The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. towards Juan's rustic seat, but very slowly, for the convalescent was yet very weak. Arrived there, she knelt down, and after a short silent prayer she turned to Gertrude, and embracino. .her said, " Bless your daughter, dear mother, for the last time : you will never see her again." " What do you mean, my child ?" " The truth. lam going away. You will say good-bye for me to him, mother ; and tell him that it is my very love for him that forces me to fly." " But, dear one," said Gertrude, detaining her, " you wrong our Juan ; he has a noble heart, and he will love you all the better for these noble scars, when he hears that it was in saving me from a dreadful death you received them." " He has a noble heart," replied the girl ; " and I know, that he would marry me, and try to make nie happy ; but how could I endure his averted looks— his sorrow P No, no ; I shall suffer much less in suffering alone. Just then a well-known bark was heard, and a large white dog rushed out of the Woody path. " Caesar !" cried Gertrude. "'Where is your master ?" " Here he is," replied an agitated voice; and holding one end of a cord, of which the other was fastened to Caesar's collar, a soldier appeared. " Mother ! are you here ? Where is Marguerite ? Why don't you come and embrace your poor blind wanderer ?" _ _ " Blind!" 'exclaimed Marguerite; and fixing her eyes on her betrothed, she saw that his eyes were covered with a bandage. I cannot describe the emo tions of all three ; suffice it to say, that, after an in credible number of embraces, Gertrude and her two children - returned to my house, and we passed a de lightful evening. Here the curate stopped, and I thought his tale was ended. "Well," I said, " I suppose the blind warrior and his betrothed—still, in his imagination, blooming in all her youthful charms—were speedily united ?" " They were," he replied. "It was I who married them : but I have somewhat more to tell you of them. Their cottage, by the willing aid of all the villagers, was soon rebuilt, and they removed into it. Their circumstances were very comfortable, and Juan sup ported his infirmity—caused, he told me, by the ex plosion of a mine—with the iltnugt cheerfulness. His tenderness for his wife seemed to increase every day ; and yet she was evidently not happy. She be came a prey to constant melancholy, and her health and strength visibly declined. Her old friend, the - doe{ or, visited and prescribed for her, but :vithout " y ar is at fault," he said to me. "Her body suffers, but the seat of the disease is her mind. Do you try to discover what the secret which weighs on her may be,. or I cannot answer for her life." Alas ! how could I apply the consolations of religion to a case of which the sufferer persisted in keeping me profoundly iomorant ? Once she seemed on the point of opening her mind, but Juan entered the room, and she was silent ; nor could I ever afterwards induce her to speak freely. Meantime her, bodily condition became very precarious ; and Juan, who was now aware of her danger, scarcely ever stirred from her bedside. Old Gertrude, as you may suppose, was scarcely less anxious about her. One evening, when I was in theetottage, the doctor arrived ; and having examined'his patient, pronounced that, unless sonic powerful reaction took place, she could pot long survive. How solemn were the moments that succeeded this announcement ! Poor Juan grasped convulsively the hand of his wife, while large tears streamed from beneath his bandage. I began to exhort her on the subject of religion ; and when I spoke of the mercy of her Maker, she ex claimed : " Oh, I have great need of mercy, for my conscience is burthened with a heavy load. Listen," she continued, addressing us all, " and tell me whether I can hope for forgiveness." Grouped around her bed, we waited in silent asto nishment. Marguerite had raised herself into a sitting posture ; her wasted arms, her disordered hair, her sunken features, her hollow eyes, gleaming with a igh; like that of a lamp kindling up before it is extingutshol for ever, lent an air of indescribable solemnity to tie scene. Placing her hand in her husband's, she sad : " Juan, you remember, when we separated, the iro liaise which we made of mutual fidelity ? My leart was yours, and yours was mine. Well, the tenor of osing that heart caused roe to commit a grievors sin. I pictured you to myself with shocked, averted looks at the first sight of her who was once named the Pearl ; and in the agony, the delirium of the moment, I cried to heaven, 0 God ! either give me back my beauty, or take from him his eyesight !' The moment the selfish, impious prayer was uttered, I bitterly repented, and would fain have recalled It ; but too late ! Juan ! the wish was granted, and I have never known since one moment's happiness." " What!" cried her husband, " and is this the secret, Marguerite, which is kiting you ?' " It is." " Then live, dearest, and be happy ; your prayer was not answered." And tearing off the bandage which covered his eyes, he fell on his wife's bosom, and Clasped her in a long embrace. It appeared that the blindness Which had fallen on Juan was of only a temporary nature. Under the skilful treatment of our friend the strgeon, whom he privately consulted, the power of vistm began slowly but surely to return. Having, howeter, heard from his grandmother the whole history of Marguerite's horror at the idea of his beholding her Casfigured face, he generously determined to conceal from her his cure, at least for a time. Now, however, it was sud denly revealed; and was it too late ? The doctor, motioning us all away from the bed, took his patient's hand, and felt her pulse ; a hopeful smile played on his benevolent lips. " My friend," said he, turning to me, e the age of miracles has not ceased—Marguerite is cud !" Here the good man ceased, and, after a pause, I asked, "And was Marguerite in reality so 'very much disfigured ?" " You shall judge for yourself." We walked on, and soon reached a neat and pretty cottage, covered in front with a luxuriant vile. • An