Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1843-05-12
THE POLISH MOTHER.

lights, and crowded with all the wealth,
beauty and rank of Poland. The apart
menl blazed with the Jewels Of lis occu-
pants. Princes with their proud danes,
| high officers of State, mobiles whose do
mains We'd in extent with Kingdoms. and
lordly beauties, at whose gaze all ben. in
alteration, had gathered at that magnificent
festival, 10 do honor TO the fair daughter of
their host. And lovcliest among the love
ly was the bride. Tall and majestic in
every movement. with queenIy bow
and face such as might have been tina.
of the mother of the gods, she moved
through the splendid apartment the theme
of every admiring tongue. No less re-
markabe was her husband. Warsaw be-
held no noble tread her palaces more lord
ly in his bearing than the Count Res,ehif.
XIV. The fire of all hundred warrior an
ces,ors burned in his eye. The fame of
his high lineage, of his extended possess
ions. of his feals in arms, followed his
footsteps wherever he went. In manly
beauty the court of Poland had no rival TO
The Count, in majestic lovelines, the realm
furnished no equal to his bride. and now
as they stood together in that proud old
hall. surrounded by all that was noble and
beautiful in the land, the peerless beauty
of the Countess and the princely bearing
Of her husband. shone pre-eminent.
Never had " arsaw seen such festival
All that the most boundless wealth, and
all that taste the most fasiidious could do
TO add to the splendor Of the occasion.
had been done, and the guests one and all.
bore testimony to the success of the
princely entertainer. The air was laden
with incense, bowers blooming around,
unseen music filed The hail with harmo-
ny. statues and carvings or rare device
met the eve at every turn. If Aladdin had
been there he would not have asked that
his enchanted palace should excel in mag
nificence the one before him No vision
ary in his widest dreams could imagine
aught more beautiful. And through this
unriyalled hall the count and his bride
moved, conscious that all this splendor
was invoked for their honor. feeling that
no. hear, of all the vast assembly but en-
We'd their exul,ed lot. AT every step cons
aratula,ions met them unit! they turned
away sick with adulation. What wonder
tina, the rose grew still deeper on the
cheek Of the bride. and her eyes flashed
with greater brilliancy or her step became
queenly: Could any mortal wholly re-
sis, the in,oxica,ion of tina, hour!
Years had clasped. That fair young
bride had become mother; but time had
passed over her wi,hou. destroying one
lineamen, of her maj ec'ic beauty. But the
scene had changed from that through
which she moved on her bridal night
There were no longer around her wealth
and splendor and beauty, the fla'tering
and the proud, the envy and the fair
She sa, alone-alone with her two chill
dren one lovely girl of sixteen, and the
other smiling boy. whose birth three
wears before had filed he husbands hear,
with ecs,acy, filled province with rejol-
cings. But now that her husband was
away from her side, that province lay
smoking around her. Her own proud
home, where since her marriage she had
spent the happies, hours of her life. bad
| been sacked and given to the flames, ant
now she sat leaning against the shattered
| parapel, with her face buried in her hands
and the bitter tear of i mothers anguish
rolled down her cheeks. AT her feet lean
ing on her for succor. and clasping he
hands, sa, her daughter while her boy
too young as yet TO be conscious of tho
misery around hlm, smiled as he played
with the jaweIled cross suspended from
his mothers neck. A broken sword, +;
| dismouned cannon, the shattered staff O
lance at at the group, betokened that ihe
vassas of the coun. had not We. yieide'
up her house to repine without deadly
Struggle. And indeed, of the hundreds
of hearts which beat there but the day be.
fore, only those CT her mother and the two
children had escaped captivity Or death. =
Par, of Tie palace was yet in flames, while
on the plain beyond, village threw NJ
its lurid connagralion across he sky. =
DesoIa,ion and despair sat enlhroned a
round. Who that had seen thai mother OF
her bridal night, could have Ioreiold tina
after life would reveal a scene ike this !
The Polish war for independence hae
broken out. Among the forensps! of tht
patriotic band which periled all tier coun
/ try, was then count Res.ohifky. Hl
! sword had been unsheathed at the out
break of the conflict, his fortune had beer
poured The first INTO the Golfers of th'
State. From his own estates he had ralse'
and equipped as gallant band as ever lal
lowed lord 10 the tented field. And 10
snor, space the war seemed to prosper
Bu, then came the reverse. From ever.
quarter the naughty Ca'ha.ine poured he
| .I..,. loo.;1,,,.. hnadod he the fierl. Sil