.
Perceiving this to be his only resource, orders were given on board
the pirate again to 'bout ship, and instead of pursuing to be
themselves in turn fugitives. But they were not destined to escape
without injury. Another shot from the Raker bore away their
foretop-sail, and sensibly checked their speed. To remedy this
misfortune, studding-sails were set below and aloft, and for a long
time the chase was continued without the shot from the Raker taking
serious effect on the pirate; and, indeed, the latter in a
considerable degree increased the distance between the two vessels.
But while the captain and crew of the Raker were confident of
eventually overtaking their antagonist, the men in the pirate-brig had
already become convinced that in such a harassing and one-sided mode
of warfare, they stood no chance whatever, and demanded of their
captain that he should make the attempt to close with the Raker and
board. This he sternly refused, and pointed out to his men the folly
of such a course, as upon a nearer approach to the privateer, his
rigging and masts must necessarily suffer in such a manner as to place
his brig entirely at the command of the Raker. His men admitted the
truth of his reasoning, but at the same time evinced so much
dissatisfaction at their present vexatious situation, that their
captain plainly perceived it was necessary to pursue some course of
action to appease their turbulent spirits.
With a clouded brow he returned to his cabin with the assistance of
Florette, who had watched with a woman's love to take advantage of
every opportunity to aid him.
Reaching the cabin, his eyes fell upon the form of Julia, eagerly
bending from the little window as she watched the pursuing brig,
fervently praying that its chase might be successful.
As she turned her eyes in-doors at the noise made by the entrance of
the pirate, his keen glance noticed the light of hope which shone in
her beautiful eyes, which she strove not and cared not to conceal.
"My fair captive," said he, with a sneering smile, "do you see hope of
escape in yonder approaching vessel?"
"My hope is in God," was the calm reply of the lovely girl.
"That trust will fail you now, sweet lady."
"I believe it not; when has He deserted those whose trust was in him?"
"So have you been taught, doubtless, so you may yet believe; but you
have still to learn that if there is such a being, he meddles not with
the common purposes of man. It is his government to punish, not
prevent; and man here on earth pursues his own course, be it dark or
bright--and God's hand is not interposed to stay the natural and
inevitable workings of cause and effect. No, no! here, on this, my own
good ship, _I_ rule; and there is no hand, human or divine, that will
interpose between my determination and the execution of my purpose."
"Impious man! you may yet learn to fear the power you now despise."
"Ha! ha! ha!--do I look like a man to be frightened by the words of a
weak girl, or by the name of a mysterious being, whose agency I have
never seen in the workings of earthly affairs."
"I have no mercy to expect from one who has consigned a whole ship's
crew, without remorse, to a cruel death."
"Well, were they not Englishmen? I have not for years, lady, spared an
Englishman in my deep hatred, or an Englishwoman in my lust!"
"Yet are they not your own countrymen?"
"Yes."
"Unnatural monster!"
The pirate smiled. "I could relate a history of wrong that would
justify me even in your eyes. If I have proved a viper to my native
land, it is because her heel has crushed me--but the tale cannot be
told now. If yonder vessel overtake us, and escape become impossible,
my own hand will apply the match that shall blow up my brig, and all
it contains. Before that time you will be a dishonored woman, to whom
death were a relief. Nothing but this wound has preserved you thus
long. With this assurance I leave you."
The pirate returned to the deck, where, notwithstanding the pain of
his injuries, he continued to take command of the brig.
He had hardly vanished from the cabin before Florette stood by the
side of Julia.
"Lady," said she, "I overheard your conversation with the captain of
this brig, and I pity you most truly."
"Pity will little avail," replied Julia.
"That is true, yet I would aid you if possible."
"And you--do not you, too, desire to escape from this savage?"
"Alas! lady, I have learned to love him."
"_Love_ him!"
"I have now been on this brig more than three years. I was taken from
a French merchant vessel in which I was proceeding to French Guinea,
to live with a relative there, having lost all my immediate kindred in
France. While crossing the Bay of Biscay, a heavy storm drove us out
to sea, and while endeavoring to return in shore, we fell in with this
vessel--all on board were murdered but myself, so I have been told. I
was borne to this cabin, which has since been my home. I was treated
with much respect by the captain, and being all alone, I don't know
why it was, I forgot all his crimes, and at length became his willing
mistress. You turn from me in disgust, and in pity--yet so it is. And
now, lady, if you are bold enough to risk your life, you may escape."
"I would gladly give my life to save my honor."
Florette gazed with a melancholy smile upon her companion; perhaps
thoughts of her own former purity came over her mind.
"It is a bold plan," said she, "but it is on that account that I am
more confident of success, as all chance of escape will be deemed
hopeless."
"What is your plan?"
"Night is now approaching, and it is probable the pursuing brig will
not gain on us before dark. I have noticed that the ship's boat hangs
at the stern, only fastened by the painter. If you have courage enough
to descend to the boat by the painter, I will cut it, and you will
then be directly in the course of the pursuing brig, and will be
easily picked up."
"But how can I get to the vessel's deck without being seen?"
"I have thought of that; we will wait till dark, when you shall put on
a similar dress with mine, and then you can go to any part of the
vessel you choose without being suspected. You must watch your time to
steal unobserved behind the man at the helm, and drop yourself into
the boat; I will soon after appear on deck, and if you are successful
in escaping observation, I shall be able then to cut the painter
without difficulty, as the darkness will conceal my movements. Do you
understand the plan?"
"I do."
"And you are not afraid to put it into execution?"
"Oh, no, no! and I thank you for your kind aid."
"I am not wholly disinterested, lady; you are beautiful, and may steal
away the captain's heart from me."
Julia shuddered.
"Be ready," continued Florette, "and as soon as possible after it
becomes dark we will make the attempt."
It was as Florette had called it, a bold plan, but not impracticable,
as any one acquainted with the position of things will at once
acknowledge. Only one man would be at the tiller, and he might or
might not notice the passing of any other person behind him. This
passage once accomplished, it would be an easy undertaking to slide
down the strong painter, or rope which made fast the boat to the stern
of the brig. It was a plan in which the chances were decidedly in
favor of the success of the attempt.
The Raker had for some time ceased firing, and set studding-sails in
hopes of gaining on the pirate; but the most the privateer was able to
do, was to still preserve the relative positions of the two vessels.
The sun sunk beneath the waters, leaving a cloudless sky shedding such
a light from its starry orbs, that if the pirate had hoped to escape
under cover of the night, he speedily saw the impossibility of such an
attempt eluding the watch from the privateer.
The captain of the pirate still kept his position upon the
companion-way, with his head bent upon his breast, either buried in
thought, or yielding to the weakness of his physical powers,
occasioned by the loss of blood from his wound.
Florette, who was continually passing up and down through the
cabin-door, carefully noted the state of things upon the quarter-deck,
and perceiving every thing to be as favorable as could be expected,
soon had Julia in readiness for her share in the undertaking.
"But first," said she, "let me put out the light in the binnacle."
The girl stood for a moment in deep thought, when her ready wit
suggested a way to accomplish this feat, sufficiently simple to avoid
suspicion. Seizing the broad palmetto hat of the pirate, and bidding
Julia to be in readiness to profit by the moment of darkness which
would ensue, she returned to the deck, and approaching the pirate,
exclaimed,
"William, I have brought you your hat."
At the moment of presenting it to him, as it passed the
binnacle-light, she gave it a swift motion, which at once extinguished
the flame.
"Curses on the girl!" muttered the man at the helm.
"O, I was careless, Diego; I will bring the lantern in a moment;" and
laying down the hat on the companion-way beside the pirate, who paid
no attention to the movements around him, she glided back to the
cabin.
"Here, lady," said she, "be quick--hand this lantern to the man at the
helm, and then drop silently behind him while he is lighting it. I
will immediately follow and take your place beside him. You understand
me?"
"Yes, clearly."
"Well, as soon as I begin to speak with him, let yourself down into
the boat by the painter, which I will soon cut apart, and then you
will at least be out of the hands of your enemies."
Julia took the hand of Florette in her own, and warmly thanked her,
but the girl impatiently checked her.
"Take this pistol with you also."
"But why?" inquired Julia, with a woman's instinctive dread of such
weapons.
"O, I don't mean you should shoot any body, but if the boat drifts a
little out of the brig's course, you might not be able to make
yourself heard on her deck."
"True, true."
"The night is so still that a pistol-shot would be heard at a good
distance."
"O, yes, I see it all now; I was so anxious to escape from this
terrible ship that I thought of nothing else; and there is poor John."
"You must not think of him--it will be no worse for him if you go, no
better if you remain. Here, take the lantern--say nothing as you hand
it to the man at the tiller, but do as I told you."
Pressing the hand of Florette, Julia mounted to the deck with a
painfully beating heart, but with a firm step. She handed the lantern
to the steersman, who received it surlily, growling some rough oath,
half to himself, at her delay, and leaning upon the tiller, proceeded
to relight the binnacle-lamp. Julia fell back cautiously, and in
another moment the light form of Florette filled her place.
"I was very careless, Diego," said she.
"Yes," replied he, gruffly.
"Well, I will be more careful next time."
"You'd better."
Julia, during the short time of this conversation, had disappeared
over the stern, and as the vessel was sailing before a steady wind,
found little difficulty in sliding down the painter into the yawl.
She could hardly suppress an exclamation when a moment afterward she
found the ship rapidly gliding away from her, and leaving her alone
upon the waters in so frail a support. Her situation was, indeed, one
that might well appall any of her sex. To a sailor it would already
have been one of entire safety, but to her it seemed as if every
succeding wave would sink the little boat as it gracefully rose and
fell upon their swell; but seating herself by the tiller, she managed
to guide its motions, and with a calm reliance upon that God whose
supporting arm she knew to be as much around her, when alone in the
wide waste of waters, as when beside her own hearth-stone, in quiet
and happy England, she patiently awaited the issue of her bold
adventure.
She had but a short time to wait when she perceived the dark outlines
of the Raker bearing directly down upon her. As it approached it
seemed as if it would run directly over her boat, and excited by the
fear of the moment, and the anxiety to be heard, she gave a louder
shriek than she supposed herself capable of uttering, and at the same
time fired off her pistol.
Both were heard on board the Raker.
"Man overboard!" shouted the look-out.
"Woman overboard, you lubber," said a brother tar; "didn't you hear
that screech?"
"Hard a port!"
"Hard a port 'tis."
"Right under the lee bow."
"Well, pitch over a rope whoever it is. What does this mean?" said
Lieutenant Morris, as he approached the bows.
"Can't say, sir--some deviltry of the pirates, I reckon, to make us
lose way."
"By heavens! it is a woman," cried the lieutenant, "let me throw that
rope, we shall be on the boat in a minute. Hard a port!"
The rope, skillfully thrown by the young lieutenant, struck directly
at the feet of Julia. With much presence of mind she gave it several
turns around one of the oar-locks, and her boat was immediately hauled
up to the side of the brig, without compelling the latter to slacken
sail.
In another moment she was lifted to the deck of the Raker.
"Julia! thank Heaven!" exclaimed her father.
With a cry of joy she fainted in his arms, and was borne below, where
she speedily recovered, and related the manner of her escape from the
pirate.
All admired the courage of the attempt, and Lieutenant Morris, as he
gazed upon the lovely countenance, which returning sensation was
restoring to all its wonted bloom and beauty, one day of intense
sorrow having left but slight traces upon it, he felt emotions to
which he had hitherto been an entire stranger, and sought the deck
with a flushed brow and animated eye, wondering at the vision of
beauty which had risen, like Cytherea, from the sea.
[_To be continued._
THE PRAYER OF THE DYING GIRL.
BY SAMUEL D. PATTERSON.
Oh! take me back again, mother, to that home I love so well,
Whose memory rules my fluttering heart with a mysterious spell:
I think of it when lying on my weary couch of pain,
And I feel that I am dying, mother--Oh! take me home again!
They tell me that this sunny clime strength to the wasted brings,
And the zephyr's balmy breezes come with healing on their wings;
But to me the sun's rich glow is naught--the perfumed air is vain--
For I know that I am dying--Oh! then, take me home again!
I long to find myself once more beside the little stream
That courses through our valley green, of which I often dream:
I fancy that a cooling draught from that sweet fount I drain--
It stills the fever of my blood--Oh! take me home again!
And then I lie and ponder, as I feel my life decline,
On the happy days that there I spent when health and strength were mine;
When I climbed the mountain-side, and roved the valley and the plain,
And my bosom never knew a pang of sorrow or of pain.
And when the sun was sinking in the far and glowing west,
I came and sat me by thy side, or nestled in thy breast,
And heard thy gentle words of love, and listened to the strain
Of thy sweet favorite evening hymn--Oh! take me home again!
How bright and joyous was my life! Night brought refreshing rest,
And morning's dawn awakened naught but rapture in my breast:
Now, sad and languid, weak and faint, I seek, but seek in vain,
To lay me down in soft repose--Oh! take me home again!
The hand of death is laid upon thy child's devoted head--
I feel its damp and chilling touch, so cold, so full of dread--
It palsies every nerve of mine--it freezes every vein--
Oh! take me then, dear mother--Oh! take me home again!
There, with my wan brow lying on thy fond and faithful breast,
Let me calmly wait the summons that calls me to my rest:
And when the struggle's o'er, mother--the parting throe of pain--
Thou'lt joy to know thy daughter saw her own loved home again!
A WRITTEN LEAF OF MEMORY.
BY FANNY LEE.
Poor Fanny Layton! Oh! how well I remember the last time I ever saw
her! 'Twas in the dear old church whither from early childhood my
footsteps were bent. What feelings of holy awe and reverence crept
into my heart as I gazed, with eyes in which saddened tears were
welling, upon the sacred spot! How my thoughts reverted to other
days--the days of my early youth--that sweet "spring-time" of life,
when I trod the blooming pathway before me so fetterless and free,
with no overshadowing of coming ill--no anxious, fearful gazing into
the dim future, as in after years, but with the bounding step that
bespeaks the careless joyousness which Time, oh all too soon! brushes
from the heart with "rude, relentless wing." How eagerly I would
strive to subdue my impatient footsteps then to the calmer pace of
more thoughtful years, as I gradually drew nearer to the holy
sanctuary, although mine eyes would oft, despite my utmost endeavors,
wander to the eaves of that time-worn, low-browed church, to watch the
flight of the twittering host who came forth, I fancied, at my
approach to bid me welcome! How I would cast one "longing, lingering
look" at the warm, bright sunshine that irradiated even those gray
walls, ere I entered the low porch whence it was all excluded by the
ivy which seemed to delight in entwining its slender leaves around the
crumbling pillars, as if it would fain impart strength and beauty to
the consecrated building in its declining years.
But a long--long time had passed since then, and I had come to revisit
my village-home, and the memory-endeared haunts of my girlhood, for
the last time, ere journeying to a distant land. The place was little
changed, and every thing around that well-remembered spot came laden
with so many sweet and early associations, that the memory of by-gone
hours swept thrillingly across my heart-strings, and it was not until
after I had taken my accustomed seat in the old-fashioned high-backed
pew, that I was roused from my busy wanderings in the "shadowy past,"
by the voice of our pastor--
"Years had gone by, and given his honored head
A _diadem of snow_--his eye was dim"--
his voice grown weak and tremulous with increasing years, although
there was a something in its tone so full of simple-hearted
earnestness, that had never failed to find its way to the most gay and
thoughtless spirits of his little flock. And now how reverently I
gazed upon the silvered locks of him who had been mine own faithful
guide and counselor along the devious pathway of youth--feeling that
his pilgrimage was almost ended--his loving labors well nigh over--and
soon he would go down to the grave
"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
Around him and lies down to peaceful dreams."
I looked around--and it was sad to see how few there were of all the
familiar faces I had left--and those few--oh, how changed! But there
was one to whom my glance reverted constantly, nor could I account for
the strange fascination which seemed to fix mine eyes upon her. And
yet, as I looked, the spring of memory seemed touched, and suddenly
there appeared before me _two_ faces, which I found it impossible to
separate in my bewildered rememberings--although so very unlike as
they were! The one so bright and joyous, with blue laughter-loving
eyes, in which an unshadowed heart was mirrored--and the other--the
one on which my gaze was now fixed so dreamily--wan and faded,
although it must once have been singularly beautiful, so delicate and
fair were the features, and so pure and spiritual was the white brow
resting beneath those waving masses of golden hair--a temple meet,
methought, for all high and earnest feeling--then, too, there was a
sweet--yet oh! how sorrow-shaded and subdued--expression flitting
around the small mouth, as though a world-torn and troubled spirit,
yet meek and long-suffering, had left its impress there! Her
eyes--those large, deep, earnest eyes--how they haunted me with their
eager restlessness, wandering to and fro with a perturbed, anxious,
asking look, and then upturned with a fixed and pleading gaze, which
moved one's very heart to see. Her dress was very simple, and yet I
could not help thinking it strangely contrasted with the
sorrow-stricken expression of that fair though faded face.
A wreath of orange-blossoms encircled the small cottage-bonnet, and a
long white veil half concealed in its ample folds the fragile form,
which, if it had lost the roundness of early youth, still retained the
most delicate symmetry of outline; upon her breast lay, half hidden, a
withered rose, fit emblem, methought, for her who wore it. Oft-times
her pale thin hands were clasped, and once, when our pastor repeated
in his own low, fervent tone--"Come unto me, all ye heavy-laden, and I
will give you rest"--her lip quivered, and she looked quickly up, with
"A glance of hurried wildness, fraught
With some unfathomable thought."
My sympathies were all out-gushing for her, and when the full tones of
the organ peeled forth their parting strain and we went forth from the
sanctuary, my busy dreamings of the present and the past all were
merged in one honest desire to know the poor girl's history. I learned
it afterward from the lips of Aunt Nora Meriwether.
Dear Aunt Nora! If thou _wert_ yclept "spinster," never did a heart
more filled with good and pure and kindly impulses beat than thine!
Indeed, I have ever ascribed my deep reverence for the sisterhood in
general to my affectionate remembrances of this childhood's friend.
The oracle of our village was Aunt Nora Meriwether--and how could "old
maid" be a stigma upon her name, when it was by virtue of this very
title that she was enabled to perform all those little kindly offices
which her heart was ever prompting, and which made up the sum of her
simple daily existence! It was said that Aunt Nora was "disappointed"
in early life--but however this may have been, certain it was that the
tales (and they _did_ intimate--did the good people of our
village--that if Aunt Nora had a weakness, it consisted in
over-fondness for story-telling) she treasured longest, and oftenest
repeated, were those in which the fair heroine was crossed in love.
