Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-04-05

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rifce both to his revenge. From the
maidens other house, Childe Edmund
learned Imma was in her chamber. AS
he was the cause ofthe indignity which
Hillebrande had offered her he dared
not subject her to another by entering
the castle he, therefore, saw her not,
and becoming prey to the acutest
anguish, he wandered about the dwell
ing unconscious where he bent his steps
Chi.de Edmund, as he was called, had
long loved the gentle Imma, and, ere
she was aware, she returned his love;
they feared it was impossible they could
ever be united, but there was such a
luxury in even their cheered hopes,
that they rather chose to encourage a
mutual attachment, accompanied with
future misery, and to use that fortitude
which teaches US to endure misfortune
patiently. Childe Edmund was merely
the protegee of Duke Edrick, and with
out single quartering Of nobility in
his shield, had ever been viewed with
contempt by Lord Hildebrande, as a
protected vassal: this vassal had, how
ever, been preferred to him by the La
dy Imma, and he swore to be his ruin,
by bell, book, and candle.
Love, in those days, had no employ
ment, save to chide the time with
signs and ordinations ; for the life of
murderer was sacred, on being pro-
we'd able to read and write; these attain
ments were not presumed to be those Of
females and lady was deemed pro-
Dizzy who was enabled, by her pen, to
carry on a correspondence. No pert
chamber maid was then the conveyor
of billet-doux. Thus Imma and
Childe Edmund were obliged to vent
their complaints to the air, to them
selves, or to inanimate things, without
consolation, and without pity. "My
father" said the unfortunate Imma,
"believes me guilty, but am not, and
Edmund knows am innocent: and oh!
my dear mother, look down from hea-
ven, pity yosr poor child, and shield
her from deopair.' The csii~~iaS,
| morning Imma arose unrefreshed from
her couch she walked as one whose
soul, was fed, but whose body was
doomed to wander in Inconsistencies:
it was yet but twilight, and the spear
and the lance trembled in the cold air;
soon the guards paraded in a quick
step ON their posts, and, at length all
was hustle and animation. She had
walked on the battlements, and seated
like the genius of suspense, her tresses
spreading in the wanton air, she star
ted at the sound of the bugle the chain
of the drawbridge rattled--the portcul-
lis rises, and host Of armed men pour
from the keep, and form procession.
Childe Edmund is preceded by page,
who bears his favor Of azure blue; a
lover gazes towards the castle-he
seems to breathe sigh towards her
train accompanies him; and Lord
Hildebrande, who, seated on white
charger, seems conscious of victory
they are followed by the herald at arms.
This appearance Of knightly combat
darkens her vision-"He is going, "she
cries, "to sacrifice himself! and for
me-" she uttered scream, and fell, un.
needed, on the terrace. Ill fated maid!
thy sufferings are, indeed, acute; ifthis
be the punishment Of presumed guilt,
wha. ought to be that of conscious de-
pravity? They had met, it is true,
clandestinely, but angles might have
been present at the interview; they met
but to breathe vows of constancy, and
to indulge in mutual sorrows, dearer TO
them than all the jocund hours OF
mirth. On returning to sense OF feel
ing, she crawled to her chamber, re-
vived by the blood which flowed from
the wound she had met with in falling;
the cut she received in her temple was
healed by domestic, but the wounded
heart rejected all mortal medicine ;
and her attendants, apprehensive OF
her fading reason, were fain to let her
pursue her inclination. To paint the
agonies of suspense, during a rencoun'
ter in which was engaged all she loved,
is impossible-it was indeed intense.
At length the sound Of music proclaim
ed all was over-that the dreadful truth
must soon be known. They play a
mournful theme, and she rushes for
ward to behold the cause. The pro-
cession is only to be seen ever nd a.
non in the distance, now lost among the
hills, and now again emerging nearer
sight. On a carriage she at length
perceives the stifFened corps OF one
Oh the virgin, the blue scarf is wrap'
round his body. An hysterick laugh
bursts from her, as she runs to meet il
il is not her lovers form she would
clasp, but with wounds staunched by
the trophyof love, Lord Hilderbrande':
a victim to his own evil passions, who
dying confessed the guilty assertions o.
falsehood. Even this would not have
procured the consent of Lord Edrick,
to give his daughter to Childe Edmund
had he not received letters from his