Wilmington expositor. (Wilmington, Del.) 1831-18??, 1831-12-09


a perception as clear as if thou vert a being of
yesterday. That clear expanse of brow so
touched with intellectual paleness, and that
Ieye SO proud, and yet so full of tenderness,
are living before me. The pencil of memory
lis an unerring one, when its powers are called
forth by an affection, which but gathers dec
lper intensity from despair.
l There are moments in life, when the affecta-
ton OF indifference, and the constrained cold
ness of ceremony are forgotten, and the deep
and holier feelings of the heart itself, are pou-
red out in all their freshness and original puri-
Ity. Such moments cannot exist in the sunlit
lplaces of worldly prosperity. They are found
lin the shadowy path of adversity--or never.
When the great and busy world around us has
Iproved but vain and gorgeous deception
a mockery, rendered more terrible by its pro-
Imise of beauty; then it is that the fountains of
Ideep sympathy are broken up, and hearts are
mingled together in love which belongs not
Ito earth.
| 1t was SO at this moment. Agness and my
self had both tasted bitterness from the same
fountain. The crimes-I should rather say
4 the virtues of our parents--had been visited
upon us, in vengeance. We were thrown to-
gether at "a moment when every whim and cap
rice of our enemies became unquestioned au-
thority for deeds of abhorrent cruelty. We
knew that we were in the hands of those who
would exult in our Observation-Disclosures, who
Toasted upon human suffering, and tramplcd
down the altar, and extinguished the house
4 hold fire with zeal surpassed only by the e.
normity of their crimes. We knew all this, &
yet that moment was the happiest of our lives.
/ A shout rang from the deck above US, and a
quick dashing of oars succeed. Then there
twas a crash, as if the planks beneath us were
rent away by a strong hand. The horrible
truth burst upon us. The vessel had been fit
ted up with sous pabe, or false bottom--the
: fatal bar had been with drawn---we were in the
middle of the Loire, and the up-rushing of its
waters was already felt.
: Never shall forget the awful shrek that
went up at this moment. had been on the
red battle field, and heard in the pauses of the
: light, the groans of intolerable anguish arise
from thousand writhing victims-but never,
no never, had my ears been tortured by cry
a like this 1t was an unearthly embodying of
terror, which can be compared to nothing but
the shreiks of the doomed multitude, when the
last curse shall have smitten them from the
presence of the just made perfect. ltrose wild
u and horrible for a moment.--then followed the
c dreadful sounds of strangulatiou blended with
the groanings of the vessel, as the water forced
its way upwards.
remember sufocating sensation-a strug.
n gle--a sinking down--a convulsive shuddcr!
Isl
OIL rose again to the surface. The bosom O
n the river was RULED and black. Boats wer
), hurrying across it, filled with demons in hu
e man form. Wherever victim struggled abov
S the waves a corse hoated, or garment caugh
r. the moonshine, pistol shots and sabre blow
re were directed. had passed many boats un
r. noticed, and hope began to invigorate my limb
ID when suddenly a drowning person caught hol'
re of me. My motion was retarded. l shoe
a and spurned away the wretched sufferer, TIL
Ii body sunk before mel saw the death-lik
as countenance, and Oh God! it was that of Ag
Up ness! saw one imploring extension of tn
IL arms,-and she went downtown to her col
of sepulchre, and almost within my reach.
IL One moment of unutterable anguish follow
ty ed, and my reason forsook me. How csc;
ped from the river, know not, but my retul
rk ming consciousness found me in the dwelir
IN of peasant, who, afterwards learned, hs
us discovered me, insensible, upon the margin
| the river. The horrid recollection of the pa
me came over me, and fed from my deliverer
,utl if to escape the dreadful thought, which ha
II from that moment to the present, never ceas
he to haunt me. The images which it conjures
md are distinct and living--fearful blendings
on tenderness and terror. At one moment /
of held my lost Agness, mild and beausiful as
angel, with the words of her affection melti
ich upon voice of music.
nth Then the changes,-the ingulphing waite
au- and all the horrors of that night of agony, ;
ere. present in my mind. feel the death clasp |
up, on my arm, and strong shudder goes OF
and me, as if l were to again shake the dying FRI
pier my support. Then the outstretched arms
lion the pale and supplicating countenance--t
ure mute appeal for succour. and the vain atten
and to afford it, darken the cloud of memory VIII
the settles upon my soul.
My story is told. Those who have marv
d led at detection, who have Knocked at g.
re- which they could not fathom, may here le
Il, ,tl,ich for has lain