Many a time have we, a group of gay and happy-hearted children,
gathered round her feet, as she sat in the low doorway of her
cottage-home, and listened with intense interest to a tale of her
youthful days, gazing the while with eyes in which the bright drops of
sympathy oft would glisten, upon the kind face bent upon our own in
such loveful earnestness. And we would hope, in child-like innocence
of heart, that _we_ might never "fall in love," but grow up and be
"old maids," just like our own dear Aunt Nora! Whether we still
continued to hope so, after we had grown in years and wisdom, it
behoveth me not to say! I am quite sure you would rather listen to the
tale now before thee, dear reader, from the good old lady's own
lips--for it is but a simple sketch at best, and needeth the charm
thrown around it by a heart which the frost of many winters had not
sealed to the tenderest sympathies of our nature--and the low-toned
voice, too, that often during her narrative would grow tremulous with
the emotion it excited. But, alas! this may not be! that low voice is
hushed--the little wicket-gate now closed--the path which led to her
cottage-door untrodden now for many a day--and that kind and gentle
heart is laid at rest beneath bright flowers, planted there by loving
hands, in the humble church-yard. But this day is so lovely--is it
not? With that soft and shadowy mist hanging like a gossamer veil over
Nature's face, through which the glorious god of day looks with a
quiet smile, as though he loved to dwell upon a scene so replete with
home-breathing beauty! And that smile! how lovingly it rests upon the
lawn and the meadow and the brook! How it lingers upon the sweet
flowerets which have not yet brushed the tears from their eyes, until
those dewy tear-drops seem--as if touched by a fairy wand--to change
to radiant gems! How it peeps into every nook and dell, until the
silent places of the earth rejoice in the light of that glory-beaming
smile! The busy hum of countless insects--the soft chime of the
distant water-fall--the thrilling notes of the woodland
choristers--the happy voice of the streamlet, which hurries on ever
murmuring the same glad strain--the gentle zephyr, now whispering
through the leafy trees with low, mysterious tone, and then stealing
so gently, noiselessly through the shadowy grass, till each tiny blade
quivers as if trembling to the touch of fairy feet. These are Nature's
voices, and do they not seem on a day like this in the sweet
summer-time to unite and swell forth in one full anthem of harmony and
praise to the great Creator of all? And does it not seem, too, as we
gaze (for thou art sitting now with me, art thou not, gentle reader?
on the mossy bank beneath the noble elm which has for many years
stretched out its arms protectingly over mine own old homestead, while
I recount to thee this simple tale of "long ago") upon the scene
before us, so replete with quiet loveliness it is--that in every heart
within the precincts of our smiling village there must be a chord
attuned to echo back in voiceless melody the brightness and the beauty
around? Yet oh! how many there may be, even here, whose sun of
happiness hath set on earth forever! How many whose tear-dimmed glance
can descry naught in the far future but a weary waste--whose
life-springs all are dried--whose up-springing hopes all withered by
the blighting touch of Sorrow!
* * * * *
Dost thou see that little cot nestled so closely beneath the
hill-side? and covered with the woodland vine which hath enfolded its
tendrils clingingly around it--peeping in and out at the deserted
windows, or climbing at will over the latticed porch, or trailing on
the ground and looking up forlornly, as though it wondered where were
the careful hands which erst nourished it so tenderly. The place seems
very mournful--with the long grass growing rankly over the once
carefully-kept pathway, and a few bright flowers, on either side,
striving to uprear their beauteous heads above the tangled weeds which
have well nigh supplanted them. Neglect--desolation is engraven on all
around, and even the little wicket, as it swings slowly to and fro,
seems to say, "All gone! go-ne!" The wind, how meaningly it steals
through the deserted rooms, as though breathing a funereal dirge over
the departed! How "eloquent of wo" is that sound! Now swelling forth,
as it were, in wild and uncontrollable grief, and now sinking
exhaustedly into a low and touching mournfulness which seems almost
human! But to our tale.
One bright morning, now many years ago, a lady clothed in garb of
mourning, accompanied by a little bright-eyed girl of perhaps some
nine summers, and her old nurse, alighted at the village inn. Now this
seemingly trivial circumstance was in reality quite an event in our
quiet community, and considerably disturbed the good people thereof
from the "even tenor of their way." Indeed, there were many more
curious eyes bent upon the new-comers than they seemed to be at all
aware of, if one might judge from the cold and calm features of the
lady, or the assiduous care which her companion was bestowing upon one
particular bandbox, which the gruff driver of the stage-coach was, to
be sure, handling rather irreverently, actually seeming to enjoy the
ill-concealed anxiety of the poor old woman for the safety of her
goods and chattels, while the child followed close beside her mamma,
her sparkling eyes glancing hither and thither with that eager love of
novelty so natural to the young. At length, however, the trunks,
boxes, packages, &c., &c., all were duly deposited, and duly
inspected also, by the several pairs of eyes which were peering
through the narrowest imaginable strips of glass at neighboring
window-curtains or half-closed shutters. The driver once more mounted
his box, cracked his whip, and the lumbering coach rattled rapidly
away, while the travelers, obeyed the call of the smiling and
curtseying landlady, and disappeared within the open door of the inn.
Oh, what whisperings and surmisings were afloat throughout our village
during the succeeding week! "Who _can_ this stranger-lady be? From
whence has she come, and how long intend remaining here?" seemed to be
the all-important queries of the day; and so gravely were they
discussed, each varying supposition advanced or withdrawn as best
suited the charity or credulity of the respective interrogators, that
one would certainly have thought them questions of vital importance to
their own immediate interests. Strange to say, however, with all this
unwonted zeal and perseverance, at the end of the nine days, (the
legitimate time for wonderment,) all that the very wisest of the group
of gossips could bring forward as the fruits of her patient and
untiring investigation, was the simple fact that the lady's name was
Layton--the nurse's Jeffries--and that the child, who soon became the
pet of the whole household, was always addressed by the servants at
the inn as "Miss Fanny," and, moreover, that Mrs. L. was certainly in
mourning for her husband, as she had been seen one morning by the
chambermaid weeping over the miniature of a "very fine-looking man,
dressed in uniform," and had, in all probability, come to take up her
residence in our quiet Aberdeen, as she had been heard inquiring about
the small cottage beneath the hill, (the self-same, dear reader, the
neglect and desertion of which were but now lamented.)
Truth to tell, it _was_ shrewdly surmised that the landlady at the
"Golden Eagle" had gleaned more particular information than this,
although whenever she was questioned concerning the matter, she did
only reply by a very grave shake of the head, each vibration of which
(particularly when accompanied by a pursing of the mouth, and a
mysterious looking round) more and more convinced her simple-minded
auditors (i.e. some of them, for it is not to be denied that there
were a few incredulous ones who, either from former experiences, or
natural sagacity, or some cause unknown, hesitated not to declare it
to be their fixed and unalterable opinion that these seeming
indications of superior knowledge on the part of good Mrs. Gordon,
were but "a deceitful show," "for their '_delusion_' given,") that
she, Mrs. G., had been entrusted either by Mistress Jeffries, the
nurse, or perhaps by the lady herself, with a weighty and important
secret, which it would be very dreadful, indeed, to disclose. And yet,
when such a possibility was vaguely hinted to her, she did not, (as
one would be disposed to do who was really striving to deceive the
eager questioners around her, by giving them an erroneous impression
as to the amount of her knowledge on the subject,) seize the idea with
avidity, and seem manifestly anxious to encourage such a supposition.
On the contrary, it was evidently deeply distressing to her that any
one should cherish such a thought for a moment; and she begged them so
earnestly, almost with tears in her eyes, not to mention it again, and
said so much about it, reverting to the theme invariably when the
conversation chanced to turn upon some other topic, as though it quite
weighed upon her mind, that at length her companions inwardly wondered
what had given rise to the belief in their minds, and yet, as one old
lady said, looking sagaciously over her spectacles, "that belief waxed
stronger and stronger."
Time passed on--days merged themselves into weeks, and weeks to
months, and the harmony and quietude of Aberdeen was fully restored.
The "Widow Layton," (for thus, from that time, was she invariably
styled,) after all due preliminaries, had taken quiet possession of
the little vine-clad cot; and although she was not as "neighborly" as
she might have been, and never communicative as to her previous
history, still might the feeling of pique with which they at first
received such a rebuff to their curiosity, have been a very evanescent
one in the minds of the villagers, had it not chanced that Aberdeen
was blessed (?) with two prim sister-spinsters, (was it they or Aunt
Nora, who formed the exception to the general rule? I leave it for
thee, dear reader, to decide, since with that early-instilled
reverence before mentioned, I cannot consider my humble opinion
infallible,) whose hearts, according to their _own_ impression on the
subject, quite overflowed with charity and benevolence, which
manifested itself in the somewhat singular method of making every one
around them uncomfortable, and in the happy faculty which they
possessed in an eminent degree, of imparting injurious doubts and
covert insinuations as to the manners and habits of their neighbors,
who else might have journeyed peacefully adown the vale of life in
perfect good faith with all the world; moreover, they hated a mystery,
did these two sister-spinsters, from their own innate frankness and
openness of disposition, they said, and considered themselves so much
in duty bound to ferret out the solution of any thing which bore the
semblance to an enigma, that they gave themselves no rest, poor,
self-sacrificing creatures, until they had obtained their object. And
well were they rewarded for this indefatigable zeal, for they had the
satisfaction of knowing that they had found out more family secrets,
destroyed more once-thought happy marriages, and embittered more
hearts than any two persons in all the country round.
They lived in the heart of our village, (and never did that heart
quicken with one pulsation of excitement or surprise, or joy or
sorrow, but they were the first to search into the why and wherefore,)
in a large two story house, isolated from the rest, which seemed to
emulate its occupants in stiffness and rigidity, and whose glassy eyes
looked out as coldly upon the beauteous face of nature, as they from
their own stern "windows of the soul," upon the human face divine.
There was no comfort, no home-look about the place; even the flowers
seemed not to grow by their own sweet will, but came up as they were
bidden, tall and straight, and stiff. And the glorious rays of the sun
glanced off from the dazzling whiteness of the forbidding mansion, as
though they had met with a sudden rebuff, and had failed to penetrate
an atmosphere where every thing seemed to possess an antipathy to the
bright and the joyous. It was strange to see what a chilliness
pervaded the spot. The interior of the house (which I once saw when a
child; and, oh! I never _can_ forget the long, long-drawn sigh that
escaped my lips as I once more found myself without the precincts of a
place where my buoyant spirits seemed suddenly frozen beneath the
glance of those two spinsters, where even the large, lean cat paced
the floor with such a prim, stately step, now and then pausing to fix
her cold, gray eyes upon my face, as though to question the cause of
my intrusion, and also to intimate that she had no sort of sympathy
with either my feelings, or those of children in general.) Every thing
bore the same immovable look--the narrow, high-backed chairs seemed as
if they had grown out of the floor, and were destined to remain as
stationary as the oaks of the forest; the "primeval carpet," over
which the Misses Nancy and Jerusha Simpkins walked as though mentally
enumerating the lines that crossed each other in such exact squares,
never was littered by a single shred; and the high, old-fashioned
clock still maintained its position in the corner from year to year,
seeming to take a sort of malicious satisfaction in calmly ticking the
hours away which bore the Misses Simpkins nearer and nearer to that
_certain_ age (which they, if truth must be told, were in nowise
desirous to reach) when all further endeavors to conceal the
foot-marks of stern old Father Time would be of no avail.
It was at the close of a chilly evening late in autumn--old Boreas was
abroad, and had succeeded, it would seem, in working himself into an
ungovernable fit of rage, for he went about screaming most
boisterously, now hurrying the poor bewildered leaves along,
maliciously causing them to perform very undignified antics for their
_time of life_, while they, poor old withered things, thus suddenly
torn from the protecting arms of their parental tree, flew by, like
frightened children, vainly striving to gain some place of shelter.
Alas! alas! no rest was there for them. What infinite delight their
inveterate persecutor seemed to take in whirling them round and round,
dodging about, and seeking them in the most unheard-of places, where
they lay panting from very fright and fatigue. And then off he would
start again, shaking the window-sashes as he passed, with wild, though
impatient fury, remorselessly tearing down the large gilt signs which
had from time immemorial rejoiced in the respective and respectable
names of several worthies of our village, and then speeding away to
the homes of said worthies, to proclaim the audacious deed through the
key-hole, in the most impudent and incomprehensible manner possible.
It was on such an evening as this, a few months after the arrival of
the Laytons at Aberdeen, that the Misses Simpkins sat in their
cheerless back-room, hovering over a small fire, busily plying their
noisy knitting-needles, and meantime indulging in their usual dish of
scandal, which, however, it is but justice to say, was not quite so
highly seasoned with the spice of envy and malice as was its wont.
Whether it was that the memory of a bright and beaming little face
that had intruded upon their solitude during the afternoon, had half
succeeded in awakening the slumbering better nature which had slept so
long, it was somewhat doubted if any effort could resuscitate it
again; whether it was that the lingering echo of a certain sweet,
childish voice that had beguiled the weary hours of their dullness and
monotony, and with its innocent prattle, had, in some degree, forced
an opening through the firm frost-work which had been gradually
gathering for years round their hearts, I cannot tell; but true it is
that as the sister spinsters sat there, with the faint and feeble
flame struggling up from the small fire, and the light from the one
tall candle flickering and growing unsteady as it flashed upon the two
thin, sharp faces close beside it, while the antique furniture looked
more grotesque and grim than ever in the deep shadow, and the
never-wearying clock still ticked calmly on, regardless alike of the
contending elements without and the wordy warfare within; true it is
that the conversation between the sisters was divested of one half its
wonted acrimony.
"To be sure," said Miss Simpkins the younger, at length, after a
pause, in which the half-awakened better nature seemed strongly
disposed to resume its slumbers again, "little civility has the Widow
Layton to expect from any body with her distant bows and uppish airs,
when one ventures to express an interest in her; and if I hadn't a
very forgiving disposition, oh! Jerusha! Jerusha! I don't think I'd
trouble myself to call upon her again. But I feel it to be my duty to
advise her to put little Fanny to school, for she's a good child and
winsome-like, and running at large so will just be the spoiling of
her."
"Well, Jerusha," responded Miss Nancy, who had, perhaps, a little
leaven more than her sister, of tartness in her disposition, and on
whose face an habitual expression of acidity was rapidly increasing,
"you know very well that the widow considers herself a little above
every body else in Aberdeen, and you might as well talk to a stone
wall as to her about sending the child to school. Why haven't I done
my best at talking to her? Haven't I told her of Miss Birch's school,
where the children don't so much as turn round without their teacher's
leave, and where you might hear a pin drop at any time. Haven't I told
her that she might easily save a good deal in the year, by renting one
half of that snug little cottage--and what thanks did I get? A reply
as haughty as if she were the greatest lady in the land, instead of
being, as she is, a nameless, homeless stranger, who cannot be 'any
better than she should be,' or she would never make such a mighty
mystery about her past life, that she 'trusted Miss Simpkins would
allow her to be the best judge as to the proper method of educating
her child, and also as to the means of retrenching her own expenses if
she found it needful.'"
Unkind, unjust, unfeeling Nancy Simpkins! and has not that settled,
ever-present sorrow upon those pale features; have not those
grief-traced lines around the compressed mouth, and across the once
smooth and polished brow; has not the sad garb of the mourner, which
speaks of the lone vigil, the weary watching, the hope deferred, or it
may be the sudden stroke of the dread tyrant Death, no appeal to thy
frozen sympathies? Canst thou suffer thy better nature to resume its
deep and trance-like sleep again, and rob that poor widowed mother of
her only hope on earth, that bright, glad creature, who carries
sunshine to her otherwise desolate home, but to pinion her free and
fetterless spirit beneath the iron rule and despotic sway of the
village task-mistress?
We will leave the Misses Simpkins, and thou pleasest, reader mine, to
the enjoyment of their envy-tinctured converse, and turn the page of
Mrs. Layton's life.
An only child of wealthy parents, petted, caressed and idolized, she
had sprung into womanhood, with every wish anticipated, every desire
gratified ere half expressed, if within the reach of human
possibility, what wonder, then, that she grew wayward and willful, and
at length rashly dashed the cup of happiness of which she had drank so
freely in her sunny youth from her lip, by disobeying her too fond and
doating parents, in committing her life's destiny to the keeping of
one who they, with the anxious foresight of love, too well knew would
not hold the precious trust as sacred. Brave and handsome and gifted
he might be, but the seeds of selfishness had been too surely sown
within his heart; and he had won the idol of a worshiping crowd, more,
perchance, from a feeling of exultation and pride in being able to
bear away the prize from so many eager aspirants, than any deep-rooted
affection he felt for the fair object of his solicitude. The novelty
and the charm soon wore away, and then his beautiful bride was
neglected for his former dissolute associates. He afterward entered
the navy, and somewhat more than ten years after they were wedded,
fell in a duel provoked by his own rash, temper. From the moment that
Mrs. Layton recovered from the trance-like swoon which followed the
first sight of her husband's bleeding corpse, she seemed utterly,
entirely changed. She had truly loved him, he who lay before her now,
a victim of his own rash and selfish folly, and with all a woman's
earnest devotion would have followed him to the remotest extremes of
earth; but her feelings had been too long trampled upon, her heart too
bruised and crushed ever to be upraised again. She had leaned upon a
broken reed, and had awakened to find herself widowed, broken-hearted.
And she arose, that desolate and bereaved one, and folding her child
closer to her breast, went forth into the cold world
friendless--alone! Once would her grief have been loud and passionate
and wild, but she had passed through a weary probation, and had
learned "to suffer and be still." How, in that dark hour, did her
lost mother's prayer-breathed words, her father's earnest entreaties
come back to smite heavily upon her sorrow-stricken spirit--but
remorse and repentance were now all too late. And yet not too late,
she murmured inly, for had she not a duty to perform toward the little
being, her only, and, oh! how heaven-hallowed, tie to earth, consigned
to her guardianship and care. Did she not firmly resolve never by
ill-judged and injudicious fondness to mark out a pathway filled with
thorns for her darling. It may be that that widowed mother erred even
in excess of zeal, for she would resist the natural promptings of her
heart, and check the gushing affection which welled from the deepest,
purest fountain in the human heart, lest its expression might prove
injurious to the loved one in after years. And thus there grew a
restraint and a seeming coldness on the part of the mother, a constant
craving for love, which was never satisfied, and a feeling of fear on
the child's, which shut them out from that pure trust and confidence,
which are such bright links in the chain that binds a mother to her
child.
* * * * *
This, then, was the Widow Layton who with her little one and nurse had
sought our village, immediately after the decease of her husband, as a
peaceful asylum from the noise and tumult of a world where, in happier
days, she had played so conspicuous a part. It was not so much that
she sedulously avoided all mention of her past history to the eager
questioners around her, from a disinclination that it should be known,
as that she little understood the character of the villagers
themselves--ofttimes mistaking a really well-meant interest in her
welfare for an idle and impertinent curiosity. Mrs. Layton had been
highly born and nurtured, and there seemed to her delicate mind a
something rude and unfeeling in the manner with which her too
officious friends and neighbors would touch upon the sources of grief
which were to her so sacred. And therefore, perhaps unwisely, she held
herself aloof from them, replying to their different queries with that
calm and easy dignity which effectually precluded all approach to
familiarity, and engendered a dislike in the minds of those who were
little accustomed to meet one who could not enter into all their
feelings, plans and projects--which dislike was constantly kept alive
and fostered by the united exertions of the two sister spinsters. Good
Mrs. Jeffries, too, the fond old nurse who had never left her beloved
mistress through all her varying fortunes, was all too faithful and
true to reveal aught that that kind mistress might wish untold; and
thus it was that the curiosity of the good people of Aberdeen was kept
continually in check, and about the unsuspecting inmates of Woodbine
Cottage was thrown a mystery that was becoming constantly augmented by
their incomprehensible silence on the subject.
