The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-07-31

the following explanation. "This." she said,
!. was youth who loved me before my mar
raae, and whom was obliged to part with,
when my relations obliged me to marry my
present husband. We afterwards renewed
our acquaintance, though with no evil intent,
and nv husband was SO much Infatuated at
finding him one day IN my presence, as 10
draw his sword and run him through The heart.
Not satisfied with this, he caused him to be
hung up here, and every night and morning,
since then, has compelled me to come and
survey his remains. To the world may bear
a cheerful aspect, and seem to be possessed Of
all the comforts Of life but you may judge It
can be really entitled to the reputation which
you have attributed TO me, or be qualified to
execute your sons commission"
The Countess Corsini readily acknowledge
ed that her situation was most miserable, and
retired to her own house, in despair of obtain
ing what she was in quest OF, seeing that, If
an apparently happy woman had such secret
sorrow as this, what were those likely to have
who bore no such appearance. Alas" she
said TO herself 'sno one is exempt from the
disasters and sorrows Of liie-there u.s. q Skelc-
ton IN ere,y house.,
When we reached home, she found a letter
conveying intelligence Of her sons death,
which in other circumstances would have
overturned her reason, or broken her heart;
but, prepared as she was, by the foresight OF
her son, produced only rational degree OF
grief. When the first acute sensations were
passed, she said, resignedly to herself, that,
great as the calamity was, it was probably no
greater than what her fellow creatures were
enduring every day, and she would therefore
submit with tranquility.
The application Of this tale, tinged as il is
with the peculiar hue Of continental manners
and ideas, must be easy to every one of our
readers. They must see how great fallacy
It is to suppose that others are more general
y than ourselves, spared any of the common
mshaps Of life, or that we in particular, are
under the doom Of a severe fate. They may
be assured, that beneath many of the most
gorgeous shows of this world, there Turk ter
rible sores, which are not the least painful that
they are unseen. The very happicst-looking
men and women, the most prosperous mer-
camille concerns, have all their secret cankers
and drawbacks. The pride ofthe noble--the
luxury of the opulent--even the dignity and
worship of the crown--all have something to
render them, if il were known, less enviable
than they appear. We never, for our part,
enter into any glittering and magnificent
scene, or hear Of any person who is reputed to
be singularly prosperous or happy, but we i'm
mediately think of the probability which exists,
that our own humbled home and condition,
disposed as we sometimes may be to repine
about them, comprise just as much of what is
to be desired by rational man as the other.
Even in those great capitals, where affluence
and luxury are so wonderfully concentrated,
and all the higher orders appear SO singularly
well lodged and fed and attended to, we cannot
help looking on the other side, and imagining
for every one his own particular misery. The
houses appear like palaces; but the idlest
spectator may be assured Of it, as one Of the
nconrovertbe DEGREES of Providence--that
there is a skeleton IN erery house.