Virginia statesman. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1828-1829, 1828-10-08
A SKETCH

DISTINGUISHED lot eNutil6 pSISOildl UCdutf g
for great powers aud cultivation of mind,
and for most amiable and benevolent dis
oosition. She was remarkable, also, for
proficiency in those accomplishments
which throw such additional charms over
female beauty and intellect. In music
especially, she took excessive pleasure,
and possessed extreme skill. She was the
favorite Of her brother, and was regarded
with all that consideration which such IA
yor gives in an absolute court. Youth,
beauty, feeling, talent, power-all seemed
Joined to shower roses on her path, to glve
Il all happiness. But this was not to last.
4 Young nobleman appeared at the court,
who soon attracted universal attention.
Peculiarly fitted to shine in such scenes, 1t
was not long before his success to use the
word in its French Specification, became
GREAT and undoubted. Among others, the
princess admired the young courier, aud
soon she loved him. Their mutual affection
was what might be expected between two
persons Of fiery passions, and habits Of lit
lie selfcontrol. 1t did not, therefore, re-
main long inexperienced. The young man
was advised to withdraw himself-but all
such cautions were vain to youthful and
favored passion. He remained. At last
he was seized and imprisoned, and after
various escapes, was finally thrown into a
dungeon, where he was cut off from all
communication with the world, TO which he
was as if he had never been. During his
first imprisonment, the princess had con-
rived to convey to him her assurance of
continued affection, and every alienation
which wealth could furnish to his lot. But
after he was removed to the last place of his
confinement, it was as if the tomb had clos
ed over him forever.
Let US shift the scene, and we see a
woman lettering in premature old age; her
limbs have nearly lost their power, she can
scarcely crawl the length Of her room, and
she cannot lift the one hand without the
help of the other TO raise it. Her eyes are
distended. forced from their sockets, and
nearly blind. Her voice is gone, and with
it her foudness for the art to which it gave
so much effect and beauty. Her mind is
equally altered. Her mildness is changed
into the bItterest sarcrasm. From one of
the most benevolent of human beings, she
has become to take delight only in the in
diligence of severity OftemPer amounting
almost to ranoor.
She Is seated in her chamber. The door
opens, and a man enters. He is old and
decript His hair is snow-white. His
form is bent nearly double;
"--thercc came
A worn out man, with withered limbs and lame,
His mind depressed with woes, and bent with
age his frame"
1t is her lover. His hair has been whlten-
ed by intense and continued suffering, rath-
er than by the work of time; his body has
been doubled by the weight of iron which
it bore for ten years. He was that time in
solitary confinement, loaded with heavy
chains, scyupulusly debarred from the
slightest mitigation of his condition, phys
ical or mental. But many more years are
now passed. The tyrant is dead, and the
lovers may meet. How would they have
recognized each otherl The gay cavalier
flushed with the pride of youthful beauty
and general admiration, brilliant in present
| fortune and anticipating still higher destiny,
and the young princess the lovely, gifted,
the worshipped-happy in the affection Oh
man she loved, and high in hope of its
ultimate GROWING and accomplishment
these are now old, broken in health and in
heart, and dropping into the grave through
! the accumulation ofall earthly misery. Il
is their first, their last, their only meeting
In this awful hour, (for so may it indeed
I be called, woman's resolution, like wo-
mans love, proves superior to that Of man.
1 He has married during the long years oil
I his Punishment. She inquiries concerning
[ his children, their age, their names. She
asks the gift of one Of them--one to be a
daughter to her heart, TO give her the feel
ngs of mother towards his child. They
weep together. They part to see each
other no more.
This story is no fiction. It is one 50
well known, that 1t is scarcely necessary
to add that the princess Amelia Of Prussia,
sister of Frederick called the Great, and
Baron Trenck, are the hero and heroine
Of the piece.
90
MON THE Wv YnRE ST ArEe.fAN