* * * * *
Weeks--months--years sped swiftly away, and the widow, by her free and
unostentatious charities and her angel-ministering to the poor, the
afflicted and the bereaved, had almost eradicated the first
unpleasing impression made upon the simple-hearted people of
Aberdeen; so that, although the Misses Simpkins still held their
nightly confabulations, they did not venture as at first, so openly to
propagate their animadversions concerning the "mysterious stranger,"
but on the contrary, always made it a point to preface any sudden and
amiable suggestion that presented itself to their minds with "not that
I would say any thing against her, but it does seem a little
singular," &c. But of Miss Fanny--sweet, witching Fanny Layton! who
had grown in beauty and grace day by day, not one word did they dare
to speak in her dispraise! For was there one in all Aberdeen who would
not have resented the slightest intimation of disrespect to our lily
of the valley--whose joy-inspiring and sorrow-banishing presence was
welcomed delightedly by young and old, both far and near? And oh! was
there ever music like her sweet, ringing laugh, or melody like the
low-toned voice which was always eloquent of joyousness. Whether she
sat in the humble cottage, lending kind and ready assistance to the
care-worn matron, by playfully imprisoning the little hands of the
children within her own petite palms, while she recounted to them some
wonderful tale, her brilliant fancy, meantime, never soaring above
their childish comprehension, although she was regarded by her little
auditors as nothing less than a bright fairy herself, who was thus
familiar with all that witching tribe, and who could with her own
magic wand thus open to them stores of such strange and delightful
things as was never before dreamed of in their youthful
philosophy--while their patient, painstaking mother would now and then
glance up from her never-ending task, with a smile of such beaming
pleasure and gratitude as amply repaid the gentle being, who seemed in
her loveful employ to be the presiding angel of that humble
dwelling-place. Whether she would "happen-in" of a long, warm summer
afternoon to take a cup of tea with a neighboring farmer's wife--an
honor that never failed to throw that worthy woman into a perfect
fever of anxiety and delight--who would proffer a thousand and one
apologies for the deficiencies that only existed in her own perverse
imagination, if, indeed, they existed even there, for her bright eyes
were contradicting a pair of rosy lips all the while, as they glanced
with a lurking--yet I am sure laudable--pride, from the "new chany
sett" (which was wont on great occasions to be brought forward) to the
rich treasures of her well-kept dairy, that her busy feet had been
going pat-a-pat from cupboard to cellar, and cellar to cupboard, for a
whole hour previous collecting, to place in all their tempting
freshness before her beloved guest. Or whether she came with her
simple offering of fresh flowers--her word of sympathy and comfort--or
some choice dainty, that seemed "_so_ nice" to the sick and suffering,
who had turned away with loathing from every thing before, but who
could not fail to find _this_ delicious, for was it not made and
brought by the hands of dear Miss Fanny's self? Still did her presence
seem to make sunlight wherever she went!
Fanny was a young lady now--although you would scarce believe it, for
she was a very child at heart, with all a child's unworldliness,
unsuspecting confidence, and winning innocence. And yet there was
deep, deep down in that loveful, earnest heart, that Joy and all Joy's
sister spirits seemed to have taken captive, a fount whose seal had
never been found.
Oh, Fanny, dear, darling Fanny Layton! wo, wo for thee the day when
first that hidden seal was broken! When Hope and Doubt and Fear by
turns played sentinel to the hidden treasure, the door to which, when
once flung back, never can be reclosed again! When joy and gladness
but tarried a little while to dispute their prior right to revel
undisturbed in that buoyant heart of thine, and then went tearfully
forth, leaving for aye a dreary void, and a deep, dark shadow, where
all had been but brightness and beauty before! Oh, why must the
night-time of sorrow come to thee, thou gentle and pure-hearted one?
Thou for whom such fervent and fond prayers have ascended, as should,
methinks, have warded off from, thee each poisoned shaft, and proved
an amulet to guard thee from all life's ills! Thy sixteenth summer,
was it not a very, very happy one to thee, sweet Fanny Layton? But
happiness, alas! in this cold world of ours, is never an unfading
flower; and although so coveted and so sought, still will droop in the
eager hands which grasped it, and die while yet the longing eyes are
watching its frail brightness with dim and shadowful foreboding!
Just on the outskirts of our village there slept a silent, secluded
little nook, which the thickly-growing trees quite enclosed, only
permitting the bright sun to glance glimmeringly through their
interwoven leaves and look upon the blue-eyed violets that held their
mute confabulations--each and all perking up their pretty heads to
receive the diurnal kiss of their god-father Sol--in little lowly
knots at their feet. Kind reader, I am sure I cannot make you know how
very lovely it was, unless you yourself have peeped into this
sheltered spot--seen the cool, dark shadows stretching across the
velvet turf, and making the bright patches of sunlight look brighter
still--have stood by the murmuring brook on which the sun-bright
leaves overhead are mirrored tremulously, and upon whose brink there
grows so many a lovely "denizen of the wild"--gazed admiringly upon
the beautiful white rose Dame Nature hath set in the heart of this
hidden sanctuary, as a seal of purity and innocence--and more than
this, have turned from all these to watch the fairy form flitting from
flower to flower, with so light a step that one might mistake it for
some bright fay sent on a love-mission to this actual world of
ours--if one did not know that this was Fanny Layton's dream-dell--that
in this lovely spot she would spend hours during the long, warm summer
days, poring over the pages of some favorite author, or twining the
sweet wild flowers in fragrant wreaths to bedeck her invalid mother's
room--or, perchance, staying for awhile those busy fingers, to indulge
in those dreamy, delicious reveries with which the scene and hour so
harmonized.
One day--and that day was an era in poor Fanny's life which was never
afterward to be forgotten--our lovely heroine might have been seen
tripping lightly over the smooth sward, the green trees rustling
musically in the summer breeze, and Nature's myriad tones "concerting
harmonies" on hill and dale. And one needed but to see the smiling
lip, and those clear, laughter-loving eyes peeping from beneath just
the richest and brightest golden curls in the world, to know what a
joyous heart was beating to that fairy-light and bounding step. Wonder
none could be, that many an eye brightened as she passed, and many a
kindly wish--that was never the less trustful and sincere for that it
was couched in homely phrase--sped her on her way. Dream-dell was
reached at length--the flowering shrubs which formed the rural
gate-way parted, and Fanny threw herself on the waving grass, with a
careless grace which not all the fashionable female attitudinizers in
the world could have imitated, so full of unstudied ease and
naturalness it was--with her small cottage bonnet thrown off that
wealth of clustering curls which were lifted by the soft summer wind,
and fell shadowingly over the brightest and most beaming little face
upon which ever fond lover gazed admiringly--with eyes which seemed to
have caught their deep and dewy blue from the violets she clasped in
one small hand, and on which they were bent with a silent glance of
admiration--for Fanny was a dear lover of wild-wood flowers, as who is
not who bears a heart untouched by the sullying stains of earth? One
tiny foot had escaped from the folds of her simple muslin dress, and
lay half-buried in the green turf--a wee, wee foot it was, so small,
indeed, that it seemed just the easiest thing possible to encase it
within the lost slipper of Cinderella, if said slipper could but have
been produced; at least so said a pair of eyes, as plainly as pair of
eyes _could_ say it, which peering from behind a leafy screen, were
now upon it fixed in most eager intensity, and now wandered to the
face of the fair owner thereof, who was still bent over the flowers in
the small hand, as if seeking some hidden spell in their many-colored
leaves.
That pair of eyes were the appurtenances belonging to a face that
might have proved no uninteresting study to the physiognomist, albeit
it would have puzzled one not a little, methinks, to have formed a
satisfactory conclusion therefrom, so full of contradictions did it
seem. A mass of waving hair fell around a brow high and
well-developed, though somewhat darkly tinged by the warmth, mayhap,
of a southern sun, and the eyes were large and lustrous, yet there was
a something unfathomable in their depths, which made one doubt if they
were truly the index of the soul, and might not be made to assume
whatever expression the mind within willed. At present, however, they
were filled only with deep admiration mingled with surprise, while
around the mouth, which, in repose, wore a slightly scornful curve,
there played a frank and winning smile, as, advancing with a quiet
courtesy that at once bespoke him a man of the world, despite slouched
hat and hunting-frock, the intruder upon our heroine's solitude
exclaimed, with half-earnest, half-jesting gallantry, "Prithee, fair
woodland nymph, suffer a lone knight, who has wandered to the confines
of a Paradise unawares, to bow the knee in thy service, and as
atonement meet for venturing unbidden into thy hidden sanctum, to
proffer thee the homage of his loyal heart!"
Fanny was but a simple country maiden, all unskilled in the light and
graceful nothings which form the substance of worldly converse, and so
the warm, rich crimson crept into her cheek,
"The color which his gaze had thrown
Upon a cheek else pale and fair,
As lilies in the summer air."
and the wee foot forthwith commenced beating a tatoo upon the heads of
the unoffending flowers around, who breathed forth their perfumed
sighs in mute reproachfulness; but she was still a woman, and so with
all a woman's ready tact she replied, though with the flush deepening
on her cheek, and a scarce-perceptible tremor in her voice,
"Indeed, sir stranger, since thou hast given me such unwonted power, I
must first use my sceptre of command in banishing all intruders into
my august presence, and invaders of this 'hidden sanctum,' which is
held sacred to mine own idle feet alone!"
And there was a merry look of mischievous meaning stealing in and out
of those bright eyes as they were for a moment uplifted to the face of
the stranger, and then again were shadowed by the drooping lid.
Whether it was that said "intruder" detected a something in the tone
or the demure glance of the fair girl which contradicted the words she
spoke, or whether that very glance transfixed him to the spot, history
telleth not, but stay he did; and if his tarrying was very _heart_ily
objected to by his companion, if the words which fell from his lip in
utterance how musical, for the space of two fastly-fleeting hours,
were not pleasing to the ear of the maiden, then, indeed, did that
soft, bright glow which mantled her fair cheek, and the rosy lip,
half-parted and eloquent of interest, sadly belie the beating heart
within, as the twain walked lingeringly homeward, the dark shadows
lengthening on the green grass, and the setting sun flinging a flood
of golden-tinted light upon the myriad leaves which were trembling to
the love-voice of the soft summer breeze.
Softly was the latch of the wicket lifted, and light was the maiden's
step upon the stair, as she sought her own little chamber. Was she
gazing forth from the open window to admire the brilliancy of that
gorgeous sunset? Was it to drink in the beauty and brightness of that
sweet summer eve, or to feel the soft breeze freshly fanning her
flushed cheek? Nay, none of these. See how earnestly her gaze is bent
upon the retreating form of the stranger; and now that he is lost to
view, behold her sitting with head resting on one little hand, quite
lost in a reverie that is not like those of Dream-dell memory, for now
there comes a tangible shape in place of those ideal ones, and the
echo of a manly voice, breathing devotion and deference in every tone,
still is lingering in her enchained ear. For the first time she
forgets to carry her offering of fresh flowers to her mother's room.
Ah! her busy fingers have been strewing the bright leaves around
unconsciously, and she blushingly gathers the few remaining ones, and,
with a pang of self-reproach, hastens to her mother's side.
It is with a sigh of relief that Fanny beholds her invalid parent
sleeping sweetly--a relief that was augmented by the question which
burst suddenly upon her mind, "Can I tell her that I have had a
stranger-companion in my wanderings?" Wonder not at the query, gentle
reader, for remember that the life of our sweet Fanny had not been
blessed with that loving confidence which is the tenderest tie in the
relation of mother and child. Her love was ever intermingled with too
much fear and restraint from earliest youth, for that interchange of
counsel and trust which might have been a sure safeguard against many
of earth's ills. And it was perhaps that very yearning to fill the
only void left in her happy heart which prompted her to give the helm
of her barque of life, so soon and so confidingly into the hands of a
stranger.
Day succeeded day, and still the lovers, for they were lovers now,
were found at their sweet trysting spot, seeking every pretext for
frequent meetings, as lovers will, until many were the heads in
Aberdeen which were shaken in wise prognostication; and the Misses
Simpkins, to their unspeakable relief, had found a new theme whereon
to exercise their powers conversational, while the children of the
village mourned the absence of their kind "Fairy," and wished with all
their little hearts that Miss Fanny would send away that "naughty man"
who kept her from their homes.
Poor Fanny! the hidden seal had been touched at length, and on the
deep waters beneath was shining Love's own meteor-light--a light that
was reflected on every thing around.
"It was as her heart's full happiness
Poured over _all_ its own excess."
How swiftly the days flew by, "like winged birds, as lightly and as
free." And, oh! how priceless, peerless was the gift she was yielding
to the stranger in such child-like confidence and trust. There was so
much up-looking in her love for him; it seemed so sweet to recognize
the thoughts which had lain dormant in her own soul, for want of
fitting expression, flowing from his lip clothed in such a
beauty-breathing garmenture. And now Fanny Layton was a child no
longer. She had crossed the threshold, and the "spirit of unrest" had
descended upon her, albeit as yet she knew it not. Her heart seemed so
full of sunshine, that when she ventured to peep into its depths, she
was dazzled by that flood of radiance--and how could she descry the
still shadow. Alas! that on this earth of ours with the sunlight ever
comes the shadows, too, which was sleeping there, but to widen and
grow deeper and darker when love's waters should cease to gush and
sparkle as at the first opening of that sweet fount.
But the day of parting came at length--how it had been dwelt upon with
intermingling vows, promises, caresses on his part, with trust, and
tenderness, and tears on hers! A sad, sad day it was for Fanny
Layton, the first she had ever known that was ever heralded by
sorrow's messenger. How she strove to dwell upon Edward Morton's
words, "It will not be for long;" and banish from her heart those
nameless, undefinable fears which _would_ not away at her bidding. The
sky looked no longer blue--the green earth no longer glad; and traces
of tears, the bitterest she had ever shed, were on that poor girl's
cheek, as she went forth to meet her beloved, for the last time.
It matters not to say how each familiar haunt was visited that day;
how each love-hallowed spot bore witness to those low murmured words
which are earth's dearest music; how time wore on, as time will,
whether it bears on its resistless tide a freightage of joys or
sorrows, pleasures, or pains, until at length the last word had been
said, the last silent embrace taken; and now poor Fanny Layton stood
alone, gazing through blinding tears upon the solitary horseman who
rode swiftly away, as if another glance at the fair creature who stood
with straining gaze and pallid cheek and drooping form, would all
unman him. Was it this, or was it that in that hour he felt his own
unworthiness of the sacred trust reposed in him?
We will believe, dear reader, that whatever after influences may have
exercised dominion over his heart; however he may have been swerved
from his plighted faith by dreams of worldly ambition, or wealth, or
power; however cold policy may have up-rooted all finer feeling from
his soul, we will believe that no thoughts of treachery, no meditated
falsehood mingled with that parting embrace and blessing; that
although he had bowed at many a shrine before, and therefore could not
feel all the depth and purity of the unworldly affection which he had
won, still he did not, could not believe it possible that that
priceless love would be bartered for pomp and station, he did mean,
when he placed the white rose, plucked from the heart of Dream-dell,
in the little trembling hand which rested on his shoulder, and
murmured "Fanny, darling, ere this bud hath scarce withered, I shall
be with you again," that it should be even as he said. Alas! alas! for
the frailty of human nature!
That night poor Fanny pressed the precious rose to her quivering lip,
and sobbed herself, like a child, to sleep.
The next day wore away--the next--the next--still no tidings from the
absent one; and he had promised to write as soon as he arrived "in
town!" What could it mean?
Oh, that weary watching! The hours moved, oh, so leaden-paced and
slow! Every day the poor girl waited for the coming of the post-man;
and every day, with a pang at her heart, and tear-dimmed eyes, she saw
him pass the door. "Edward has been detained; he will come yet, I'm
sure," a fond inner voice whispered; "perhaps he has sent no letter,
because he'll be here himself so soon!" Poor Fanny! another week, and
still no letter, no tidings. "Oh! he must be ill!" she whispered,
anxiously, but never thought him false. Oh, no! she was too
single-hearted, too relying in her trust fora doubt so dreadful; but
her step grew heavier day by day--her cheek so very, very pale,
except at the post-man's hour, when it would burn with a feverish
brightness, and then fade to its former pallid hue again; her sweet
voice was heard no longer trilling forth those thrilling melodies
which had gladdened the heart of young and old to hear. The visits to
Dream-dell were less and less frequent, for now how each remembrance
so fondly connected with that spot, came fraught with pain; the works
of her favorite author's lay opened, but unread, upon her knee; and
the fastly-falling tears half-blotted out the impassioned words she
had once read with _him_ with so happy a heart-thrill.
The widow saw with anxiety and alarm this sudden change; but she was
an invalid--and the poor suffering one strove to hide her sickness of
the heart, and mother though she was, Mrs. Layton discovered not the
canker-worm which was nipping her bud of promise, but would whisper,
"You confine yourself too much to my room, my child, and must go out
into the bright sunshine, so that the smile may come back to your lip,
the roses to your cheek."
One day, now three months after Edward Morton's departure, Miss
Jerusha Simpkins was seen threading her way to Woodbine Cottage. She
held a newspaper carefully folded in her hand, and on her pinched and
withered face a mingled expression of caution and importance was
struggling.
Lifting the latch of the embowered door, the spinster walked into the
small parlor, where Fanny Layton was engaged in feeding her pet
canaries; poor things! they were looking strangely at the wan face
beside the cage, as if they wondered if it could be the same which
used to come with wild warblings as sweet and untutored as their own.
Fanny turned to welcome the intruder, but recognized Miss Simpkins
with a half-drawn sigh, and a shrinking of the heart, for she was ever
so minute in her inquiries for that "runaway Mr. Morton."
"A beautiful day, Miss Fanny," commenced the spinster, looking sharply
around, (she always made a point of doing two things i.e. entering the
houses of her neighbors without knocking, and then taking in at a
glance not only every thing the room contained, but the occupation,
dress, &c. of the inmates for after comment,) and then throwing back
her bonnet, and commencing to fan herself vigorously with the folded
paper, "I thought I must run round to-day and see how your mother did,
and bring her to-day's paper. I happened to be standing by the window
when the penny-post came by, and Nancy says to me, 'Jerusha,' says
she, 'do run to the door and get the Times--I haven't seen it for an
age,' for we aint no great readers at our house; so I steps to the
door and gets one from neighbor Wilkins--he is a very pleasant-spoken
man, and often drops in of a morning to have a chat with me and Nancy.
Well, what should I see the first thing (for I always turn to the
marriages and deaths) but Mr. Edward Morton's marriage to the elegant
and rich Miss--Miss--dear me! I've forgot the name now--do you see if
you can make it out," handing her the paper; "but, bless me! what is
the matter, Miss Fanny? I don't wonder you're surprised; Nancy and me
was--for we did think at one time that he had an attachment to
Aberdeen; but, la! one can't put any dependence on these wild-flys!"
