The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-09-30
NO.l7.

-Edward-to unite you thus all IN my
last prayer and my last blessing-so that
1t will be sacrlege 10 my memory and
my grave if any further enmity continue
between you. We all suffer in COM
mon retrlbulion-you all for your evil
pride and passions-I for my sin in so
wildly loving any thing below my Cod
and most justly for my want Of perfect
irulhfulness TO you, dear father. Edward,
you have acted awfuly, but you stand
now more awlully blghted than your
victim and (aiher-George-it was
you that maddened him TO it, and turned
TO bitterness and poison heart which
nature filed with all sweet and noble
things. though it had one element Of evil
which knew not, at least in lis terrible
force. | did not bid you not 10 mourn
me. hut would have you mingle your
tears and your hearts, now chasenetl,
trust, not lruitlessly though so sorely.
Edward, as you would have been to me,
be 10 her who now fills the place which
was TO have been mine. Father, it is
hardest to leave you !"--She sank
back exhausted by The effort she had
made, and the intensity of her own feel
ings. The sweet spell of her words, and
the looks that gave them their eloquence,
fell upon the hearts Of her listeners with
a power like the descent Of the dove Of
The holy spirit; and before they parted,
at her request, and in her calm slght-so
solemn is The sway of The presence of
OF deai'ss the widest rage Of human
passions $50 almighty the power Of di
vine forgiveness and love-incredble as
It might almost seem. Edward Fletcher
had been locked in the arms of the heart
stricken father and the mourning bro
Their, by the death-bed of sister, in the
sympathy of a common anguish. Blood
aud birth were forgotten now.
She did not die till the following day
though she never spoke any more, except
a slight motion of her lips in an attempt 10
join in the services of lie church which
were performed at her bedside. She pass
ed away SO calmly and quietly, that, il can
be no better described Than in the follow
| ing lines Of which have forgotten the au-
ihor:
ave watched her breathing through the night,
Her breathing soft and low,
As DER her heart the waves OF life
Came heayns to and Gro.
"And still our hopes belicl our fears,
Our fears our hopes bcIied
We Thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she dicl!"
A few words will conclud all that re-
mains to be told. Edward never came
again into contact with any Of the family
at The Hall. That such meeting should
have been avoidec by all was bu, natural.
The old Baronet did not survive his daugh-
ter quite year. All his habits broken up
his accustomed sports and exercise en-
lircly abanduncd--- his home and heart now
all desolaie and dark-it is not surprising
lhat he sank rapidly and fatally, though he
died of no particular disease. According
to his own request, lie was laid by her
side, in the family vault. His son may,
perhaps, survive still in possession of the
baronelcy, though doubtless disjoined for
ever from the inordnale family pride
which seemed to have made SO fatal part
of its inheritance. Edward Fletcher
withdrew from that part Of the country,
selling the parlnony which had also de-
seconded to him through many generations.
He settled in a rude neighborhood on
the west coast Of Ireland, within the sound
Of the surge Of the Atlantic; to whose
wild and dark unrest he was, perhaps al
iracicd by all unconscious sympathy, such
rs olen exists between the soul of man
and the mysterious soul of nature and lis
elements. His eventual fate | do not
know. One ciIcumstaces only | after
ward learned respecting his future life.
| His marriage was for ever. IN one respect,
under the shadow, as il were Of curse.
lie bad many children. One after aiioth-
er they grew up around his board, in an
outward show OF beauty, which was their
natural bir,hright. They were healthy,
too, and they neither sickened nor died.
Yet, whether girl or boy, no one attained
the age OF seven or eigh, years. before it
became manifest that all this beauty,
strength and health, were but the most
fearful Of mcckeries 10 the eye and heart
OF the father. they were all pure idi-
ots. Aaa when he looked around upon