Southern telegraph., 1837-07-25

g lhe crowd. who were listening ln hftalA
+ loss silence-the prisuDer bowed his hez
& IN mute dospair-ihc witness was bonn
= aWsy iusensible--ihe argumanl proesalea
!. and aller an eloquent but vain defeec. lhl
s jury brought 10 verdict Of GUfLrIl 'E.
/ sentence of death was passed
E
7 The summer had pissed away. The
hand Of autumn had began to tinge wild
] mellow bnes the magnificent scenery Of The
forest
The unhappy man, haggard, attenuaied,
and heart-broken, was Wing upon his
wretched pallet, rejecting alternately upon
/ the early wreck of his bright hopes-lhe
houF Of fignominy that was approaching
and the dread Of futurity into which he
would soon be plunged Il WIS the season
IN which his marriage with Alnira was TO
have been solemnised. And now, instead
Of the weddening festivities, the lovely
bride,and the train Of fconsratulating friends,
50 often pictured in fancy, he realized let-
ters,a dungeon, and disgracelul death
| The well known tread Of the jailor inter
rupted the bitter trainof thought. The door
lopeDed. In moment Almira had sunk on
herknees beside him, aud their>hands were
silently clasped together. There are oc-
casions when the heart spurns all constaini,
and acts up to its own dictates, careless Of
public opinion or Of prescribed forms
when love becomes the absorbing and over
ruling passion-and when that, which, un-
der other circumstances, would be mere,
unlicensed impulse, becomes a haIlowed,
] imperious duty. That noble hearted girl
had believed to the'last chat her lover would
be honorably acquitted. The intelligence
Ofhis condemnation, while it blighted her
hopes and withered her health, never dis
turbed for one moment her conviction of his
Innocence. There is n union of hearts
which is indestructibIe, which marriage
may sanction, and nOurish. and hallow, but
which separation cannot destroy--a love
that endurcs while life remains, or until its
object shall prove faithless or unworthy.
The jailor, blunt, though humane
man, briefly disclosed plan which he,with
Almira, had devised for tho escape of Ham
ilton. He had consented to allow the prls-
oner to escape, in female dioss, while she
was to remain in his stead, SO that the
whole contrivapzA~sk0uId seem to be her
own. Il am a plain man, concluded the
jailor; 'but know what's right. 1t 'aint fair
TO hang no man on suspicion. The tracks
clear, Mr.. Hamilton, and the quicker YOU
put out the better.'
70 his surprise, the prisoner perempto-
lrily refused the offer.
i am innocent, said he; but would
suffer a thousand deaths rather than iniure
the fair fame of this confding girl
go, Dudley my dear Dldleyn she sobb-
ed; 'formy sake-for the sake of your bro
ken-hearted father and sister,
'Do not tempt me, my dear Alnlra.
will not do that which will expose you to
disgrace
'Oh! who would blame me?'
'The world-the uncharitable world
they who believe me murderer. And why
should | fly? To live wrctched wanderer
with the brand Of Cain on my forehead, and
q character stamped with infamy?' He
would have said morc--but the form that
during this brief dialogue, had sunk into his
arms, was lying lifecss On his bosom. lie
kissed her cold lips, and passionateIy re-
peated her name; but she heard him not
her pure spirit liud gently disenga4nd iisolG
and had flown forever. Her heart was bro.
ken. She bad watched, and wept, and pray
ed in hopeless grief, until the physical en-
ergics of delicate fame were exhausted; !;
and the excitement of the last scene had
snapped the attcnuatcd thread of life.
Hamilton did no: survive her lony. His
health was already shattered by long con
finomont, and the chatting Of proud spirit.
Amira had died for him-1nd his mother
oh! how cautiously did they whisper the sad
truth, when he asked why she who had
loved him better than her own life, hqd for
sakcn him in the hour Of afll;ction-she, too,
bad sunk under the dreadful blow. Ills
father lived withercd, melancholy man,
crushed in spirit; and as his sister hung like
a guardian sangcl over his dcath-bcd, and
he gazcd on her pale, emaciated, sorrow-
stricken c)untenancc, he saw that she.
too, would soon BIO numbered among the
victims of this melancholy persecution.
When with his last breath he suggested
that thoy would soon meet, she replied--'I.
trust thai Gad will spare me to see yenr iu-
noccncc established, and then will die
eon'entcd.' Aud her confidence was re-
warded About year afterwards wretch
who was executed in Naichez, was one of
The three persons mentioned IN tho com
moncement Of ibis narrative, confessed tlml
he had murdered Saunders with a pistolhc
had found at the place whore the two friends
bad slept i knew i wtu.ld be soi-was
tlio only reply of The f,st declining sister;
and soon after she was buried by tie side d
Dndloy and Almifa.
Re,dcii this is no fiction nor are the
decisions Of God unjust, but his ways are
above our comprehension.
EAIILLiON,