The last part of the cruel sentence was wholly lost upon poor Fanny,
who sat with fixed and stony gaze upon the dreadful announcement,
while it seemed as if her heart-strings were breaking one by one. In
vain Miss Simpkins, thoroughly alarmed at length, strove to rouse her
from this stupor of grief. In vain did her dear old nurse, who ran in
affrighted at the loud ejaculations of the terrified but unfeeling
creature who had dealt the blow, use every epithet of endearment, and
strive to win one look from the poor sufferer, into whose inmost soul
the iron had entered, upon whose heart a weight had fallen, that could
never, never be uplifted again on earth. Every effort alike was
useless; and for days she sat in one spot low murmuring a plaintive
strain, rocking to and fro, with the white rose, _his_ parting gift,
tightly clasped in her pale fingers, or gazing fixedly and vacantly
upon the birds who sang still, unconsciously above her head. After a
time she became more docile, and would retire to rest at night, at the
earnest entreaties of her poor old nurse--but reason's light, from
that fearful moment, was darkened evermore. She would suffer herself
to be led out into the open air, and soon grew fond again of being
with her old playmates, the children; but her words were
unintelligible now to them, and she would often throw down the wreath
she was twining, and starting up, would exclaim, in a tone that
thrilled to one's very heart, "Oh, has he come? Are you sure he has
not come yet--_my rose_ is almost _withered_?"
Poor, poor Fanny Layton! She would go to church regularly--it was
there, dear reader, that her faded face had brought to me such
bewildered rememberings of the Fanny Layton of other years--and always
dressed in the same mock-bridal attire. And there was not an eye in
that village-church but glistened as it rested upon the poor, weary,
stricken one, in her mournful spirit-darkness, and no lip but murmured
brokenly, "Heaven bless her!"
This was the last drop in the cup of the bereaved desolate widow. She
soon found that rest and peace "which the world cannot give or take
away." She sleeps her last, long, dreamless sleep.
It was not long ere another mound was raised in the humble
church-yard, on which was ever blooming the sweetest and freshest
flowers of summer, watered by the tears of many who yet weep and
lament the early perishing of that fairest flower of all. And a marble
slab, on which is simply graven a dove, with an arrow driven to its
very heart, marks the last earthly resting-place of our Lily of the
Valley.
THE SPANISH PRINCESS TO THE MOORISH KNIGHT.
BY GRACE GREENWOOD.
Thou darest not love me!--thou canst only see
The great gulf set between us--had'st thou _love_
'Twould bear thee o'er it on a wing of fire!
Wilt put from thy faint lip the mantling cup,
The draught thou'st prayed for with divinest thirst,
For fear a poison in the chalice lurks?
Wilt thou be barred from thy soul's heritage,
The power, the rapture, and the crown of life,
By the poor guard of danger set about it?
I tell thee that the richest flowers of heaven
Bloom on the brink of darkness. Thou hast marked
How sweetly o'er the beetling precipice
Hangs the young June-rose with its crimson heart--
And would'st not sooner peril life to win
That royal flower, that thou might'st proudly wear
The trophy on thy breast, than idly pluck
A thousand meek-faced daisies by the way?
How dost thou shudder at Love's gentle tones,
As though a serpent's hiss were in thine ear.
Albeit thy heart throbs echo to each word.
Why wilt not rest, oh weary wanderer,
Upon the couch of flowers Love spreads for thee,
On banks of sunshine?--voices silver-toned
Shall lull thy soul with strange, wild harmonies,
Rock thee to sleep upon the waves of song.
Hope shall watch o'er thee with her breath of dreams.
Joy hover near, impatient for thy waking,
Her quick wing glancing through the fragrant air.
Why dost thou pause hard by the rose-wreathed gate,
Why turn thee from the paradise of youth,
Where Love's immortal summer blooms and glows,
And wrap thyself in coldness as a shroud?
Perchance 'tis well for _thee_--yet does the flame
That glows with heat intense and mounts toward heaven.
As fitly emblem holiest purity,
As the still snow-wreath on the mountain's brow.
Thou darest not say I love, and yet thou _lovest_,
And think'st to crush the mighty yearning down,
That in thy spirit shall upspring forever!
Twinned with thy soul, it lived in thy first thoughts--
It haunted with strange dreams thy boyish years,
And colored with its deep, empurpled hue,
The passionate aspirations of thy youth.
Go, take from June her roses--from her streams
The bubbling fountain-springs--from life, take _love_,
Thou hast its all of sweetness, bloom and strength.
There is a grandeur in the soul that dares
To live out all the life God lit within;
That battles with the passions hand to hand,
And wears no mail, and hides behind no shield!
That plucks its joy in the shadow of death's wing--
That drains with one deep draught the wine of life,
And that with fearless foot and heaven-turned eye,
May stand upon a dizzy precipice,
High o'er the abyss of ruin, and not _fall_!
THE LIGHT OF OUR HOME.
BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.
Oh, thou whose beauty on us beams
With glimpses of celestial light;
Thou halo of our waking dreams,
And early star that crown'st our night--
Thy light is magic where it falls;
To thee the deepest shadow yields;
Thou bring'st unto these dreary halls
The lustre of the summer-fields.
There is a freedom in thy looks
To make the prisoned heart rejoice;--
In thy blue eyes I see the brooks,
And hear their music in thy voice.
And every sweetest bird that sings
Hath poured a charm upon thy tongue;
And where the bee enamored clings,
There surely thou in love hast clung:--
For when I hear thy laughter free,
And see thy morning-lighted hair,
As in a dream, at once I see
Fair upland scopes and valleys fair.
I see thy feet empearled with dews,
The violet's and the lily's loss;
And where the waving woodland woos
Thou lead'st me over beds of moss;--
And by the busy runnel's side,
Whose waters, like a bird afraid,
Dart from their fount, and, flashing, glide
Athwart the sunshine and the shade.
Or larger streams our steps beguile;--
We see the cascade, broad and fair,
Dashed headlong down to foam, the while
Its iris-spirit leaps to air!
Alas! as by a loud alarm,
The fancied turmoil of the falls
Hath driven me back and broke the charm
Which led me from these alien walls:--
Yes, alien, dearest child, are these
Close city walls to thee and me:
My homestead was embowered with trees,
And such thy heritage should be:--
And shall be;--I will make for thee
A home within my native vale
Where every brook and ancient tree
Shall whisper some ancestral tale.
Now once again I see thee stand,
As down the future years I gaze,
The fairest maiden of the land--
The spirit of those sylvan ways.
And in thy looks again I trace
The light of her who gave thee birth;
She who endowed thy form and face
With glory which is not of Earth.
And as I gaze upon her now,
My heart sends up a prayer for thee,
That thou may'st wear upon thy brow
The light which now she beams on me.
And thou wilt wear that love and light
For thou'rt the bud to such a flower:--
Oh fair the day, how blest and bright,
Which finds thee in thy native bower!
AN INDIAN-SUMMER RAMBLE.
BY ALFRED B. STREET.
It was now the middle of October. White frosts had for some time been
spreading their sheets of pearl over the gardens and fields, but the
autumn rainbows in the forests were wanting. At last, however, the
stern black frost came and wrought its customary magic. For about a
week there was a gorgeous pageantry exhibited, "beautiful,
exceedingly." But one morning I awoke, and found that the mist had
made a common domain both of earth and sky. Every thing was merged
into a gray dimness. I could just discern the tops of trees a few feet
off, and here and there a chimney. There was a small bit of fence
visible, bordering "our lane," and I could with difficulty see a
glimmering portion of the village street. Some gigantic cloud appeared
to have run against something in the heavens and dropped down amongst
us. There were various outlines a few rods off, belonging to objects
we scarce knew what. Horses pushed out of the fog with the most sudden
effect, followed by their wagons, and disappeared again in the
opposite fleecy barrier; pedestrians were first seen like spectres,
then their whole shapes were exhibited, and finally they melted slowly
away again, whilst old Shadbolt's cow, grazing along the grassy margin
of the street, loomed up through the vapor almost as large as an
elephant.
About noon the scene became clearer, so that the outline of the
village houses, and even the checkered splendors of the neighboring
woods could be seen; so much of Nate's sign, "Hammond's sto--" became
visible, and even Hamble's great red stage-coach was exhibited,
thrusting its tongue out as if in scorn of the weather.
In the afternoon, however, the mist thickened again, and the whole
village shrunk again within it, like a turtle within its shell. The
next morning dawned without its misty mask, but with it rose a gusty
wind that commenced howling like a famished wolf. Alas! for the
glories of the woods! As the rude gusts rushed from the slaty clouds,
the rich leaves came fluttering upon them, blotting the air and
falling on the earth thick as snow-flakes. Now a maple-leaf, like a
scalloped ruby, would fly whirling over and over; next a birch one
would flash across the sight, as if a topaz had acquired wings; and
then a shred of the oak's imperial mantle, flushed like a sardonyx,
would cut a few convulsive capers in the air, like a clown in a
circus, and dash itself headlong upon the earth. Altogether it was an
exciting time, this fall of the leaf. Ah! a voice also was constantly
whispering in my ear, "we all do fade as the leaf!"
I took a walk in the woods. What a commotion was there! The leaves
were absolutely frantic. Now they would sweep up far into the air as
if they never intended to descend again, and then taking curvatures,
would skim away like birds; others would cluster together, and then
roll along like a great quivering billow; others again would circle
around in eddies like whirlpools, soaring up now and then in the
likeness of a water-spout, whilst frequently tall columns would march
down the broad aisles of the forest in the most majestic manner, and
finally fall to pieces in a violent spasm of whirling atoms. Even
after the leaves had found their way to the earth they were by no
means quiet. Some skipped uneasily over the surface; some stood on one
leg, as it were, and pirouetted; some crept further and further under
banks; some ran merry races over the mounds, and some danced up and
down in the hollows. As for the trees themselves, they were cowering
and shivering at a tremendous rate, apparently from want of the cloaks
of which every blast was thus stripping them.
A day or two after came the veritable soft-looking, sweet-breathing
Indian-Summer--"our thunder." No other clime has it. Autumn expires in
a rain-storm of three months in Italy; and it is choked to death with
a wet fog in England; but in this new world of ours, "our own green
forest land," as Halleck beautifully says, it swoons away often in a
delicious trance, during which the sky is filled with sleep, and the
earth hushes itself into the most peaceful and placid repose. There it
lies basking away until with one growl old Winter springs upon Nature,
locks her in icy fetters, and covers her bosom with a white mantle
that generally stays there until Spring comes with her soft eye and
blue-bird voice to make us all glad again.
Well, this beautiful season arrived as aforesaid, and a day "turned
up" that seemed to be extracted from the very core of the season's
sweetness. The landscape was plunged into a thick mist at sunrise, but
that gradually dwindled away until naught remained but a delicate
dreamy film of tremulous purple, that seemed every instant as if it
would melt from the near prospect. Further off, however, the film
deepened into rich smoke, and at the base of the horizon it was
decided mist, bearing a tinge, however, borrowed from the wood-violet.
The mountains could be discerned, and that was all, and they only by
reason of a faint jagged line struggling through the veil proclaiming
their summits. The dome above was a tender mixture of blue and silver;
and as for the sunshine, it was tempered and shaded down into a tint
like the blush in the tinted hollow of the sea-shell.
It was the very day for a ramble in the woods; so Benning, Watson, and
I, called at the dwelling of three charming sisters, to ask their
mamma's consent (and their own) to accompany us. These three Graces
all differed from each other in their styles of beauty. The eyes of
one were of sparkling ebony, those of the other looked as if the
"summer heaven's delicious blue" had stained them, whilst the third's
seemed as though they had caught their hue from the glittering gray
that is sometimes seen just above the gold of a cloudless sunset.
We turned down the green lane that led from the village street, and
were soon in the forests. The half-muffled sunlight stole down sweetly
and tenderly through the chaos of naked branches overhead; and there
was a light crisp, crackling sound running through the dry fallen
leaves, as though they had become tired of their position, and were
striving to turn over. So quiet was the air that even this faint sound
was distinctly audible. Hark! whang! whang! there rings the woodman's
axe--crack! crash! b-o-o-m!--Hurrah! what thunder that little keen
instrument has waked up there, and what power it has! Say, ye wild,
deep forests, that have shrunk into rocky ravines, and retreated to
steep mountains, what caused ye to flee away from the valleys and
uplands of your dominion? Answer, fierce eagle! what drove thee from
thy pine of centuries to the desolate and wind-swept peak, where alone
thou couldst rear thy brood in safety? Tell, thou savage panther, what
made the daylight flash into thy den so suddenly, that thou didst
think thy eye-balls were extinguished?
And thou, too, busy city, that dost point up thy spires where two
score years ago the forest stood a frown upon the face of Nature--what
mowed the way for thee? And, lastly, thou radiant grain-field, what
prepared the room for thy bright and golden presence? Whew! if that
isn't a tremendous flight, I don't know what is! But the axe, as Uncle
Jack Lummis says of his brown mare, is "a tarnal great critter, any
how!"
How Settler Jake's cabin will gleam those approaching winter nights
from the "sticks" that axe of his will give him out of the tree he has
just prostrated. It is really pleasant to think of it. There will be
the great fire-place, with a huge block for a back-log; then a pile
will be built against it large enough for a bonfire--and then such a
crackling and streaming! why the dark night just around there will be
all in a blush with it. And the little window will glow like a red
star to the people of the village; and then within, there will be the
immense antlers over the door, belonging to a moose Jake shot the
first year he came into the country, all tremulous with the light, and
the long rifle thrust through it will glitter quick and keen; and the
scraped powder-horn hung by it will be transparent in redness; even
the row of bullets on the rude shelf near the window will give a dull
gleam, whilst our old acquaintance, the axe, will wink as if a dozen
eyes were strewn along its sharp, bright edge. And then the brown and
tortoise-shell cat belonging to the "old woman" will partake of the
lustre; and the old woman herself--a little, active, bustling body,
will be seated in one corner of the fire-place, after having swept
clean the hearth; and "Sport" will have coiled his long body on a
bear-skin near her. Lastly, the settler himself will be sitting upon a
stool opposite "Betsey," with his elbows on his knees, smoking a pipe
as black as his face at the "spring logging." But stop--where was I?
Oh, in the woods!"
"Look! look!" cries Susan, the owner of the gray orbs, with an accent
of delight, "see that beautiful black squirrel eating!"
We all looked, and sure enough, there is the little object in a nook
of warm bronze light, with his paws to his whiskered face, cracking
nuts, one after another, as fast as possible. But he stops, with his
paws still uplifted, looks askance for a moment, and away he shoots
then through the "brush-fence" at our side like a dart.
We soon find the tree whence he gathered his fruit. It is a noble
hickory, with here and there a brown leaf clinging to its boughs. A
stone or two brings the globes that hold the nuts to the earth. They
have commenced cracking, and with a little exertion we uncover the
snow-white balls. We are now all determined to rob the tree. It has no
business to be displaying its round wealth so temptingly. And, beside,
it will, if let alone, most probably entice boys from the little black
school-house out yonder to "play truant." So it is unanimously voted
that Benning, who is light and active, should climb the tree. Up he
goes, like one of those little striped woodpeckers that are so often
seen in the woods tapping up the trees, and immediately his hands and
feet make the branches dance, whilst the green globes drop like great
hail-stones on the earth. We then commence stripping the nuts from
their covers, and soon the base of the tree is covered with them. We
then stow the ivories away in our bags, and start for new havoc.
We come now to the brush-fence. It is a perfect _chevau-de-frize_. It
looks at us with a sort of defying, bristling air, as if it said as
Wilson, the horse-jockey, says when some one endeavors to hoodwink him
in a bargain, "You can't come it!"
We wont try here, but a little lower down there is a gap made by John
Huff's cow, that uses her horns so adroitly in the attack of a fence,
no matter how difficult, that I verily believe she could pick a lock.
We pass through the kindly breach and skirt the fence for some little
distance to regain the path. The fence on this side is densely plumed
with blackberry vines. What a revel I held there two months ago. The
fruit hung around in rich masses of ebony, each little atom composing
the cone having a glittering spot upon it like a tiny eye. How the
black beauties melted on my tongue in their dead-ripe richness. One
bush in particular was heavy with the clusters. After despoiling the
edges I opened the heart, and there, hidden snugly away, as if for the
wood-fairies, were quantities of the sable clusters, larger and more
splendid than any I had seen. I immediately made my way into the
defences of that fortress. There was a merciless sacking there,
reader, allow me to tell you. But that is neither "here nor there" on
the present occasion.
How beautifully the soft, tender dark light slumbers on objects where
the great roof of the forest will allow it. There is an edge of deep
golden lace gleaming upon that mound of moss, and here, the light,
breaking through the overhanging beech, has so mottled the tawny
surface of the leaves beneath as to make it appear as if a
leopard-skin had been dropped there.
B-o-o-m, b-o-o-m, boom-boom--whi-r-r-r-r-r--there sounds the drum of
the partridge. We'll rouse his speckled lordship probably below,
causing him to give his low, quick thunder-clap so as to send the
heart on a leaping visit to the throat.
We now descend the ridge upon which we have been for some time, to a
glade at the foot. The sweet haze belonging to the season is
shimmering over it. It is a broad space surrounded on all sides by the
forest. The first settler in this part of the country had "located"
himself here, and this was his little clearing. His hut stood on an
eminence in one corner. He lived there a number of years. He was a
reserved, unsocial man, making the forest his only haunt, and his
rifle his only companion. He was at last found dead in his cabin.
Alone and unattended he had died, keeping to the last aloof from human
society. The hut was next occupied by a singular couple--an old man
and his idiot son. The father was of a fierce, savage temper, but
seemed very fond, although capriciously so, of his child. Sometimes he
would treat him with the greatest tenderness, then again, at some
wayward action of the idiot, he would burst upon him with an awful
explosion of passion. The old man had evidently been a reckless
desperado in other days, and many in the village suspected strongly
that he had once been a pirate. He was addicted to drinking, and now
and then, when bitten by the adder, would talk strangely. He would
commence narrating some wonderful hurricane he had experienced on the
Spanish Main, and would launch out upon the number of times he had
headed boarding parties, and once, in a state of great intoxication at
the village tavern, he rambled off into a story about his having made
an old man walk the plank. He would, however, check himself on all
these occasions before he went far. He became involved in a fight one
time with a great lounging fellow about the village, whose propensity
to bully was the only salient point in his character. They
clinched--the old man was thrown, and the bystanders had just time to
pull the bully away, to prevent a long keen knife in the grasp of
Murdock (for such was the old man's name) from being plunged into his
side.
Suddenly the idiot-boy disappeared. The passers-by had frequently seen
him (for he was an industrious lad) working in the little patch
belonging to the cabin, but from a certain time he was seen no more,
and the old man lived alone in his cabin. A change, too, gradually
grew over him. He became silent and deeply melancholy, and his
countenance settled into an expression of stern, rigid sorrow. His eye
was awful. Wild and red, it seemed as if you could look through it
into a brain on fire.
At last he commenced rubbing his right hand with his left. There he
would fasten his gaze, and chafe with the most determined energy. He
would frequently stop and hold the hand to his eye for a moment, and
then recommence his strange work. To the inquiries of the village
people concerning his son, he would give no answer. He would roll upon
the inquirer for an instant his fierce, mad eye, and then prosecute
his mysterious chafing more rigorously than ever.
Things continued so for about a fortnight after the disappearance of
the idiot, when one dark night the village was alarmed by the
appearance of flames from the clearing. Hurrying to the spot, they
were just in time to see the blazing roof of the hut fall in. The next
morning disclosed, amidst the smouldering ashes, a few charred bones.
