Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1846-02-28


cheerful light beaming upon his large
gray eyes, when-a hand was laid upon
his shoulder.
He turned and beheId the face Of a
neighbor
1t was neighbours face, but there was
an awful agony stamping those plain tea'
tures--there was an awful agony flashing
from those dialing eyes-lhere was a
dark and terrible mystery speakin6krom
those thin lips, that moved and moved, but
made no sound
For moment that farmer tried to
speak the horror that convulsed his lea
lures.
AT last, forcing the blacksmith along
the brown graveiled walk, now strewn
with cinders, he pointed to the smoking
embers. There, there--amd that heap
Of black and smoking ruins, the black,
smith beheId dark mass of burnt flesh
and backened bones.
"Your wit5w shrieked the farmer, as
his agony found words. "The British,
they came in the night, they"--and then
he spoke that outrage which the lip quiv-
cred TO think on, which the heart grows
palsied TO telI-that outrage too foul to
namely our wife," he shreked, point
ing TO that hideous thing, amid the smok-
ing ruins; "the British they murdered
your wife; they flung her dead body in
the fames--they dashed your child a
gainst the hearth stone!"
This was the farmers story.
And there, as the light OF the breaking
day fell around the spot, there stood the
husband, the father, gazing upon that
mass Of flesh and bIackened bones-aII
that acas once his wife.
Do you ask me for words that trem-
bIed from his white lips! Do you ask
me for he fire that bazed in his eye?
can tell you. But can tell you that
there was vow going up to Heaven
from that backsmi,h's heart, that there
was clenched hand, appraised in the light
oil the breaking day?
Yes, yes, as the first CLEAN Of the au,
tumnal dawn broke around the spot, a;
the first long CLEAN Of sunlight streamed
over the pealeu skull--that fair young
wife--she was that last night-there wa;
a vow going up to Heaven, the vow OF 8
maddened heart and angIished brain.
How was that VOW kept? Go there tc
Brandywine, and where the carnage
gathers thlckest, where the fight is mos
bloody: there you may see a stout form
striding on, lifting huge hammer int
light. Where that hammer falls It kills
where that hammer strikes, it brushes
It is the bIacksmith's form. And the wa
cry that he shouts? Is it mad cry o
vengeance--haf howl, haf hurrah? |
is but fierce yell, breaking up from hi
heaving chest?
All no! All no!
1t is the name of-MARY! 1t is thu
name of his young wife!
Oh, Mary--sweelest name oil woman
name so soft, so ripping, so musical =
name of the mother Of Jesus, made holy
by poetry and religion, how strange die
your sylables OF music ring out from tina
blacksmlth'S lips, as he went numbering
on! .......
"Mary!" he shouts, as he drags tina
red coated trooper from his stcod; "Ma
ry!n he shrieks, as his hammer crushe
down, laying that officer, 10 the dust
Look! Another officer, with a galan
face and Tor m, another officer, gIiterlni
in tinseI, clasps that blacksmith by tn
knees, and beg mercy, .....
81 have a wife mercy! | have a wifi
wonder in England spare me"
The blacksmith, c:azed as he is, trem
bles-lhere is tear in his eye.
81 would spare you, but there is
form before me the form ofmy dead wife
That form has gone before me all day
She calls on me 10 striker .a.
The hammer fell, and then rang gu
that strange war-cry-"MARY"
At last, when the battle was over, h
was found by wagner, who had at Ieas
shou dered cart whip in his country
seryice-he was found sitting BY the road
side, his head sunken, his leg broken, The
life blood yelling from his many wounds
The WAGNER would have carried hlr
from the field, but the stout blacksmith
refused ......... ........ ....
"You see, neighbour" he said, in tina
voice husky with death. 81 never med
died with the British till they burned m
home, till they,"--he could not speak tn
outrage, but his wife, his child. were Their
, before his dying eyes-"and now I've bu
five minutes life in me. I'D like to CIV
shot a; The British arore die. by
see that cherry tree? Place me thar
give me a powder horn, three rifle bal
and good rife; that's all | ask" .....
|, The wagner granted his request; b
), lifted him 10 tho foot Of the cherry tree