old woman sat near the doorway spinning, ani placed on a low chair by her side, a young woman was nursing an infant. Her figure was remarkably ora, ce ful, and her face,, although certainly not handsome, was by no means repulsive. It was even easy to dis tinguish, amid the seams and scars which marked it, the vestiges of great beauty. There was a touching expression of serene tenderness shed over her features as she looked on her child, which in my eyes amply compensated for the want of regular comeliness. The curate advanced. " Good morning, Mar guerite," he said. " Good morning, sir," she answered, looking up with a beaming smile. " How is baby to-day ?" "As well as possible," said the happy mother, hold ing up, and showing her nursling's rosy dimpled cheeks. " Well, Marguerite, ,, said the good old man, taking the innocent little creature in his arms, and kissing its tender forehead, " I could fancy this is yourself as I remember you on the day that I baptised you. Come, the val:ey of Campan has not lost its Pearl—it is restored inthe person Of your lovely little daughter." PETER THE GREAT RIDING —Phillips, in his Sylva _Florife, ing curious anecdote about this —" Evelyn tells us that his gar 4 surrounded with an impregnabl feet in length, nine feet high, It mocks,' says this worthy assaults of the weather, beast: and it was almost the only the garden that was not destroyed la: 11Ir. Evelyn had lent his house order that he might be near the during his stay in England ; an( imperial shipwright was so font wheelbarrow over the box edginl author of Sylva,• that they we , which,' says he, I can show dens at Say's Court (thanks to t. was evidently a good Christian, overlooked the passage in seri Put not your confidence in lar appear that the Emperor of Rus: recompense for the devastation the garden and in the mansion. CHIEF JUSTICE NORBURY C He usually began by pronouncs miums upon the party in the he intended to advise the ju diet. For this the audience and accordingly, after he defendant was one of the mi alive, and that he knew his fat: suddenly came with a most sing he accompanied with a strang( the fatal " but," which made the expectation of it, burst into a fit proceeded to charge, as he all the plaintiff's favour. He then as he said, into the case, and, fli , half aside, and sometimes castb4 from his seat, and threw off a Wla neither law, method, nor argumei It generally consisted of narrate' history of his early life, which associate with the subject—of j , mixed with jokes of his own PT, castic . allusions to any o f endeavoured to check him dT oit exceedingly fond of T ic " 1 Shakespeare, which, however _ exceedingly well delivered , and enunciation. At the conclusio n souls efforts to call the attenti leading incident which partial what he meant it was not vei and when he sat down, the whi bited a mind which resembled a which law, facts, arguments, an' unfathomable confusion.---Skei7 CHARiatli OF VESPASIAN. was defeated by the generals success was partly due to their partly to the treachery of his of the superior weight of his cha. directed upon him the public was most fortunate. The dar passed away, and a cloudless ef had been a long thirty years waste. To this had been adder the civil war. In Vespasian th( governor adequate to its wants full justice done him. He repl position in which Tiberius had ordered, both internally and more than Tiberius, for, by his life, he effected a very marke' state of public morals. Ves; recollections of old enmities, a offence from his friends. Ev provocation, he contented himi Mucianus. He dealt gently w predecessors' tyranny, for his him that the majority obey wit fear, a tyrant's mandates of crue. still, he dealt gently with tll-6 e s do against himself, for they were led to c o ignorance of the burthen and al lll° . e of` power. At home and abroad his, eo a equally respected. The Parthiang so" and kept peace. Palestine, Ciliog'g were added to the list of provinee'c' LITERARY EXTRACTS. THE FIRST OYSTER EATER.-It has often been said tha,l he must have been a bold man who first ate an oyster. This is in ignorance of the legend which assigns the first act of oyster-eating to a very natural cause It is related that a man walking one day pickal up one of these savoury bivalves just as it was in tle act of gaping. Observing the extreme smooth ness of the -interior of the shells, he insinuated his firer between them, that he might feel their shining sirface, when suddenly they closed upon the exploring (*it, with a sensation less pleasing than he antler rated. The prompt withdrawal of his finger was scarcely a more natural movement than its transfer. It is not very clear why people, when they hurt their fingers, put them into their mouths ; but it is very certain that they do ; and in this case the result was most fortunate. The owner of the finger tasted oyster juice for the first time, as the Chinaman in Elia's essay, having burned his finger, first tasted cracklin. The savour was delicious ; he had made a great discovery; so he picked up the oyster, forced open the shells, banqueted upon their contents, and soon brought oyster-eating into fashion. And, unlike most fashions, it has never gone, and is never likely to go, out.— North British Review. ,thl , ,T .11 p''. R,- gui , .i 0 , 'i A O O:0 l'4trto , ; IN A V l 4 i , jlq 'era, relate,' 1., 4ikt,lar, celebrated r;ogii , 4 10, .'-% i il'r Y 'clen at Sa2f;,,itpllti p,Ltlh, de hedge °' or) 6.,'N ( , and five ,ittlio: c(tig.,l, r author, t ' l 'd 4 l ia, ts, o lie Se \;',1',41,„15: hinge beloqifi, tol'rt 1, by the Ciar:Cillt 1411% t.. to Peter we f. VII lat .1 (4•14 0' e dockyarujj tr i : a tt al l , rid w e are tv'„,,,;(144 % I I : , vi id of being:riti!, 1,;:lt1 igs and par' itir.l ere entire'!" J.,Li th is 4 in m y ova Vp/ N il] 1 11 the Czar): s o / cif , 4 'h but he arP e if pc, 'ft chiclic sit' ripture 1 f p ra !on winces ; 1 tb r .,, l 0/ of o ‘ 4l bil ssia made 11,1.'1, 4 1 ,:ir l e he cornoit'Ai t tai /3 01 ."—Vol. 1. , i) l 7 iskosts', CHAnotlio 'itidil k t 1"% , cinc, the 10,A i v Ilt (v : e, ~,,, 4 . 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