Murdock was not again seen or heard of from that night.
The glade is now quiet and lonely as if human passions had never been
unloosed there in the terrific crime of parricide--the consequent
remorse merging into madness, and a fiery retributory death. Upon the
grassy mound, which the frost has not yet blighted, a beautiful white
rabbit has just glided. The lovely creature darts onward, then
crouches--now lays his long ears flat upon his shoulders, and now
points them forward in the most knowing and cunning manner. He plays
there in his white, pure beauty, as if in purposed contrast to the
blood-stained and guilty wretch who expired on the same spot in his
flaming torture. But the little shape now points his long, rose-tinted
ears in our direction, and then he does not disappear as much as melt
from our sight like the vanishing of breath from polished steel. We
then enter fully into the glade. One of the trees at the border is a
magnificent chestnut. I remember it in June, with its rich green
leaves hung over with short, braided cords of pale gold. These braided
blossoms have yielded fruit most plenteously. How thickly the
chestnuts, with their autumn-colored coats and gray caps, are
scattered around the tree, whilst the large yellow burrs on the
branches, gaping wide open, are displaying their soft velvet inner
lining in which the embedded nuts have ripened, and which in their
maturity they have deserted.
After changing the position of the little glossy things from the earth
to our satchels, we cross the glade, and strike a narrow road that
enters the forests in that direction. We pass along, our feet sinking
deep in the dead leaves, until we come to an opening where a bridge
spans a stream. It is a slight, rude structure, such as the emigrating
settler would (and probably did) make in a brief hour to facilitate
his passage across. Let us sketch the picture to our imagination for a
moment. We will suppose it about an hour to sunset of a summer's day.
There is a soft richness amidst the western trees, and the little
grassy opening here is dappled with light and shade. The emigrant's
wagon is standing near the brink, with its curved canvas top, white as
silver, in a slanting beam, and the broad tires of its huge wheels
stained green with the wood-plants and vines they have crushed in
their passage during the day. The patient oxen, which have drawn the
wagon so far, are chewing their cud, with their honest countenances
fixed straight forward. Around the wagon is hung a multitude of
household articles--pans, pails, kettles, brooms, and what not; and on
a heap of beds, bedding, quilts, striped blankets, &c., is the old
woman, the daughter, about eighteen, and a perfect swarm of
white-headed little ones. The father, and his two stalwort sons, are
busy in the forest close at hand. How merrily the echoes ring out at
each blow of their axes, and how the earth groans with the shock of
the falling trees. The two largest of the woodland giants are cut into
logs--the others are also divided into the proper lengths. The logs
are placed athwart the stream several feet distant from each
other--the rest are laid in close rows athwart, and lo! the bridge.
Over the whole scene the warm glow of the setting sun is spread, and a
black bear, some little distance in the forest, is thrusting his great
flat head out of a hollow tree, overseeing the proceedings with the
air of a connoisseur.
The bridge is now old and black, and has decayed and been broken into
quite a picturesque object. One of the platform pieces has been
fractured in the middle, and the two ends slant upwards, as if to take
observations of the sky; and there is a great hole in the very centre
of the bridge. Add to this the moss, which has crept over the whole
structure, making what remains of the platform a perfect cushion, and
hanging in long flakes of emerald, which fairly dip in the water, and
the whole object is before you. The stream has a slow, still motion,
with eddies, here coiling up into wrinkles like an old man's face, and
there dimpling around some stone like the smiling cheek of a young
maiden, but in no case suffering its demureness to break into a broad
laugh of ripples. In one spot tall bullrushes show their slender
shapes and brown wigs; in another there is a collection of waterflags;
in another there are tresses of long grass streaming in the light flow
of the current, whilst in a nook, formed by the roots of an immense
elm on one side, and a projection of the bank on the other, is a thick
coat of stagnant green--a perfect meadow for the frogs to hold their
mass meetings in, differing from ours, however, from the fact of
theirs being composed of all talkers and no listeners.
Let us look at the stream a little, which has here expanded into a
broad surface, and view its "goings on." There is a water-spider
taking most alarming leaps, as if afraid of wetting his feet; a
dragon-fly is darting hither and yon, his long, slender body flashing
with green, golden and purple hues; a large dace has just apparently
flattened his nose against the dark glass inward, dotting a great and
increasing period outward. A bright birch-leaf, "the last of its
clan," has just fallen down, and been snapped at most probably by a
little spooney of a trout, thinking it a yellow butterfly; and on the
bottom, which, directly under our eyes is shallow, are several
water-insects crawling along like locomotive spots of shadow and
reflected through the tremulous medium into distorted shapes. However,
we have lingered here long enough--let us onward.
What on earth is that uproar which is now striking our ear. Such
hoarse notes, such rapid flutterings, whizzings, deep rumbling sounds,
and such a rustle of dead leaves surely betoken something. We turn an
elbow of the road, and a flashing of blue wings, and darting of blue
shapes in the air, now circling round, now shooting up, and now down,
with a large beech tree for the centre, meet our eyes. The tumult is
explained. A colony of wild pigeons is busy amongst the beech-nuts,
which the frost has showered upon the earth. The ground for some
distance around the tree is perfectly blue with the birds picking, and
fighting, and scrambling. It is ludicrous to see them. Here a score or
two are busy eating, looking like a collection of big-paunched,
blue-coated aldermen at a city feast; there, all are hurrying and
jostling, and tumbling over one another like the passengers of a
steamboat when the bell rings for dinner. By the side of yonder bush
there is a perfect duel transpiring between two pugnacious pigeons
dashing out their wings fiercely at each other with angry tones, their
beautiful purple necks all swollen, and their red eyes casting
devouring looks, whilst two others are very quietly, yet swiftly, as
if making the most of their time, causing all the nuts in sight, and
which probably induced the quarrel, disappear down their own throats.
See! here is a pigeon who has over-estimated his capacity of
swallowing, or has encountered a larger nut than usual, for he is
exhibiting the most alarming symptoms of choking. He stretches his
neck and opens his bill like a cock in the act of crowing, at the same
time dancing up and down on his pink legs as if his toes had caught
fire. However, he has mastered the nut at last with a vigorous shake
of his neck, and bobs industriously again at his feast.
Determining to have some of the brown luscious mast, we make a foray
amongst the gorging host, and succeeded in causing a cloud of them to
take wing, and in securing a quantity of the spoil.
We then start again on our way, but do not advance far
before--b-r-r-r-r-r-h--off bursts a partridge, and shoots down the
vista of the road, with the dark sunshine glancing from his mottled
back. If little "Spitfire" was here, how he would yelp and dance, and
dart backward and forward, and shake his tail, so as to render it
doubtful whether it wouldn't fly off in a tangent.
Rattat, tattat, tat--tat--t-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r--there is the great
red-headed woodpecker, or woodcock, as he is called by the country
people, looking like a miniature man with a crimson turban and sable
spear, attacking the bark of yon old oak. He is making a
sounding-board of the seamed mail of the venerable monarch, to detect
by the startled writhing within the grub snugly ensconced, as it
thinks, there, in order to transfix it with his sharp tongue through
the hole made by his bill. He ceases his work though as we
approach--and now he flies away.
A mile farther, we come to the strawberry-field belonging to Deacon
Gravespeech, the outlines of whose dark, low farm-house are etched on
the mist which is again slowly spreading over the landscape, for it is
now near sunset. Having left the forest, we see the mild red orb, like
an immense ruby, just in the act of sinking in the bank of pale blue
which now thickens the Western horizon. But what have we here? A
splendid butternut tree, with quantities of the oval fruit scattered
about amidst the brown leaves, in their coats of golden green. What a
rich lustre is upon them, made brighter by the varnish, and how
delightful their pungent perfume. Let us crack a few of the strong,
deeply-fluted shells. In their tawny nooks nestle the dark,
golden-veined meats, which with the most delicious sweetness crumble
in the mouth.
Of all the fruits of the Northern forests give me the butternut; and,
speaking of fruits puts me in mind of the strawberry field. I was here
with a small party one day last June. The field was then scattered
thickly over with the bright crimson spotting fruit, and the fingers
of all of us were soon dyed deeply with the sweet blood. There is
great skill in picking strawberries, let me tell you, reader, although
it is a trifle. Go to work systematically, and don't get excited.
Gather all as you go, indiscriminately. Don't turn to the right for
two splendid berries, and leave the one in front, for it is just as
likely, before you gather the two, a cluster, with five ripe tempting
fellows, will cause you to forget the others, and in whirling yourself
around, and stretching over to seize the latest prize, your feet and
limbs not only destroy the first and second, but a whole collection of
the blushing beauties hid away in a little hollow of buttercups and
dandelions.
Well, "as I was saying," I was here with a small party, and had fine
sport picking, but the next day a precept, at the suit of Peter
Gravespeech, was served upon Hull and myself, (the two gentlemen of
the party,) issued from "Pettifogger's Delight," as the office of
Squire Tappit, the justice, was called throughout the village: action,
trespass. "For the fun of the thing" we stood trial. The day came, and
all the vagabonds of the village,--those whose continual cry is that
they "can never get any thing to do," and therefore drive a brisk
business at doing nothing,--were in attendance. The justice was a
hot-tempered old fellow, somewhat deaf, and,--if his nose was any
evidence,--fond of the brandy bottle.
The witness of the trespass, who was a "hired hand" of Deacon
Gravespeech, was present, and after the cause had been called in due
order, was summoned by the deacon (who appeared in proper person) to
the stand. He was generally very irascible, a good deal of a bully,
rather stupid, and, on the present occasion, particularly drunk.
"Now, Mr. Hicks," said the deacon, respectfully, (knowing his man,)
after he had 'kissed the book,' "now, Mr. Hicks (his name was Joe
Hicks, but universally called 'Saucy Joe,') please tell the justice
what you know of this transaction."
"Well, squire, I seed 'em!" replied Joe, to this appeal, facing the
justice.
"Who?" ejaculated the justice, quickly.
"Who!" answered Joe, "why, who do you spose, but that'ere sour-faced
feller, (pointing at Hull,) what looks like a cow swelled on clover,
and that 'ere little nimshi, who isn't bigger than my Poll's knitten
needle. They was with four female critters."
"Well, what were they about?" asked the deacon.
"What was they about!" (a little angrily,) "you know as well as I do,
deacon, for I telled ye all about it at the time."
"Yes, but you must tell the justice."
"Answer, witness!" exclaimed the justice, somewhat sternly.
"Oh! you needn't be flusterfied, Squire Tappit; I knowed ye long afore
ye was squire, and drinked with ye, too. For that matter, I stood
treat last!"
"That's of no consequence now, Mr. Hicks," interposed the deacon,
throwing at the same time a deprecatory glance at the old justice,
whose nose was growing redder, and whose eye began to twinkle in
incipient wrath.
"Let the gentleman proceed with his interesting developments," said
Hull, rising with the most ludicrous gravity, and waving his hand in a
solemn and dignified manner.
"Well," said Joe, a little mollified at the word 'gentleman,' "ef I
must tell it agin, I must, that's all. They was a picken strawberries
like Old Sanko."
"How long do you think they were there, trampling down the grass?"
asked the deacon.
"Why, I spose from the time I seed 'em"--here he stopped abruptly,
glanced out of the window toward the tavern, spit thirstily, and then
looked at the deacon.
"Let the gentleman proceed," again cried Hull, half rising, in mock
respect.
"_Pro_ceed!" said the justice, angrily.
"Well, as I was a sayen, from the time I seed 'em---- But I say,
deacon, I'm monstrous dry. You're temp'rance I know; but sposen as how
you treat me and old Squire Tappit there to some red eye. He won't
refuse, no how you can fix it, and as for me, I am so dry I really
can't talk."
"Go on with your story, you scoundrel!" shouted the justice,
exasperated beyond all bounds, "or I'll commit you to prison."
"Commit me to prison, you old brandy-jug!" yelled Joe, swinging off
his ragged coat at a jerk, and throwing it on the floor, "commit _me_,
you mahogany-nosed old sarpent!" advancing close to the justice, with
both of his great fists ready.
"Let the gentleman proceed," here broke in Hull again, in an agony of
laughter.
And, sure enough, the "gentleman" did proceed. Launching out his right
fist in the most approved fashion at the nose of the justice, Joe was
in an instant the center of a perfect Pandemonium. The constable
rushed in to protect the justice, who was shouting continually, "I
command the peace;" the bystanders, ready for a fight at any time,
followed his example, and, for a few minutes, there was a perfect
chaos of arms, legs, and heads, sticking out in every direction.
The first thing Hull and I saw were the heels of the justice
flourishing in the air, and the last was Joe going off to jail in the
grasp of the constable one way, and the deacon sneaking off another.
We never heard afterward of the suit, but "Let the gentleman proceed,"
was for a long time a by-word amongst us in the village.
After crossing the strawberry field we came to a "cross-road" leading
to the turnpike. In a few minutes we arrived at "Cold Spring," where a
little streak of water ran through a hollowed log, green with moss,
from the fountain a short distance in the forest, and fell into a
pebbly basin at the road-side. We here refreshed ourselves with
repeated draughts of the sweet, limpid element, and then, resuming our
walk, soon found ourselves upon the broad, gray turnpike, with the
village upon the summit of the hill, about half a mile in front.
The sun had long since plunged into the slate-colored haze of the
West; the thickening landscape looked dull and faded; the mist was
glimmering before the darkened forests; the cows were wending
homeward, lowing; the woodsmen passed us with axes on their shoulders;
and, mounting the hill, we saw here and there, a light sparkling in
the village, following the example of the scattered stars that were
timidly glancing from the dome of the purpled heavens.
THE LOST PET
BY MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY.
[SEE ENGRAVING.]
When Mary's brother went to sea,
He lingered near the door,
Beside the old, familiar tree,
He ne'er had left before,
And though gay boyhood loves to seek
New regions where to tread,
A pearl-drop glittered on his cheek
As tenderly he said--
"The gentle dove I reared with care,
Sister, I leave to thee,
And let it thy protection share
When I am far at sea."
Whene'er for Willy's loss she grieved,
His darling she caressed,
That from her hand its food received,
Or nestled in her breast;
And sometimes, at the twilight dim,
When blossoms bow to sleep,
She thought it murmuring asked for him
Whose home was on the deep.
And if her mother's smile of joy
Was lost in anxious thought,
As memories of her sailor-boy
Some gathering tempest wrought,
She showed his pet, the cooing dove,
Perched on her sheltering arm,
And felt how innocence and love
Can rising wo disarm.
When summer decked the leafy bowers,
And pranked the russet plain,
She bore his cage where breathing flowers
Inspired a tuneful strain;
And now and then, through open door,
Indulged a wish to roam,
Though soon, the brief excursion o'er,
The wanderer sought its home.
She laughed to see it brush the dew
From bough and budding spray.
And deemed its snow-white plumage grew
More beauteous, day by day.
The rose of June was in its flush,
And 'neath the fragrant shade
Of her own fullest, fairest bush
The favorite's house was staid,
While roving, bird-like, here and there,
Amid her flow'rets dear,
She culled a nosegay, rich and rare,
A mother's heart to cheer.
A shriek! A flutter! Swift as thought
Her startled footstep flew,
But full of horror was the sight
That met her eager view--
Her treasure in a murderer's jaws!
One of that feline race
Whose wily looks and velvet paws
Conceal their purpose base.
And scarce the victim's gushing breast
Heaved with one feeble breath,
Though raised to hers, its glance exprest
Affection even in death.
Oh, stricken child! though future years
May frown with heavier shade,
When woman's lot of love and tears
Is on thy spirit laid--
Yet never can a wilder cry
Thy heart-wrung anguish prove
Than when before thy swimming eye
Expired that wounded dove.
[Illustration: THE LOST PET
Engraved Expressly for Graham's Magazine
Figure from I. M. Wright. Drawn with original scenery & engraved by Ellis.]
FIEL A LA MUERTE, OR TRUE LOVE'S DEVOTION.
A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS QUINZE.
BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF "THE ROMAN TRAITOR,"
"MARMADUKE WYVIL," "CROMWELL," ETC.
(_Concluded from page_ 91.)
PART III.
For there were seen in that dark wall,
Two niches, narrow, dark and tall.
Who enters by such grisly door,
Shall ne'er, I ween, find exit more.--WALTER SCOTT.
It would be wonderful, were it not of daily occurrence, and to be
observed by all who give attention to the characteristics of the human
mind, how quickly confidence, even when shaken to its very
foundations, and almost obliterated, springs up again, and recovers
all its strength in the bosoms of the young of either sex.
Let but a few more years pass over the heart, and when once broken, if
it be only by a slight suspicion, or a half unreal cause, it will
scarce revive again in a life-time; nor then, unless proofs the
strongest and most unquestionable can be adduced to overpower the
doubts which have well-nigh annihilated it.
In early youth, however, before long contact with the world has
blunted the susceptibilities, and hardened the sympathies of the soul,
before the constant experience of the treachery, the coldness, the
ingratitude of men has given birth to universal doubt and general
distrust, the shadow vanishes as soon as the cloud which cast it is
withdrawn, and the sufferer again believes, alas! too often, only to
be again deceived.
Thus it was with St. Renan, who a few minutes before had given up even
the last hope, who had ceased, as he thought, to believe even in the
possibility of faith or honor among men, of constancy, or purity, or
truth in women, no sooner saw his Melanie, whom he knew to be the wife
of another, solitary and in tears, no sooner felt her inanimate form
reclining on his bosom, than he was prepared to believe any thing,
rather than believe her false.
Indeed, her consternation at his appearance, her evident dismay, not
unnatural in an age wherein skepticism and infidelity were marvelously
mingled with credulity and superstition, her clear conviction that it
was not himself in mortal blood and being, did go far to establish the
fact, that she had been deceived either casually or--which was far
more probable--by foul artifice, into the belief that her beloved and
plighted husband was no longer with the living.
The very exclamation which she uttered last, ere she sunk senseless
into his arms, uttered, as she imagined, in the presence of the
immortal spirit of the injured dead, "I am true, Raoul--true to the
last, my beloved!" rang in his ears with a power and a meaning which
convinced him of her veracity.
"She could not lie!" he muttered to himself, "in the presence of the
living dead! God be praised! she is true, and we shall yet be happy!"
How beautiful she looked, as she lay there, unconscious and insensible
even of her own existence. If time and maturity had improved Raoul's
person, and added the strength and majesty of manhood to the grace and
pliability of youth, infinitely more had it bestowed on the beauty of
his betrothed. He had left her a beautiful girl just blooming out of
girlhood, he found her a mature, full-blown woman, with all the flush
and flower of complete feminine perfection, before one charm has
become too luxuriant, or one drop of the youthful dew exhaled from the
new expanded blossom.
She had shot up, indeed, to a height above the ordinary stature of
women--straight, erect, and graceful as a young poplar, slender, yet
full withal, exquisitely and voluptuously rounded, and with every
sinuous line and swelling curve of her soft form full of the poetry
and beauty both of repose and motion.
Her complexion was pale as alabaster; even her cheeks, except when
some sudden tide of passion, or some strong emotion sent the impetuous
blood coursing thither more wildly than its wont, were colorless, but
there was nothing sallow or sickly, nothing of that which is
ordinarily understood by the word pallid, in their clear, warm,
transparent purity; nothing, in a word, of that lividness which the
French, with more accuracy than we, distinguish from the healthful
paleness which is so beautiful in southern women.
