The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1854-10-05

temples; judgments are imprecated, dark
demons; furnished name; flag Of dishon-
or, and the curse Of iinborne inEints, even
now ring through my SOUL q
The minister had watched beside many
Iimpehitent sinners, many rebels, whose
hands were stained with blood, but never
1had been called TO such death-bed,
| Suddenly the man arose. With a mighty
Ienergy he paced that creaking floor. If
the storm weiiilgtk II SO was il ~ re.s in
a most terrific form. Those white 1bony
fingers laid hold of the valise, which stood
lby the bedside and draw from thence a
faded military cost lined with silser, and
Ian old parchment, in a piece Of damp cloth,
that looked like the wreck Of o battle flag.
"Look, said the stranger, "this coat is
Ispotted with blood-by gone days seemed
to rise before liini-1this coat covered me
when | heard of the battle Of Lexington,
iwhen l planted tho stars and stripes oniPi-
copderogs; that bullet was driven through
at the Seige of Quebec-and now look at
inc! | am-let me whisper softly in your
ear-hai they viii hear" Ono burning
word was said--only one. "Now help
me" +" continued he, "to put on this coat,
for | have no wife, no child to wipe the
cold sweat from my brow. ! must die a
lone; let me die as on the battlefield, with
out fcar."
And while he sat arraycd in that tar
inished coat the preacher spake 10 him COM
forting words Of faith in Christ, of hope
for dying penitents, of mercy pleading with
Justice, of that faith which lifts off the
frown, and shows us compassionate Re-
deemer. ~
"Faith. again re-echocd the dying
man, "faith! the death chill was on his
frame-death light, too, was in his eye
List! Is there not George Washington
over the blue waters relating pleasant sto-
ries of his sieges, is there not George Of
England wailing over lost colonies? And
here am l--l---the first that struck the note
Of freedom, the first that gave the blow to
that king-hcre am l, dying like dog,
howling over treachery, lost in pangs Of
rcmorse." ~
The preacher slept back awe-struck.-
Who was before him? Again the heart
throbbed, the eath-watch was heard in
the wall, che death-rattle seemed hardly
suppressed in the thoat!' &
'.Silence along the lines there! muir
INJURED the hedying stranger; not one word,
for the peril OF your lives are at stake
Montgomery we will meet in the centre of
the town. Wewill have victory or death!
There are steep rocks--silcHce every man,
as we move, up the heights. Boys, come
on, on! Hoist the flag Of freedom! What
care we for darkness and storm? Hurrah!
Now, now, one blow more and Quebec is
Egonc--itis is ours"
A CHASTITY look Is there. The pale cheek,
the CLASSY eye, the heaving bosom, the
wild stare, the dcath-rattle the tottering
step--and 10, he has fallen on the floor!
Who is this strange man dying in a gar
ret?-this mark OF nobility crushed like a
moth?--this wretched maniac still clinging
to his flag and his rusty uniform?
| Whence come these fires OF rcmorse?---
this faint hope OF heayen?-this more than
fear OF hell? Where the parchment-where
the flag?
Let us unroll the hag, 1t isa blue ban
ner, with only thirteen stars upon 1t: But
whato the parchment? IL IS a colonels
commission in the continental army, ad-
dressed to BENEDICT ARNOLD!
Unhonored and mwept, there lay the
traitor! His corpse was in rude house;
he was unknown and unpltied, save by
strangers. Yet that right arm had struck
many a blow for freedom; but for one act
of base perfdy he has 6.llen forever
Quepched is the light of his former glory;
remorsc hangs like thnnderbolt over his
soul, and his last asonies are those ola dis
graced man, who might have been victo-
rious and successful herol
Now, in dimly lighted rooms. when chill
dren beg of aged grandsires. to tell them
tales OF the revolution, Arnold, the traitor,
is foremost in their thoughts; and then the
dreadful effects OF treason are narrated
We are told that he left the great metropo-
lis, that he engaged incommerce, that his
warehouses We're in Noya Scotia, that his
ships were in many port; but one night his
stately warehouses were laid In ashes-the
owner was suspected as the lncendiary.
The entire population OF the British pro-
! vlnces assembled IN mass, and IN sight
of his wife they hung an efiigy, whereupon
Wnc IOSprihnH GfA rfold thh trnitnrp'--