Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1830-08-11

was eating, actually lived on the famine
that was devouring them, but of whicl
they did not dare TO say word to eacl
other. They debated, deliberated, ant
as misery grows ingenious in its own de
fence, they at last assured each othe
that the Superior had locked them il
there to perish by hunger. At these
words | could not help laughing. The
laugh reached their ears; they bccam,
silent in a moment. All that night, how
ever, ! heard their groans-those groan'
Of physical suffering, that laugh to Scorr
all the sentimental sighs that are eXhal-
ed from the hearts of the most intoxicat-
ed lovers that ever breathed. | heard
them all night. had read French ro-
mances, and all their unimaginable non
sense. Madame Scvigne herself says
she would have been tired of her daugh-
ter in a long tete-a-tete journey, but clap
me two lovers into a dungeon, without
food, light, or hope, and ! will be id
(that | am already, by the bye) if they
do not grow sick OF each other within the
first twelve hours. The second day hun
ger and darkness had their usual inhu-
encc. They shrieked for liberation, and
Knocked loud and long at their dungeon
door. They exclaimed they were ready
to submit to any punishment: and the APP
proach of the monks, which they would
have dreaded so much the preceding
night, they now solicited on their knees.
What Jest, after all, are the most aw-
ful vicissitudes of human life! They sup
plicated now for what they would have
sacrificed their souls to avert four-and-
twenty hours before. Then the agony
of hunger increased, they shrunk from
the door, and grovelled apart from each
other .Apa,t! how | watched that
They were rapidly becoming objects of
hostility towards each other-Oh! what
feast to me! They could not disguise
from each other the revolving circum-
stances of their mutual suherings. 1t is
one thing for lovers to sit down to the feast
magnifcently spread, and another for low
crs to couch in darkness and tamine-to
exchange that appetite which cannot be
supported without dainties and flattery,
for that which would barter descended
Venus for morsel Of food. The second
night they raved and groaned, (as occur
red;) and, amid their agonies | mnst dc
Justice to women, whom hate as well
as men, the man often accused the tc-
male as the cause Of his sullerings; tut
the woman never, never reproached him.
Her groans might, indeed, have reproach-
ed him bitterly, but she never uttered a
word that could have caused him pain.
There was a change which | well could
mark, however, in their physical feel
ings. The first day they clung together,
and every movement | felt was like that
of one person. The next day the man
alone struggled, and the woman moaned
in hclplcssncss. The third night-how
shall | tell it?-but you have bid me 60
on All the horrible and loathsomc eX-
cruciations of famine had been under
gone; the disunion of every tie of the
heart, of passion, of nature, had COM
menccd. In the agonics of their tamish.
ed sickness, they loathcd each other
they could have cursed each other, if
they had breath to curse. 1t was on the
fourth night that l heard the shrek of the
wrctchcd female-her lover, in the ago
ny of hunger, had fastened his teeth in
her shoulder;-that bosom on which he
had so often luxuriated became meal to
him now. "Monster! and you laugh"
Yes, laugh at all mankind, and the inn
position they dare practice when they
talk Of hearts. | laugh at human pass
ions and human carcs-vice and virtue,
religion and impiety; they are all the re-
suit of petty localities, and artificial situ-
alton. One physical want, one severe
and abrupt lesson from the tintless and
shrivelled lip of necessity, is worth all
the logic of the empty wretches who
have presumed to prato it. from Zeno
down to Burgersdicius. Oh! it silences,
in second, all the feeble sophistry of
conventional life, and ascetitious passion.
Here were pair who would not have
believed all the world on their knees,
even though angels had descended to join
in the attestation, that it was possible to
live without each other. They had risk
ed ever thing, trampled on every thing,
human and divine, to be i'll each other 5
sight and arms. One hour of hunger
undcceivcd them. A trivial and ordina-
ry want, whose claims at another time
they would have regarded as vulgar
interruption of their spiritualized inter-
course, not only by its natural opera
ton, sundcrcd it forever, but, before it
ceased, converted that intercourse into a
source of torment and hostility inconceiv-
able, except among cannibals. The Bit
tcrcst enemies on earth could not have
regarded each other with more abhor-
renee than these lorers. Deluded wretch
es!-you boastcd Of having hearts,
boast | have nonc-and which of us