Her hair, profuse almost to redundance, was perfectly black, but of
that warm and lustrous blackness which is probably the hue expressed
by the ancient Greeks by the term hyacinthine, and which in certain
lights has a purplish metallic gloss playing over it, like the varying
reflections on the back of the raven. Her strongly defined, and nearly
straight eyebrows, were dark as night, as were the long, silky lashes
which were displayed in clear relief against the fair, smooth cheek,
as the lids lay closed languidly over the bright blue eyes.
It was a minute or two before Melanie moved or gave any symptoms of
recovering from her fainting fit, and during those minutes the lips of
Raoul had been pressed so often and so warmly to those of the fair
insensible, that had any spark of perception remained to her, the fond
and lingering pressure could not have failed to call the "purple
light of love," to her ingenuous face.
At length a long, slow shiver ran through the form of the senseless
girl, and thrilled, like the touch of the electric wire, every nerve
in St. Renan's body.
Then the soft rosy lips were unclosed, and forth rushed the ambrosial
breath in a long, gentle sigh, and the beautiful bust heaved and
undulated, like the bosom of the calm sea, when the first breathings
of the coming storm steal over it, and wake, as if by sympathy, its
deep pulsations.
He clasped her closer to his heart, half fearful that when life and
perfect consciousness should be restored to that exquisite frame, it
would start from his embrace, if not in anger or alarm, at least as if
from a forbidden and illicit pleasure.
Gradually a faint rosy hue, slight as the earliest blushes of the
morning sky, crept over her white cheeks, and deepened into a rich
passionate flush; and at the same moment the azure-tinctured lids were
unclosed slowly, and the large, radiant, bright-blue eyes beamed up
into his own, half languid still, but gleaming through their dewy
languor, with an expression which he must have been, indeed, blind to
mistake for aught but the strongest of unchanged, unchangeable
affection.
It was evident that she knew him now; that the momentary terror,
arising rather, perhaps, from fear than from superstition, which had
converted the young ardent soldier into a visitant from beyond those
gloomy portals through which no visitant returns, had passed from her
mind, and that she had already recognized, although she spoke not, her
living lover.
And though she recognized him, she sought not to withdraw herself from
the enclosure of his sheltering arms, but lay there on his bosom, with
her head reclined on his shoulder, and her eyes drinking long draughts
of love from his fascinated gaze, as if she were his own, and that her
appropriate place of refuge and protection.
"Oh! Raoul," she exclaimed, at length, in a low, soft whisper, "is it,
indeed, you--you, whom I have so long wept as dead--you, whom I was
even now weeping as one lost to me forever, when you are thus restored
to me!"
"It is I, Melanie," he answered mournfully, "it is I, alive, and in
health; but better far had I been in truth dead, as they have told
you, rather than thus a survivor of all happiness, of all hopes;
spared only from the grave to know _you_ false, and myself forgotten."
"Oh, no, Raoul, not false!" she cried wildly, as she started from his
arms, "oh, not forgotten! think you," she added, blushing crimson,
"that had I loved any but you, that had I not loved you with my whole
heart and being, I had lain thus on your bosom, thus endured your
caresses? Oh, no, no, never false! nor for one moment forgotten?"
"But what avails it, if you do love no other--what profits it, if you
do love me? Are you not--are you not, false girl,--alas! that these
lips should speak it,--the wife of another--the promised mistress of
the king?"
"I--I--Raoul!" she exclaimed, with such a blending of wonder and
loathing in her face, such an expression of indignation on her tongue,
that her lover perceived at once, that, whatever might be the infamy
of her father, of her husband, of this climax of falsehood and
self-degradation, she, at least, was guiltless.
"The mistress of the king! what king? what mean you? are you
distraught?"
"Ha! you are ignorant, you are innocent of that, then. You are not yet
indoctrinated into the noble uses for which your honorable lord
intends you. It is the town's talk, Melanie. How is it you, whom it
most concerns, alone have not heard it?"
"Raoul," she said, earnestly, imploringly, "I know not if there be any
meaning in your words, except to punish me, to torture me, for what
you deem my faithlessness, but if there be, I implore you, I conjure
you, by your father's noble name; by your mother's honor, show me the
worst; but listen to me first, for by the God that made us both, and
now hears my words, I am not faithless."
"Not faithless? Are you not the wife of another?"
"No!" she replied enthusiastically. "I am not. For I am yours, and
while you live I cannot wed another. Whom God hath joined man cannot
put asunder."
"I fear me that plea will avail us little," Raoul answered. "But say
on, dearest Melanie, and believe that there is nothing you can ask
which I will not give you gladly--even if it were my own life-blood.
Say on, so shall we best arrive at the truth of this intricate and
black affair."
"Mark me, then, Raoul, for every word I shall speak is as true as the
sun in heaven. It is near two years now since we heard that you had
fallen in battle, and that your body had been carried off by the
barbarians. Long! long I hoped and prayed, but prayers and hopes were
alike in vain. I wrote to you often, as I promised, but no line from
you has reached me, since the day when you sailed for India, and that
made me fear that the dread news was true. But at the last, to make
assurance doubly sure, all my own letters were returned to me six
months since, with their seals unbroken, and an endorsement from the
authorities in India that the person addressed was not to be found.
Then hope itself was over; and my father, who never from the first had
doubted that you were no more--"
"Out on him! out on him! the heartless villain!" the young man
interrupted her indignantly. "He knows, as well as I myself, that I am
living; although it is no fault of his or his coadjutors that I am so.
He knows not as yet, however, that I am _here_; but he shall know it
ere long to his cost, my Melanie."
"At least," she answered in a faltering voice, "at least he _swore_ to
me that you were dead; and never having ceased to persecute me, since
the day that fatal tidings reached, to become the wife of La
Rochederrien, now Marquis de Ploermel, he now became doubly urgent--"
"And you, Melanie! you yielded! I had thought you would have died
sooner."
"I had no choice but to yield, Raoul. Or at least but the choice of
that old man's hand, or an eternal dungeon. The _lettres de cachet_
were signed, and you dead, and on the conditions I extorted from the
marquis, I became in name, Raoul, only in name, by all my hopes of
Heaven! the wife of the man whom you pronounce, wherefore, I cannot
dream, the basest of mankind. Now tell me."
"And did it never strike you as being wonderful and most unnatural
that this Ploermel, who is neither absolutely a dotard nor an old
woman, should accept your hand upon this condition?"
"I was too happy to succeed in extorting it to think much of that,"
she answered.
"_Extorted!_" replied Raoul bitterly, "And how, I pray you, is this
condition which you extorted ratified or made valid?"
"It is signed by himself, and witnessed by my own father, that, being
I regard myself the wife of the dead, he shall ask no more of
familiarity from me than if I were the bride of heaven!"
"The double villains!"
"But wherefore villains, Raoul?" exclaimed Melanie.
"I tell you, girl, it is a compact--a base, hellish compact--with the
foul despot, the disgrace of kings, the opprobrium of France, who sits
upon the throne, dishonoring it daily! A compact such as yet was never
entered into by a father and a husband, even of the lowest of mankind!
A compact to deliver you a spotless virgin-victim to the vile-hearted
and luxurious tyrant. Curses! a thousand curses on his soul! and on my
own soul! who have fought and bled for him, and all to meet with this,
as my reward of service!"
"Great God! can these things be," she exclaimed, almost fainting with
horror and disgust. "Can these things indeed be? But speak, Raoul,
speak; how can you know all this?"
"I tell you, Melanie, it is the talk, the very daily, hourly gossip of
the streets, the alleys, nay, even the very kennels of Paris. Every
one knows it--every one believes it, from the monarch in the Louvre to
the lowest butcher of the Faubourg St. Antoine!
"And they believe it--of me, of _me_, they believe this infamy!"
"With this addition, if any addition were needed, that you are not a
deceived victim, but a willing and proud participator in the shame."
"I will--that is--" she corrected herself, speaking very rapidly and
energetically--"I _would_ die sooner. But there is no need now to die.
You have come back to me, and all will yet go well with us!"
"It never can go well with us again," St. Renan answered gloomily.
"The king never yields his purpose, he is as tenacious in his hold as
reckless in his promptitude to seize. And they are paid beforehand."
"Paid!" exclaimed the girl, shuddering at the word. "What atrocity!
How paid?"
"How, think you, did your good father earn his title and the rich
governorship of Morlaix? What great deeds were rewarded to La
Rochederrien by his marquisate, and this captaincy of mousquetaires.
You know not yet, young lady, what virtue there is nowadays in being
the accommodating father, or the convenient husband of a beauty!"
"You speak harshly, St. Renan, and bitterly."
"And if I do, have I not cause enough for bitterness and harshness?"
he replied almost angrily.
"Not against me, Raoul."
"I am not bitter against you, Melanie. And yet--and yet--"
"And yet _what_, Raoul?"
"And yet had you resisted three days longer, we might have been
saved--you might have been mine--"
"I am yours, Raoul de St. Renan. Yours, ever and forever! No one's but
only yours."
"You speak but madness--your vow--the sacrament!"
"To the winds with my vow--to the abyss with the fraudful sacrament!"
she cried, almost fiercely. By sin it was obtained and sanctioned--in
sin let it perish. I say--I swear, Raoul, if you will take me, I am
yours."
"Mine? Mine?" cried the young man, half bewildered. "How mine, and
when?"
"Thus," she replied, casting herself upon his breast, and winding her
arms around his neck, and kissing his lips passionately and often.
"Thus, Raoul, thus, and now!"
He returned her embrace fondly once, but the next instant he removed
her almost forcibly from his breast, and held her at arm's length.
"No, no!" he exclaimed, "not thus, not thus! If at all, honestly,
openly, holily, in the face of day! May my soul perish, ere cause come
through me why you should ever blush to show your front aloft among
the purest and the proudest. No, no, not thus, my own Melanie!"
The girl burst into a paroxysm of tears and sobbing, through which she
hardly could contrive to make her interrupted and faultering words
audible.
"If not now," she said at length, "it will never be. For, hear me,
Raoul, and pity me, to-morrow they are about to drag me to Paris."
The lover mused for several moments very deeply, and then replied,
"Listen to me, Melanie. If you are in earnest, if you are true, and
can be firm, there may yet be happiness in store for us, and that very
shortly."
"Do you doubt me, Raoul?"
"I do not doubt you, Melanie. But ever as in my own wildest rapture,
even to gain my own extremest bliss, I would not do aught that could
possibly cast one shadow on your pure renown, so, mark me, would I not
take you to my heart were there one spot, though it were but as a
speck in the all-glorious sun, upon the brightness of your purity."
"I believe you, Raoul. I feel, I know that my honor, that my purity is
all in all to you.
"I would die a thousand deaths," he made answer, "ere even a false
report should fall on it, to mar its virgin whiteness. Marvel not
then that I ask as much of you."
"Ask anything, St. Renan. It _is_ granted."
"In France we can hope for nothing. But there are other lands than
France. We must fly; and thanks to these documents which you have
wrung from them, and the proofs which I can easily obtain, this cursed
marriage can be set aside, and then, in honor and in truth you can be
mine, mine own Melanie."
"God grant it so, Raoul."
"It shall be so, beloved. Be you but firm, and it may be done right
speedily. I will sell the estates of St. Renan--by a good chance,
supposing me dead, the Lord of Yrvilliac was in treaty for it with my
uncle. That can be arranged forthwith. Conduct yourself according to
your wont, cool and as distant as may be with this villain of
Ploermel; avoid above all things to let your father see that you are
buoyed by any hope, or moved by any passion. Treat the king with
deliberate scorn, if he approach you over boldly. Beware how you eat
or drink in his company, for he is capable of all things, even of
drugging you into insensibility, and here," he added, taking a small
poniard, of exquisite workmanship, with a gold hilt and scabbard, from
his girdle, and giving it to her, "wear _this_ at all times, and if he
dare attempt violence, were he thrice a king, _use it_!"
"I will--I will--trust me, Raoul! I _will_ use it, and that to his
sorrow! My heart is strong, and my hand brave _now_--now that I know
you to be living. Now that I have hope to nerve me, I will fear
nothing, but dare all things."
"Do so, do so, my beloved, and you shall have no cause to fear, for I
will be ever near you. I will tarry here but one day; and ere you
reach Paris, I will be there, be certain. Within ten days, I doubt not
I can convert my acres into gold, and ship that gold across the narrow
straits; and that done, the speed of horses, and a swift sailing ship
will soon have us safe in England; and if that land be not so fair, or
so dear as our own France, at least there are no tyrants there, like
this Louis; and there are laws, they say, which guard the meanest man
as safely and as surely as the proudest noble."
"A happy land, Raoul. I would that we were there even now."
"We will be there ere long, fear nothing. But tell me, whom have you
near your person on whom we may rely. There must be some one through
whom we may communicate in Paris. It may be that I shall require to
see you."
"Oh! you remember Rose, Raoul--little Rose Faverney, who has lived
with me ever since she was a child--a pretty little black-eyed
damsel."
"Surely I do remember her. Is she with you yet? That will do
admirably, then, if she be faithful, as I think she is; and unless I
forget, what will serve us better yet, she loves my page Jules de
Marliena. He has not forgotten her, I promise you."
"Ah! Jules--we grow selfish, I believe, as we grow old, Raoul. I have
not thought to ask after one of your people. So Jules remembers little
Rose, and loves her yet; that will, indeed, secure her, even had she
been doubtful, which she is not. She is as true as steel--truer, I
fear, than even I; for she reproached me bitterly four evenings since,
and swore she would be buried alive, much more willingly imprisoned,
than be married to the Marquis de Ploermel, though she was only
plighted to the Vicomte Raoul's page! Oh! we may trust in her with all
certainty."
"Send her, then, on the very same night that you reach Paris, so soon
as it is dark, to my uncle's house in the Place de St. Louis. I think
she knows it, and let her ask--not for me--but for Jules. Ere then I
will know something definite of our future; and fear nothing, love,
all shall go well with us. Love such as ours, with faith, and right,
and honesty and honor to support it, cannot fail to win, blow what
wind may. And now, sweet Melanie, the night is wearing onward, and I
fear that they may miss you. Kiss me, then, once more, sweet girl, and
farewell."
"Not for the last, Raoul," she cried, with a gay smile, casting
herself once again into her lover's arms, and meeting his lips with a
long, rapturous kiss.
"Not by a thousand, and a thousand! But now, angel, farewell for a
little space. I hate to bid you leave me, but I dare not ask you to
stay; even now I tremble lest you should be missed and they should
send to seek you. For were they but to suspect that I am here and have
seen you, it would, at the best, double all our difficulties. Fare you
well, sweetest Melanie."
"Fare you well," she replied; "fare you well, my own best beloved
Raoul," and she put up the glittering dagger, as she spoke, into the
bosom of her dress; but as she did so, she paused and said, "I wish
_this_ had not been your first gift to me, Raoul, for they say that
such gifts are fatal, to love at least, if not to life."
"Fear not! fear not!" answered the young man, laughing gayly, "our
love is immortal. It may defy the best steel blade that was ever
forged on Milan stithy to cut it asunder. Fare you--but, hush! who
comes here; it is too late, yet fly--fly, Melanie!"
But she did not fly, for as he spoke, a tall, gayly dressed cavalier
burst through the coppice on the side next the château d'Argenson,
exclaiming, "So, my fair cousin!--this is your faith to my good
brother of Ploermel is it?"
But, before he spoke, she had whispered to Raoul, "It is the Chevalier
de Pontrein, de Ploermel's half brother. Alas! all is lost."
"Not so! not so!" answered her lover, also in a whisper, "leave him to
me, I will detain him. Fly, by the upper pathway and through the
orchard to the château, and remember--you have not seen this dog. So
much deceit is pardonable. Fly, I say, Melanie. Look not behind for
your life, whatever you may hear, nor tarry. All rests now on your
steadiness and courage."
"Then all is safe," she answered firmly and aloud, and without casting
a glance toward the cavalier, who was now within ten paces of her
side, or taking the smallest notice of his words, she kissed her hand
to St. Renan, and bounded up the steep path, in the opposite
direction, with so fleet a step as soon carried her beyond the sound
of all that followed, though that was neither silent nor of small
interest.
"Do you not hear me, madam. By Heaven! but you carry it off easily!"
cried the young cavalier, setting off at speed, as if to follow her.
"But you must run swifter than a roe if you look to 'scape me;" and
with the words, he attempted to rush past Raoul, of whom he affected,
although he knew him well, to take no notice.
But in that intent he was quickly frustrated, for the young count
grasped him by the collar as he endeavored to pass, with a grasp of
iron, and said to him in an ironical tone of excessive courtesy,
"Sweet sir, I fear you have forgotten me, that you should give me the
go-by thus, when it is so long a time since we have met, and we such
dear friends, too,"
But the young man was in earnest, and very angry, and struggled to
release himself from St. Renan's grasp, until, having no strong
reasons for forbearance, but many for the reverse, Raoul, too, lost
his temper.
"By heaven!" he exclaimed, "I believe that you do _not_ know me, or
you would not dare to suppose that I would suffer you to follow a lady
who seeks not your presence or society."
"Let me go, St. Renan!" returned the other fiercely, laying his hand
on his dagger's hilt. "Let me go, villain, or you shall rue it!"
"Villain!" Raoul repeated, calmly, "villain! It is so you call me,
hey?" and he did instantly release him, drawing his sword as he did
so. "Draw, De Pontrien--that word has cost you your life!"
"Yes, villain!" repeated the other, "villain to you teeth! But you
lie! it is your life that is forfeit--forfeit to my brother's honor!"
"Ha! ha!" laughed Raoul, savagely. "Ha-ha-ha-ha! your brother's honor!
who the devil ever heard before of a pandar's honor--even if he were
Sir Pandarus to a king? Sa! sa!--have at you!"
Their blades crossed instantly, and they fought fiercely, and with
something like equality for some ten minutes. The Chevalier de
Pontrien was far more than an ordinary swordsman, and he was in
earnest, not angry, but savage and determined, and full of bitter
hatred, and a fixed resolution to punish the familiarity of Raoul with
his brother's wife. But that was a thing easier proposed than
executed; for St. Renan, who had left France as a boy already a
perfect master of fence, had learned the practice of the blade against
the swordsmen of the East, the finest swordsmen of the world, and had
added to skill, science and experience, the iron nerves, the deep
breath, and the unwearied strength of a veteran.
If he fought slowly, it was that he fought carefully--that he meant
the first wound to be the last. He was resolved that De Pontrien never
should return home again to divulge what he had seen, and he had the
coolness, the skill, and the power to carry out his resolution.
At the end of ten minutes he attacked. Six times within as many
seconds he might have inflicted a severe, perhaps a deadly wound on
his antagonist; and he, too, perceived it, but it would not have been
surely mortal.
"Come, come!" cried De Pontrien, at last, growing impatient and angry
at the idea of being played with. "Come, sir, you are my master, it
seems. Make an end of this."
"Do not be in a hurry," replied St. Renan, with a deadly smile, "it
will come soon enough. There! will that suit you?"
