The Northern star, and farmers' and mechanics' advocate. [volume] (Warren, R.I.) 1830-1834, 1830-11-06
Continued from our last. I
SKETCH OF A PARRICIDE.


place, and to ofeEme food. ! would MI
have quilted my place for worlds; but
talked to the monk in his own language
and told him would make = merit will
God Of my sacrifices, and ives resolved &
remain there all night, with the permiss
lion Of the superior. The monk wss glas
of having . substitute on such essy terms:
and Iwas glad of the food he lett me, toi
! was hungry now, but reserved No ap-
petite Of my soul for richer luxuries. ]
heard them talking within. While ! was
eating, ! actually lived on the famine that
was devouring them, but Of which They
did not dare to say word 10 each other
They dea&aed, delibersted, and - misery
| grows ingenious in its own defence, they
At lasl assured each other that the Superi
or had locked them in there to perish by
hunger. At these words could not help
laughing. The laugh reached their ears,
they became silent in q moment. All
that night, however, ] heard their groans
those groans of physical suffering, that
laugh to scorn all the sentimental sighs
that are exhsled from the hearts Of the
most intoxicated lovers that ever bresthed.
heard them all nighf. had read French
tromances, amd sll their unimaginable non
sense. Madame Sevigne herself says
she would have been tired of her daughter
in long tete-a-tefe journey, bu, clap me
two lovers into dungeon, without food,
light, or hope, and l will be d-d (thst
am already, by the byc) ifthey do not
grow sick of each other within the first
twelve hours. The second day hunger
and darkness had their usual influence. -
They shrieked for liberation, and knocked
loud and long 1t their dungeon door,
They exclaimed they were ready to sub
mit to any punishment: snd the approach
Of the monks, which they would have
dreaded 20 much the preceding night,
they nov solicited on their knees. What
q Jest, after all, are the most awful yicis-
STUDIES Of human life! They supplicated
now for what they would have sacrificed
their souls 10 avert four-and-twenty hours
before. Then the agony Of hunger in
creased, they shrunk from the door, and
grovelled apart fom each other. .8parf!
how watched that They were rapid,
becoming objects Of hostility towards each
other-Oh! what = feast 10 me! They
could not disguise from each other the re-
voting circumstances Of their mutual ssi-
ferings. II Is one thing for lovers 10 sit
down to the feast msgnifcently spread,
and another for lovers to couch in dark
ness and famine--to exchange that appe-
tite which cannot be supported without
dainties and Aattery, for that which would
barter descended Venus for norsel OF
food. The second night they raved and
groaned, (as occurred;) and, amid their
agonies Il must do justice to women,
whom hate a. well as men, the man Oft
en- accused the female - the cause Of his
suferings; but the woman never, never
reproached him. Her groans might, in
deed, have reproached him bitterly, but
she never uttered word that could have
caused him paia. There was change
which well could mark, however, in their
physical feelings. 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 helplessness. The
third night--how shall tell h'-but you
have bid me go on. All the horrible and
loathsome excruciations Of famine had
been undergone; the disunion ofcvery tie
Of the heart, Of passion, of nature, had
In the agonies Of their fam
ished sickness, they losthed each other
they could have cursed each other, ifthey
had breath to curse. 1t was on the fourth
night that heard the shrek ofthe wretch
ed fcmsle-hcr lover, in the agony cf hun
ger, had fastened his teeth in her should
bosom on which he had so often
became meal to him now
I" Monster! and you laughi" Yes, IL
laugh at air mankind, and the imposition
they dare practice when they talk ofhesrts
l laugh at human passions and human
carcs-vice and virtue, religion and inn
piety; they are all the result of petty To-
calIties, and artificial situation. One phys I,
cal want, one severe and abrupt lesson
from the tintless and shrivellcd lip Of ne ,
rcssity, is worth all the logic Of the empty :
*retches who have presumed to rrate it, J
from Zeno down to Bureersdicius. Oh!
!, silences, in a second, all the feeble soph
stry Of conventional life, and ascetitIou. {,
passion. Here were pair who would
rot have believed all the world on their ),