Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1829-10-09

CHARLOTTESVILLE.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7,soo
FIRST AND LAST1J,Ovr

h>SA AMI Low IL.
From Blackwood's Magazine
Agnes Fitzroy was the
youngest OLA numerous family, all of whom
had survived their father general officer
OF distinguished character, who fell at the
Battle of Waterloo. Two of his sons had
embraced the same profession "a third
was III the navy, and the eldest had ac-
CURED some celebrity as diplomatisr
She had five sisters, who were all mar.
RED, but only two ofthem resided in Eng
land. Agnes lived with her mother at
their family seat in Worcestershire. with
IN short distance of Malvern. and com.
manding an extensive view of that bean.
tl'ul scenery, including part of Here.
iordshire, which stretches from the base
OF the lofty ridge of the Malvern hills.
Jane Douglas, who was niece of Mrs.
Fitzroy's, had been brought up by her
from her infancy. Her father, private
gentleman, OF good property, when she
was only about two years old had sacri.
feed his valuable life in Difference to that
monstrous a''surdity which requires tina,
man should stand to be shot al before he
can honouiably acknowledge he is in the
wrong. A hasiy word, uttered in the
warmth oil a casual alteration with total
stranger, led to an Immediate meetinp. and
Mr.. Douglas, receiving his adversary's fire
ssfell dead upon the spot. The dreadful
t'dlngs were lncautiously communicated
10 his widow, who was then in the seventh
month OF her pregnancy. She doateG up
on h"r husband, and thee shock was to-,
much Tor her. In less than three DAYS
after she had given birth to dead-born
child, she was herself corpse under the
same root with her youthful husband and
one funeral ceremony consigned them
with their untimeIy offspring, to their
graves. Such were the melancholy (rui,s
such the scene of mourning and desoIa-
ton, resulting from that false principle of
modern honour, which washes out with
blood an offence extracted from a moody
brow, or tortured GU, Of an ambipuous
word
MRS. Fitzroy took the infant Jane to
her own home, educated her with her own
children, aud teEdeiy supplied all the
maternal offices which her sister would
have discharged, had she been LIVING
Though the bulk OF her fathers properly
went to his male kindred, as he died in
testale, they generously relinqushed such
portion as enabled them to max. n
more than adequate settlement upon her :;
aud, as Mrs. Fitzroy seligiously abstained
from appropriatDg any part oft towards
the expenses of her maintenance and edu-
cation, it had gone on accumulatny Cor
nearly twenty years, till now Jane Doug
las might almost call herself an heiress
Assnredly, it had grown to an amplitude
which, il mere fortune-hunter would
have sufficed, was an abundant securuv
against her dying Of that dreadful com.
plant, oid-maidism
Separated as Mrs. Fiizroy was from tie
rest Of her children, Agnes had grown up
IN her affections with much Of that exclu.
sive love, and Of that singleness of attach
'ment, which twlne themselves so CLOSELY
round an only child To her, indeed
she had long been as an only child for
though scarcely week elapsed which did
not bring dutifui and affectionate remsm-
brances from her absent sons and daupb-
tiers, and though the TWO which reside
IN England never failed to pass some pol
ton OF every summer with her, still they
had each become the centre of a little
circle OF domestic ties, of sympathies, and
duties Of their own, and no longer dyeIt.
as it we're, within that of which she was
berselfthe centre. They werethemselves
fathers and mothers; they had taken their
appointed stations in the great march oil
human life and whatever fond recoIlec.
tons might liDger round the home from
which they had begun their journey, they
necessarily grew fainter and fainter, MS the
distance increased, and as they mingled
with the widening stream OF social and in
dividuals charities. But, in exact proper.
ton as the tide of maternal solictude, IN
the heart Of Mrs. Fitzroy, had narrowed
its channel, and contracted its sourse, ts
fertilizing waters flowed with an augmen.
ting volume towards Agnes till now
when she was Tipening uto womanhood
and the gentle qualities Of her naturally
.smiable and susceptible character were
unfolding themselves, she had become
the constant companion, the only friend
and the (duOHritc daughter Of her mother
Jane, perhaps, divided with her the first