And with the word he made a treble feint and lounged home. So true was
the thrust that the point pierced the very cavity of his heart. So
strongly was it sent home that the hilt smote heavily on his
breast-bone. He did not speak or groan, but drew one short, broken
sigh, and fell dead on the instant.
"The fool!" muttered St. Renan. "Wherefore did he meddle where he had
no business? But what the devil shall I do with him? He must not be
found, or all will out--and that were ruin."
As he spoke, a distant clap of thunder was heard to the eastward, and
a few heavy drops of rain began to fall, while a heavy mass of black
thunder-clouds began to rise rapidly against the wind.
"There will be a fierce storm in ten minutes, which will soon wash out
all this evidence," he said, looking down at the trampled and
blood-stained greensward. "One hour hence, and there will not be a
sign of this, if I can but dispose of him. Ha!" he added, as a quick
thought struck him, "The Devil's Drinking-Cup! Enough! it is done!"
Within a minute's space he had swathed the corpse tightly in the
cloak, which had fallen from the wretched man's shoulders as the fray
began, bound it about the waist by the scarf, to which he attached
firmly an immense block of stone, which lay at the brink of the
fearful well, which was now--for the tide was up--brimful of white
boiling surf, and holding his breath atween resolution and abhorrence,
hurled it into the abyss.
It sunk instantly, so well was the stone secured to it; and the fate
of the Chevalier de Pontrien never was suspected, for that fatal pool
never gave up its dead, nor will until the judgment-day.
Meantime the flood-gates of heaven were opened, and a mimic torrent,
rushing down the dark glen, soon obliterated every trace of that
stern, short affray.
Calmly Raoul strode homeward, and untouched by any conscience, for
those were hard and ruthless times, and he had undergone so much wrong
at the hands of his victim's nearest relatives, and dearest friends,
that it was no great marvel if his blood were heated, and his heart
pitiless.
"I will have masses said for his soul in Paris," he muttered to
himself; and therewith, thinking that he had more than discharged all
a Christian's duty, he dismissed all further thoughts of the matter,
and actually hummed a gay opera tune as he strode homeward through the
pelting storm, thinking how soon he should be blessed by the
possession of his own Melanie.
No observation was made on his absence, either by the steward or any
of the servants, on his return, though he was well-nigh drenched with
rain, for they remembered his old half-boyish, half-romantic habits,
and it seemed natural to them that on his first return, after so many
years of wandering, to scenes endeared to him by innumerable fond
recollections, he should wander forth alone to muse with his own soul
in secret.
There was great joy, however, in the hearts of the old servitors and
tenants in consequence of his return, and on the following morning,
and still on the third day, that feeling of joy and security continued
to increase, for it soon got abroad that the young lord's grief and
gloominess of mood was wearing hourly away, and that his lip, and his
whole countenance were often lighted up with an expression which
showed, as they fondly augured, that days and years of happiness were
yet in store for him.
It was not long before the tidings reached him that the house of
D'Argenson was in great distress concerning the sudden and
unaccountable disappearance of the Chevalier de Pontrien, who had
walked out, it was said, on the preceding afternoon, promising to be
back at supper-time, and who had not been heard of since.
Raoul smiled grimly at the intimation, but said nothing, and the
narrator judging that St. Renan was not likely to take offence at the
imputations against the family of Ploermel, proceeded to inform him,
that in the opinion of the neighborhood there was nothing very
mysterious, after all, in the disappearance of the chevalier, since he
was known to be very heavily in debt, and was threatened with deadly
feud by the old Sieur de Plouzurde, whose fair daughter he had
deceived to her undoing. Robinet, the smuggler's boat, had been seen
off the Penmarcks when the moon was setting, and no one doubted that
the gay gallant was by this time off the coast of Spain.
To all this, though he affected to pay little heed to it, Raoul
inclined an eager and attentive ear, and as a reward for his patient
listening, was soon informed, furthermore, that the bridegroom marquis
and the beautiful bride, being satisfied, it was supposed, of the
chevalier's safety, had departed for Paris, their journey having been
postponed only in consequence of the research for the missing
gentleman, from the morning when it should have taken place, to the
afternoon of the same day.
For two days longer did Raoul tarry at St. Renan, apparently as free
from concern or care about the fair Melanie de Ploermel, as if he had
never heard her name. And on this point alone, for all men knew that
he once loved her, did his conduct excite any observation, or call
forth comment. His silence, however, and external nonchalance were
attributed at all hands to a proper sense of pride and self-respect;
and as the territorial vassals of those days held themselves in some
degree ennobled or disgraced by the high bearing or recreancy of their
lords, it was very soon determined by the men of St. Renan that it
would have been very disgraceful and humiliating had their lord, the
Lord of Douarnez and St. Renan, condescended to trouble his head about
the little demoiselle d'Argenson.
Meanwhile our lover, whose head was in truth occupied about no other
thing than that very same little demoiselle, for whom he was believed
to feel a contempt so supreme, had thoroughly investigated all his
affairs, thereby acquiring from his old steward the character of an
admirable man of business, had made himself perfectly master of the
real value of his estates, droits, dues and all connected with the
same, and had packed up all his papers, and such of his valuables as
were movable, so as to be transported easily by means of pack-horses.
This done, leaving orders for a retinue of some twenty of his best and
most trusty servants to follow him as soon as the train and relays of
horses could be prepared, he set off with two followers only to
return, riding post, as he had come, from Paris.
He was three days behind the lady of his love at starting; but the
journey from the western extremity of Bretagne to the metropolis is at
all times a long and tedious undertaking; and as the roads and means
of conveyance were in those days, he found it no difficult task to
catch up with the carriages of the marquis, and to pass them on the
road long enough before they reached Paris.
Indeed, though he had set out three days behind them, he succeeded in
anticipating their arrival by as many, and had succeeded in
transacting more than half the business on which his heart was bent,
before he received the promised visit from the pretty Rose Faverney,
who, prompted by her desire to renew her intimacy with the handsome
page, came punctual to her appointment. He had not, of course,
admitted the good old churchman, his uncle, into all his secrets; he
had not even told him that he had seen the lady, much less what were
his hopes and views concerning her.
But he did tell him that he was so deeply mortified and wounded by her
desertion, that he had determined to sell his estates, to leave France
forever, and to betake himself to the new American colonies on the St.
Lawrence.
There was not in the state of France in those days much to admire, or
much to induce wise men to exert their influence over the young and
noble, to induce them to linger in the neighborhood of a court which
was in itself a very sink of corruption. It was with no great
difficulty, therefore, that Raoul obtained the concurrence of his
uncle, who was naturally a friend to gallant and adventurous daring.
The estates of St. Renan, the old castle and the home park, with a few
hundred acres in its immediate vicinity only excepted, were converted
into gold with almost unexampled rapidity.
A part of the gold was in its turn converted into a gallant brigantine
of some two hundred tons, which was despatched at once along the coast
of Douarnez bay, there to take in a crew of the hardy fishermen and
smugglers of that stormy shore, all men well-known to Raoul de St.
Renan, and well content to follow their young lord to the world's
end, should such be his will.
Here, indeed, I have anticipated something the progress of events, for
hurry it as much as he could in those days, St. Renan could not, of
course, work miracles; and though the brigantine was purchased, where
she lay ready to sail, at Calais, the instant the sale of St. Renan
was determined, without awaiting the completion of the transfer, or
the payment of the purchase-money, many days had elapsed before the
news could be sent from the capital to the coast, and the vessel
despatched to Britanny.
Every thing was, however, determined; nay, every thing was in process
of accomplishment before the arrival of the fair lady and her nominal
husband, so that at his first interview with Rose, Raoul was enabled
to lay all his plans before her, and to promise that within a month at
the furthest, every thing would be ready for their certain and safe
evasion.
He did not fail, however, on that account to impress upon the pretty
maiden, who, as Jules was to accompany his lord, though not a hint of
whither had been breathed to any one, was doubly devoted to the
success of the scheme, that a method must be arranged by which he
could have daily interviews with the lovely Melanie; and this she
promised that she would use all her powers to induce her mistress to
permit, saying, with a gay laugh, that her permission gained, all the
rest was easy.
The next day, the better to avoid suspicion, Raoul was presented to
the king, in full court, by his uncle, on the double event of his
return from India, and of his approaching departure for the colony of
Acadie, for which it was his present purpose to sue for his majesty's
consent and approbation.
The king was in great good humor, and nothing could have been more
flattering or more gracious than Raoul de St. Renan's reception. Louis
had heard that very morning of the fair Melanie's arrival in the city,
and nothing could have fallen out more _apropos_ than the intention of
her quondam lover to depart at this very juncture, and that, too, for
an indefinite period from the land of his birth.
Rejoicing inwardly at his good fortune, and of course, ascribing the
conduct of the young man to pique and disappointment, the king, while
he loaded him with honors and attentions, did not neglect to encourage
him in his intention of departing on a very early day, and even
offered to facilitate his departure by making some remissions in his
behalf from the strict regulations of the Douane.
All this was perfectly comprehensible to Raoul; but he was far too
wise to suffer any one, even his uncle, to perceive that he understood
it; and while he profited to the utmost by the readiness which he
found in high places to smooth away all the difficulties from his
path, he laughed in his sleeve as he thought what would be the fury of
the licentious and despotic sovereign when he should discover that the
very steps which he had taken to remove a dangerous rival, had
actually cast the lady into that rival's arms.
Nor had this measure of Raoul's been less effectual in sparing Melanie
much grief and vexation, than it had proved in facilitating his own
schemes of escape; for on that very day, within an hour after his
reception of St. Renan, the king caused information to be conveyed to
the Marquis de Ploermel that the presentation of Madame should be
deferred until such time as the Vicomte de St. Renan should have set
sail for Acadie, which it was expected would take place within a month
at the furthest.
That evening, when Rose Faverney was admitted to the young lord's
presence, through the agency of the enamored Jules, she brought him
permission to visit her lady at midnight in her own chamber; and she
brought with her a plan, sketched by Melanie's own hand, of the
garden, through which, by the aid of a master-key and a rope-ladder,
he was to gain access to her presence.
"My lady says, Monsieur Raoul," added the merry girl, with a light
laugh, "that she admits you only on the faith that you will keep the
word which you plighted to her, when last you met, and on the
condition that I shall be present at all your interviews with her."
"Her honor were safe in my hands," replied the young man, "without
that precaution. But I appreciate the motive, and accept the
condition."
"You will remember, then, my lord--at midnight. There will be one
light burning in the window, when that is extinguished, all will be
safe, and you may enter fearless. Will you remember?"
"Nothing but death shall prevent me. Nor that, if the spirits of the
dead may visit what they love best on earth. So tell her, Rose.
Farewell!"
Four hours afterward St. Renan stood in the shadow of a dense trellice
in the garden, watching the moment when that love-beacon should
expire. The clock of St. Germain l'Auxerre struck twelve, and at the
instant all was darkness. Another minute and the lofty wall was
scaled, and Melanie was in the arms of Raoul.
It was a strange, grim, gloomy gothic chamber, full of strange niches
and recesses of old stone-work. The walls were hung with gilded
tapestries of Spanish leather, but were interrupted in many places by
the antique stone groinings of alcoves and cup-boards, one of which,
close beside the mantlepiece, was closed by a curiously carved door of
heavy oak-work, itself sunk above a foot within the embrasure of the
wall.
Lighted as it was only by the flickering of the wood-fire on the
hearth, for the thickness of the walls, and the damp of the old
vaulted room rendered a fire acceptable even at midsummer, that
antique chamber appeared doubly grim and ghostly; but little cared the
young lovers for its dismal seeming; and if they noticed it at all, it
was but to jest at the contrast of its appearance with the happy hours
which they passed within it.
Happy, indeed, they were--almost too happy--though as pure and
guiltless as if they had been hours spent within a nunnery of the
strictest rule, and in the presence of a sainted abbess.
Happy, indeed, they were; and although brief, oft repeated. For,
thenceforth, not a night passed but Raoul visited his Melanie, and
tarried there enjoying her sweet converse, and bearing to her every
day glad tidings of the process of his schemes, and of the certainty
of their escape, until the approach of morning warned him to make good
his retreat ere envious eyes should be abroad to make espials.
And ever the page, Jules, kept watch at the ladder-foot in the garden;
and the true maiden, Rose, who ever sate within the chamber with the
lovers during their stolen interviews, guarded the door, with ears as
keen as those of Cerberus.
A month had passed, and the last night had come, and all was
successful--all was ready. The brigantine lay manned and armed, and at
all points prepared for her brief voyage at an instant's notice at
Calais. Relays of horses were at each post on the road. Raoul had
taken formal leave of the delighted monarch. His passport was
signed--his treasures were on board his good ship--his pistols were
loaded--his horses were harnessed for the journey.
For the last time he scaled the ladder--for the last time he stood
within the chamber.
Too happy! ay, they were too happy on that night, for all was done,
all was won; and nothing but the last step remained, and that step so
easy. The next morning Melanie was to go forth, as if to early mass,
with Rose and a single valet. The valet was to be mastered and
overthrown as if in a street broil, the lady, with her damsel, was to
step into a light caleshe, which should await her, with her lover
mounted at its side, and high for Calais--England--without the
risk--the possibility of failure.
That night he would not tarry. He told his happy tidings, clasped her
to his heart, bid her farewell till to-morrow, and in another moment
would have been safe--a step sounded close to the door. Rose sprang to
her feet, with her finger to her lip, pointing with her left hand to
the deep cupboard-door.
She was right--there was not time to reach the window--at the same
instant, as Melanie relighted the lamp, not to be taken in mysterious
and suspicious darkness, the one door closed upon the lover just as
the other opened to the husband.
But rapid and light as were the motions of Raoul, the treacherous door
by which he had passed into his concealment, trembled still as
Ploermel entered. And Rose's quick eye saw that he marked it.
But if he saw it, he gave no token, made no allusion to the least
doubt or suspicion; on the contrary, he spoke more gayly and kindly
than his wont. He apologized for his untimely intrusion, saying that
her father had come suddenly to speak with them, concerning her
presentation at court, which the king had appointed for the next day,
and wished, late as it was, to see her in the saloon below.
Nothing doubting the truth of his statement, which Raoul's intended
departure rendered probable, Melanie started from her chair, and
telling Rose to wait, for she would back in an instant, hurried out of
the room, and took her way toward the great staircase.
The marquis ordered Rose to light her mistress, for the corridor was
dark; and as the girl went out to do so, a suppressed shriek, and the
faint sounds of a momentary scuffle followed, and then all was still.
A hideous smile flitted across the face of de Ploermel, as he cast
himself heavily into an arm-chair, opposite to the door of the
cupboard in which St. Renan was concealed, and taking up a silver bell
which stood on the table, rung it repeatedly and loudly for a servant.
"Bring wine," he said, as the man entered. "And, hark you, the masons
are at work in the great hall, and have left their tools and materials
for building. Let half a dozen of the grooms come up hither, and bring
with them brick and mortar. I hate the sight of that cupboard, and
before I sleep this night, it shall be built up solid with a good wall
of mason-work; and so here's a health to the rats within it, and a
long life to them!" and he quaffed off the wine in fiendish triumph.
He spoke so loud, and that intentionally, that Raoul heard every word
that he uttered.
But if he hoped thereby to terrify the lover into discovering himself,
and so convicting his fair and innocent wife, the villain was
deceived. Raoul heard every word--knew his fate--knew that one word,
one motion would have saved him; but that one word, one motion would
have destroyed the fair fame of his Melanie.
The memory of the death of that unhappy Lord of Kerguelen came
palpably upon his mind in that dread moment, and the comments of his
dead father.
"I, at least," he muttered, between his hard set teeth, "I at least,
will not be evidence against her. I will die silent--_fiel a la
muerte_!"
And when the brick and mortar were piled by the hands of the
unconscious grooms, and when the fatal trowels clanged and jarred
around him, he spake not--stirred not--gave no sign.
Even the savage wretch, de Ploermel, unable to believe in the
existence of such chivalry, such honor, half doubted if he were not
deceived, and the cupboard were not untenanted by the true victim.
Higher and higher rose the wall before the oaken door; and by the
exclusion of the light of the many torches by which the men were
working, the victim must have marked, inch by inch, the progress of
his living immersement. The page, Jules, had climbed in silence to the
window's ledge, and was looking in, an unseen spectator, for he had
heard all that passed from without, and suspected his lord's presence
in the fatal precinct.
But as he saw the wall rise higher--higher--as he saw the last brick
fastened in its place solid, immovable from within, and that without
strife or opposition, he doubted not but that there was some concealed
exit by which St. Renan had escaped, and he descended hastily and
hurried homeward.
Now came the lady's trial--the trial that shall prove to de Ploermel
whether his vengeance was complete. She was led in with Rose, a
prisoner. _Lettres de cachet_ had been obtained, when the treason of
some wretched subordinate had revealed the secret of her intended
flight with Raoul; and the officers had seized the wife by the
connivance of the shameless husband.
"See!" he said, as she entered, "see, the fool suffered himself to be
walled up there in silence. There let him die in agony. You, madam,
may live as long as you please in the Bastille, _au secret_."
She saw that all was lost--her lover's sacrifice was made--she could
not save him! Should she, by a weak divulging of the truth, render his
grand devotion fruitless? Never!
Her pale cheek did not turn one shade the paler, but her keen eye
flashed living fire, and her beautiful lip writhed with loathing and
scorn irrepressible.
"It is thou who art the fool!" she said, "who hast made all this coil,
to wall up a poor cat in a cupboard, as it is thou who art the base
knave and shameless pandar, who hast attempted to do murther, and all
to sell thine own wife to a corrupt and loathsome tyrant!"
All stood aghast at her fierce words, uttered with all the eloquence
and vehemence of real passion, but none so much as Rose, who had never
beheld her other than the gentlest of the gentle. Now she wore the
expression, and spoke with the tone of a young Pythoness, full of the
fury of the god.
She sprung forward as she uttered the last words, extricating herself
from the slight hold of the astonished officers, and rushed toward her
cowed and craven husband.
"But in all things, mean wretch," she continued, in tones of fiery
scorn, "in all things thou art frustrate--thy vengeance is naught, thy
vile ambition naught, thyself and thy king, fools, knaves, and
frustrate equally. And now," she added, snatching the dagger which
Raoul had given her from the scabbard, "now die, infamous, accursed
pandar!" and with the word she buried the keen weapon at one quick
and steady stroke to the very hilt in his base and brutal heart.
Then, ere the corpse had fallen to the earth, or one hand of all those
that were stretched out to seize her had touched her person, she smote
herself mortally with the same reeking weapon, and only crying out in
a clear, high voice, "Bear witness, Rose, bear witness to my honor!
Bear witness all that I die spotless!" fell down beside the body of
her husband, and expired without a struggle or a groan.
Awfully was she tried, and awfully she died. Rest to her soul if it be
possible.
The caitiff Marquis de Ploermel perished, as she had said, in all
things frustrated; for though his vengeance was in very deed complete,
he believed that it had failed, and in his very agony that failure was
his latest and his worst regret.
On the morrow, when St. Renan returned not to his home, the page gave
the alarm, and the fatal wall was torn down, but too late.
