"To lawless love, when once betray'd,
Soon crime to crime succeeds;
At length beguil'd to theft, the maid
By her beguiler bleeds.
"Yet learn, seducing men, not night,
With all its sable cloud,
Can screen the guilty deed from sight:
Foul murder cries aloud!
"The gaping wounds, the blood-stain'd steel,
Now shock his trembling soul;
But ah! what pangs his breast must feel
When death his knell shall toll!"
[Illustration: CRUELTY IN PERFECTION.]
An early indulged habit of wanton cruelty strengthens by time,
chokes every good disposition, corrupts the mind, and sears the
heart. We cannot say to the malevolent passions,
"Thus far shall ye go, and no further."
The hero of this print began by torturing a helpless dog; he then
beat out the eye of an unoffending horse; and now, under the
influence of that malignant rancorous spirit, which by indulgence
is become natural, he commits murder--most foul and aggravated
murder!--for this poor deluded girl is pregnant by the wretch who
deprives her of life. He tempts her to quit a happy situation; to
plunder an indulgent mistress, and meet him with the produce of her
robbery. Blinded by affection, she keeps the fatal appointment, and
comes loaded with plate. This remorseless villain, having previously
determined to destroy her, and by that means cancel his promise of
marriage, free himself from an expected encumbrance, and silence one
whom compunction might at a future day induce to confess the crime
and lead to his detection, puts her to death!
This atrocious act must have been perpetrated with most savage
barbarity, for the head is nearly severed, and the wrist cut almost
through. Her cries are heard by the servants of a neighbouring house,
who run to her assistance. 'Tis too late. The horrid deed is done!
The ethereal spirit is forced from its earthly mansion,
"Unhousell'd, unappointed, unaneal'd!"
but the murderer, appalled by conscious guilt, and rendered
motionless by terror, cannot fly. He is seized without resistance,
and consigned to that punishment which so aggravated a violation of
the laws of nature and his country demand.
The glimpses of the moon, the screech-owl and bat hovering in the
air, the mangled corpse, and above all, the murderer's ghastly and
guilty countenance, give terrific horror to this awful scene.[34]
By the pistol in his pocket and watches on the ground, we have
reason to infer that this callous wretch has been committing other
depredations in the earlier part of the evening. The time is what has
been emphatically called "the witching hour!"--the iron tongue of
midnight has told ONE!
The letter found in his pocket gives a history of the transaction; it
appears to be dictated by the warmest affection, and written by the
woman he has just murdered, previous to her elopement:--
"DEAR TOMMY,--My mistress has been the best of women to me, and
my conscience flies in my face as often as I think of wronging
her; yet I am resolved to venture body and soul to do as you
would have me; so do not fail to meet me as you said you would,
for I shall bring along with me all the things I can lay my hands
on. So no more at present; but I remain yours till death.
"ANN GILL."
This is the simple effusion of a too credulous heart; whatever would
lessen the solemnity of the scene is carefully avoided; neither bad
spelling, nor any other ridiculous circumstances that might create
laughter are introduced.