The gallant victim of love's honor was no more. Doomed to a lingering
death he had died speedily, though by no act of his own. A
blood-vessel had burst within, through the violence of his own
emotions. Ignorant of the fate of his sweet Melanie, he had died, as
he had lived, the very soul of honor; and when they buried him, in the
old chapel of his Breton castle, beside his famous ancestors, none
nobler lay around him; and the brief epitaph they carved upon his
stone was true, at least, if it were short and simple, for it ran only
thus--
=Raoul de St. Renan.
Fiel a la Muerte.=
THE POET'S HEART.--TO MISS O. B.
BY CHARLES E. TRAIL.
Like rays of light, divinely bright,
Thy sunny smiles o'er all disperse;
And let the music of thy voice,
More softly flow than Lesbian verse.
By all the witchery of love,
By every fascinating art--
The worldly spirit strive to move,
But spare, O spare, the Poet's heart!
Within its pure recesses, deep,
A fount of tender feeling lies;
Whose crystal waters, while they sleep,
Reflect the light of starry skies.
Thy voice might prophet-like unclose
Its bonds, and bid those waters start,
But why disturb their sweet repose?
Spare, lady, spare the Poet's heart!
It cannot be that one so fair,
The idol of the courtly throng--
Would condescend his lot to share,
And bless the lowly child of song,
Would realize the soul-wrought dreams,
That of his being form a part,
And mingle with his sweetest themes;
Then spare, O spare, the poet's heart!
The poet's heart! ye know it not,
Its hopes, its sympathies, its fears;
The joys that glad its humble lot;
The griefs that melt it into tears.
'Tis like some flower, that from the ground
Scarce dares to lift its petals up,
Though honeyed sweets are ever found
Indwelling in its golden cup.
Love comes to him in sweeter guise,
Than he appears to other men--
Heav'n-born, descended from the skies,
And longing to return again.
But bid him not with me abide,
If he can no relief impart;
Ah, hide those smiles, those glances hide,
And spare, O spare, the Poet's heart!
THE RETURN TO SCENES OF CHILDHOOD.
BY GRETTA.
"You have come again," said the dark old trees,
As I entered my childhood's home.
"You have come again," said the whispering breeze,
"And wherefore have you come?
"When last I played round your youthful brow
Its morning's light was there,
But you bring back a shadow upon it now,
And a saddened look of care.
"Have you come, have you left earth's noisy strife,
To seek your favorite flowers?
They are gone, like the hopes which lit your life,
Like your childhood's sunny hours.
"Have you come to seek for your shady dell,
For that spot in the moonlit grove,
Where first you were bound by the magic spell,
And thrilled to the voice of love?
"Has your heart been true to that early vow,
And pure as that trickling tear?
Does that voice of music charm you now
As once it charmed you here?
"Years have been short, and few, since last
As a child you roamed the glen;
But what have you learned since hence you passed,
What have you lost since then?
"You have brought back a woman's ruddier cheek,
A woman's fuller form,
But where is the look so timid and meek,
The blush so quick and warm?
"Have you come to seek for the smiles of yore,
For your brief life's faded light?
Do you hope to hear in these shades once more
The blessing and 'good-night?'
"Do you come again for the kisses sweet,
Do you look as you onward pass
For the mingled prints of the tiny feet
In the fresh and springing grass?
"Have you come to sit on a parent's knee
And gaze on his reverend brow?
Or to nestle in love and childish glee
On her bosom, that's pulseless now?
"Why come you back? We can give you naught,
No more the past is ours,
Thine early scenes with their blessings fraught,
Thy childhood's golden hours."
I have come, I have come, oh haunts of youth,
With a worn and weary heart;
I have come to recall the love and truth
Of my young life's guileless part.
I have come to bend o'er the holy spot
Where I prayed by a father's knee--
Oh I am changed--but I ne'er forgot
His look, his smile for me.
I have not been true to my heart's first love
Here pledged 'neath the moonlit heaven,
But I come to kneel in the lonely grove
And ask to be forgiven.
I have not brought back the hopes of youth,
Or the gentle look so meek,
I mourn o'er my perished faith and truth
And the quick blush of my cheek.
But, oh ye scenes, that have once beguiled,
In the peaceful days of yore.
I would come again like a little child
With the trust I knew before.
I would call back every hope and fear,
The heart throbs full and high,
The prattling child that rambled here,
And ask if it were _I_?
And I would recall the murmured prayer,
And the dark eyes look of love,
While unseen angels hovered there
From the starry worlds above.
And I've come to seek one flower here,
Just one, in its fading bloom,
Though it must be culled with a gushing tear
From a parent's grassy tomb.
And I'll bear it away on my lonely breast,
As a charm 'mid earth's stormy strife,
An amulet, worn to give me rest,
On the billowy waves of life.
I wait not now by the dancing rill
For the steps of my playmates fair--
They are gone--but yon heaven is o'er me still,
And I'll seek to meet them there.
Parents, and friends, and hopes are gone,
And these memories only given,
But they shall be links, while the heart is lone,
In the "chain" that reaches heaven.
SUNSHINE AND RAIN.
BY GEORGE S. BURLEIGH.
O Blessed sunshine, and thrice-blessed rain,
How ye do warm and melt the rugged soil,--
Which else were barren, nathless all my toil
And summon Beauty from her grave again,
To breathe live odors o'er my scant domain:
How softly from their parting buds uncoil
The furléd sweets, no more a shriveled spoil
To the loud storm, or canker's silent bane;
Were it all sun, the heat would shrink them up;
Were it all shower, then piteous blight were sure;
Now hangs the dew in every nodding cup,
Shooting new glories from its orblets pure.
Sunshine and shower, I shrink from your extremes,
But with delight behold your blended gleams.
THE CHRISTMAS GARLAND.
BY MISS EMMA WOOD.
CHAPTER I.
THE BOARDING-SCHOOL.
Christmas is coming! The glad sound awakes a thrill of joy in many a
heart. The children clap their tiny hands and laugh aloud in the
exuberance of their mirth as bright visions of varied toys and rich
confectionary flit before their minds. The sound of merry sports--the
gathering of the social band--the banquet--all are scenes of joy.
Shout on bright children, for your innocent mirth will rise as incense
to Him who was even as one of you. The Son of God once reposed his
head upon a mortal breast and wept the tears of infancy. Now risen to
His throne of glory, his smile is still upon you, bright Blossoms of
Blessedness.
Christmas is coming! is the cry of the young and gay, and with light
hearts they prepare for the approaching festival. The holyday robes
are chosen, and the presents selected which shall bring joy to so many
hearts. The lover studies to determine what gift will be acceptable to
his mistress, and the maiden dreams of love-tokens and honeyed words.
Nor is the church forgotten amid the gathering of holyday array, for
that, too, must be robed in beauty. The young claim its adornment as
their appropriate sphere, and rich garlands of evergreen, mingled with
scarlet berries, are twined around its pillars, or festooned along its
walls. Swiftly speeds their welcome task, and a calm delight fills
their hearts, as they remember Him who assumed mortality, and passed
the ordeal of earthly life, that he might be, in all things, like unto
mankind. Blessed be this thought, ye joyous ones, and if after-years
shall bring sorrow or bitterness, ye may remember that the Holiest has
trod that path before, and that deeper sorrow than mortality can
suffer, once rested upon his guiltless head.
Christmas is coming! is the thought of the aged, and memory goes back
to the joys of other years, when the pulses of life beat full and
free, and their keen sensibilities were awake to the perception of the
beautiful. Now the dim eye can no longer enjoy the full realization of
beauty, and the ear is deaf to the melodies of Nature, but they can
drink from the fountain of memory, and while looking upon the mirth of
the youthful, recollect that once they, too, were light-hearted and
joyous. Blessed to them is the approaching festival, and as they
celebrate the birth of the Redeemer, they may remember that He bore
the trials of life without a murmur, and laid down in the lone grave,
to ensure the resurrection of the believer, while faith points to the
hour when they shall inherit the glory prepared for them by His
mission of suffering.
Christmas is coming! shouted we, the school-girls of Monteparaiso
Seminary, as we rushed from the school-room, in glad anticipation, of
the holydays. How gladly we laid down the books over which we had been
poring, vainly endeavoring to fix our minds upon their pages, and
gathered in various groups to plan amusements for the coming festival.
One week only, and the day would come, the pleasures of which we had
been anticipating for months. Our stockings must be hung up on
Christmas Eve, though the pleasure was sadly marred because each of us
must, in our turn, represent the good Santa-Claus, and contribute to
the stockings of our schoolmates, instead of going quietly to bed, and
finding them filled on Christmas morning by the good saint, or some of
his representatives. How eagerly we watched the Hudson each morning,
to see if its waves remained unfettered by ice, not only because the
daily arrival of the steamboat from New York was an era in our
un-eventful lives, but there were many of our number whose parents or
friends resided in the city, from whom they expected visits or
presents. We were like a prisoned sisterhood, yet we did not pine in
our solitude, for there were always wild, mirth-loving spirits in our
midst, so full of fun and frolic that the exuberance of their spirits
was continually breaking out, much to the discomfort of tutors and
governesses. When the holydays were approaching, and the strict
discipline usually maintained among the pupils was somewhat relaxed,
these outbreaks became more numerous, insomuch that lessons were
carelessly omitted, or left unlearned. When study hours were over
misrule was triumphant. Lizzie Lincoln could not find a seat at the
table where some of the older girls were manufacturing fancy articles
for Christmas presents, and avenged herself by pinning together the
dresses of the girls who were seated around the table, and afterward
fastening each dress to the carpet. Fan Selby saw the manoeuvre, and
ran to her room, where she equipped herself in a frightful looking
mask, which she had manufactured of brown paper, painted in horrid
devices. Arrayed in this mask, and a long white wrapper, she came
stalking in at the door of the sitting-room. In their fright the girls
screamed and tried to rush from the table, when a scene of confusion
ensued which beggars description. The noise reached the ears of the
teachers, who came from different parts of the house to the scene of
the riot, but ere they reached it, Fan had deposited the mask out of
sight in her own room, and was again in her place, looking as innocent
as if nothing had happened. She even aided the teachers in their
search for the missing "fright." When this fruitless search was ended,
and a monitress placed in the sitting-room to prevent further riots,
a new alarm was raised. Mary Lee blackened her face with burnt cork,
and entered the kitchen by the outside door, begging for cold
victuals, much to the terror of the raw Hibernians who were very
quietly sitting before the fire, and telling tales of the Emerald
Isle, for they feared a negro as they would some wild beast. They ran
up stairs to give the alarm, but when they returned the bird had
flown, and while a fruitless search was instituted throughout the
basement, Mary was in her own room, hastily removing the ebon tinge
from her face. Such were a few among the many wild pranks of the
mischief spirits, invented to while away the time. Quite different
from this was the employment of the "sisterhood." A number of the
older pupils of the school had seated themselves night after night
around the table which stood in the centre of the sitting-room, in
nearly the same places, with their needle-work, until it was finally
suggested, that, after the manner of the older people, we should form
a regularly organized society. Each member should every night take her
accustomed place, and one should read while the others were busy with
their needle-work. To add a tinge of romance to the whole, we gave to
each of our members the name of some flower as a soubriquet by which
we might be known, and Lizzie Lincoln (our secretary) kept a humorous
diary of the "Sayings and Doings of Flora's Sisterhood." Anna Lincoln
was the presidentess of our society, and we gave her the name of Rose,
because the queen of flowers seemed a fitting type of her majestic
beauty. But the favorite of all was Clara Adams, to whom the name of
Violet seemed equally appropriate. Her modesty, gentleness, and
affectionate disposition had won the love of all, from Annie Lincoln,
the oldest pupil, down to little Ella Selby, who lisped her praises of
dear Clara Adams, and seemed to love her far better than she did her
own mad-cap sister.
When we celebrated May-day Clara was chosen queen of May, though
Lizzie Lincoln was more beautiful, and Anna seemed more queenly. It
was the instinctive homage that young hearts will pay to goodness and
purity, which made us feel as if she deserved the brightest crown we
could bestow. If one of us were ill, Clara could arrange the pillows
or bathe the throbbing temples more tenderly than any other, and
bitter medicines seemed less disgusting when administered by her. Was
there a hard lesson to learn, a difficult problem to solve, a
rebellious drawing that would take any form or shadowing but the right
one, Clara was the kind assistant, and either task seemed equally easy
to her. While we sat around the table that evening, little Ella Selby
was leaning on the back of Clara's chair, and telling, in her own
childish way, of the manifold perfections of one Philip Sidney, a
classmate of her brother in college, who had spent a vacation with him
at her home. Ella was quite sure that no other gentleman was half so
handsome, so good, or kind as Mr. Sidney, and she added,
"I know he loves Clara, for I have told him a great deal about her,
and he says that he does."
The girls all laughed at her simple earnestness, and bright blushes
rose in Clara's face. Many prophecies for the future were based on
this slight foundation, and Clara was raised to the rank of a heroine.
It needs but slight fuel to feed the flame of romance in a
school-girl's breast, and these dreamings might long have been
indulged but for an interruption. A servant came, bringing a basket,
with a note from the ladies engaged in decorating the church,
requesting the young ladies of the school to prepare the letters for a
motto on the walls of the church. The letters were cut from
pasteboard, to be covered with small sprigs of box. Pleased with the
novelty of our task we were soon busily engaged, under the direction
of Clara and Anna Lincoln. Even the "mischief spirits" ceased their
revels to watch our progress. Thus passed that evening, and as the
next day was Saturday, and of course a holyday, we completed our work.
The garlands were not to be hung in the church until the Wednesday
following, as Friday was Christmas day. We employed ourselves after
study hours the intervening days in finishing the presents we had
commenced for each other. On Wednesday morning Lucy Gray, one of our
day-scholars, brought a note from her mother, requesting that she
might be excused from her afternoon lessons, and inviting the teachers
and young ladies of the school to join them in dressing the church.
Here was a prospect for us of some rare enjoyment; and how we plead
for permission, and promised diligence and good behaviour for the
future, those who remember their own school-days can easily imagine.
At length permission was granted that Anna and Lizzie Lincoln, Fan
Selby, Clara Adams, and I, accompanied by one of the teachers, might
assist them for an hour or two in the afternoon. Never did hours seem
longer to us than those that passed after the permission was given
till we were on our way. The village was about half a mile from our
seminary, but the walk was a very pleasant one, and when we reached
the church our faces glowed with exercise in the keen December air. We
found a very agreeable company assembled there, laughing and chatting
gayly as they bound the branches of evergreen together in rich
wreaths. Our letters were fastened to the walls, forming a beautiful
inscription, and little remained to be done, save arranging the
garlands. Clara and Fan Selby finished the wreaths for the altar, and
were fastening them in their places, when a new arrival caused Fan to
drop her wreath, and hasten toward the new-comers, exclaiming,
"Brother Charles, I am so glad to see you!"
Then, after cordially greeting his companion, she asked eagerly of her
brother,
"Have you come to take us home?"
"No, mad-cap," was the laughing reply, "we are but too glad to be free
for one Christmas from your wild pranks. Sidney is spending the
Christmas holydays with me, and as the day was fine we thought we
would visit you. When we reached the village we learned that several
of the young ladies of the school were at the church, and called,
thinking that you might be of the number."
Turning to Sidney, Fan said, playfully,
"Follow me, and I will introduce you to Ella's favorite, Clara Adams."
Before Clara had time to recover from her confusion caused by their
entrance Fan had led Philip Sidney to her, and introduced him as the
friend of whom little Ella had told her so much. The eloquent blushes
in Clara's face revealed in part the dreams that had been excited in
her breast, while Philip, with self-possessed gallantry, begged leave
to assist her in her task, and uttered some commonplace expressions,
till Clara was sufficiently composed to take her part in conversation.
The teacher who accompanied us, alarmed at his attention, placed
herself near them, but his manner was so respectful that she could
find no excuse to interrupt their conversation. Philip Sidney was
eminently handsome, and as his dark eye rested admiringly upon her,
who will wonder that Clara became more than usually animated! nor is
it strange that the low, musical tones of his voice, breathing
thoughts of poetry with the earnestness of love, should awaken a new
train of thought in the simple school-girl. She answered in few words,
but the drooping of her fringed lids and the bright color in her cheek
replied more eloquently than words. The moments flew swiftly, the
garlands were placed, and the teacher who had watched them with an
anxious eye, announced that it was time to return to the seminary.
Philip knew too well the strictness of boarding-school rules to hope
for a longer interview, yet even for the sake of looking longer on her
graceful figure, and perchance stealing another glance from her bright
eyes, he insisted upon seeing little Ella. Charles Selby objected, as
it was growing late, and he had an engagement for the evening in the
city. Reluctantly Philip bade Clara farewell, and from the door of the
church watched her receding figure until she disappeared around the
turn of the road. From that moment Clara was invested by her
schoolmates with all the dignity of a heroine of romance, and half the
giddy girls in school teazed her mercilessly, and then laid their
heads upon their pillows only to dream of lovers.
Christmas eve came. The elder ladies of the school accompanied our
Principal to the church to listen to the services of the evening. We
were scarcely seated when we perceived nearly opposite to us, that
same Philip Sidney, who was the hero of our romance. Poor Clara! I sat
by her side, and fancied I could hear the throbbing of her heart as
those dark, expressive eyes were fixed again on hers, speaking the
language of admiration too plainly to be mistaken. Then as the
services proceeded, his countenance wore a shadow of deeper thought,
and his eyes were fixed upon the speaker. Thus he remained in earnest
attention till the services closed. When we left the church, a smile,
and bow of recognition passed between him and Clara, but no word was
spoken. Our sports that evening had no power to move her to mirth, but
she remained silent and abstracted. The next Saturday Mrs. Selby came
to see her daughter, and soon after her arrival, Fan laid a small
package on the table mysteriously, saying to Clara, "You must answer
it immediately," and left the room. Clara broke the seal, and as she
removed the envelope, a ring, containing a small diamond, beautifully
set, fell to the floor. I picked it up, and looking on the inside, saw
the name of Philip Sidney. As soon as she had read the note, she gave
it to me, and placed the ring upon her finger. Then severing a small
branch from a myrtle plant, which we kept in our room as a relic of
home, she placed it, with a sprig of box, in an envelope, and, after
directing it to Philip Sidney, gave it to Fan, who enclosed it in a
letter to her brother. The note which Clara gave me was as follows:
"Forgive my presumption, dear Clara, in addressing you, so lately a
stranger. Think not that I am an idle flatterer, when I say that your
beauty and worth have awakened a deep love for you in my heart, and
this love must be my excuse. I would have sought another interview
with you, but I know the rules of your school would have forbid, and
the only alternative remaining is to make this avowal, or be forgotten
by you. I do not ask you now to promise to be mine, or even to love
me, till I have proved myself worthy of your affection. My past life
has been one of thoughtlessness and inaction, but it shall be my
endeavor in future to atone for those misspent years. Your image will
ever be with me as a bright spirit from whose presence I cannot flee,
and whisper hope when my energies would fail. I only ask your
remembrance till I am worthy to claim your love. If you do not see me
or hear from me at the end of five years, you may believe that I have
failed to secure the desired position in the world, or am no longer
living. Will you grant me this favor--to wear the ring enclosed, and
sometimes think of me? If so, send me some token by Mrs. S., to tell
me that I may hope."
The evergreens, with their language of love and constancy were the
token, and the ring sparkled upon Clara's finger, so that I knew well
that Philip Sidney would not soon be forgotten.