White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1857-12-03


ear, amid the luxuriance of those West India
Isles did he linger therel Why did his good
ship lie idle, with f1rled sail and dropping PEN
non, in the harsOr OF Havana7
An, there was struggle going on in his heart
between this newly aroused feeling of patriotism
and excitement, and another and tenderer SEN
timent! For Benedict Arnold was revealing in
the first love dream of bis youth.
And this was why his sloop lay motionless up-
on the waters Of the harbor; why, day after day,
his brow was still famed by tropic airs; why,
then, at nightfall, impatiently watching the sun
dipping his weary head into the purple western
waves, he hastily strobe to and fro on the white
sea strand.
And when the evening gun beomed from Mo-
70 Castle, he drew his little skiff from the deem
cove where itlay sheltered, and with few bold.
vigorous dashes of the oar, pushed out of the
harbor.
That was the hour when he kept tryst with
the beloved one; with her whose dark Spanish
eyes had burned their way into his heart; whose
tender love words and caresses woke in all its
glow his own peculiarly ardent southern temper
ament.
But even this bold, determined man, loving,
as he did, impetuously and strongly, could no
longer linger there; even his first love dream
had no power to bind him always; he was no man
to loiter in his lady's bower, while that brave
heart, painting for the rush of war and the glory
of conquest beat within his heart.
And that day he had said:
One more meeting in the shades of the old
Moorish garden; one more kiss upon IneE Va
lasquez's sweet lips, and then must away"
What Benedict Arnold's purposes for life were,
he scarce knew then; but with the one idea of
change. of excitement, he had exclaimed:
I" will no longer tarry here. The dream is
sweet, passing sweet, but it must be broken"
And so on, on, out of the harbor he pushed,
with hasty oar dashes-the vigorous beat of the
oars, the hasty strokes of his athletic arm, types
of his whole life, impetuous, daring, free and
spurning control.
Once out on the bay, his skiff sailed rapidly
on close 20 the shore, where trailing vines, from
the luxuriant gardens lining the waters edge,
dipped down into the tide.
From the very margin of the bay rose dense,
tangled mass of rich vegetable life, varying in
every shade of gold, and green and crimson, the
rank growth of the luxuriant soil.
! Forth from the matted vines cleaned magnif-
icent blossoms, swaying up and down on their
long, pensile stems, like gorgeous, fame winged
birds fitting to and fro; bright crimson petals,
loOsened from rip0ned calxes, fell here and
there about his boat upon the sea; long feathery
sprays plumed and nodded in the balmy air;
indeed, it was perfect wilderness of green and
bloom, an intoxicating atmosphere of odors.
o, these warm West Indian Isles, the Eden
of the world, lying in dark purple depths of
seaD'
How Benedict Arnold's tropic heart revealed
in the intoxicating richness everywhere about
him.
And could he leave this magic cline, the spar
king waters, and the cleaning consultations
which walked forth into the deep night skies
with glory unknown to his native northern land
and above all, could he gaze no more upon those
eyes which beamed far brighter than the star
light for hint
Yes, yes; his resolve was Interchangeable; he
must go hence. What will not proud, ambi-
tious man do, and dare, and suffer, for bis own
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT!
And still on he roWed, over waters darkening
into deeper purple in the shades of gathering
night under the magnificent blaze of that south
ern starlight, starlight so like day.
And still the long vines and green MOSES trail
ed down into the water; and floating out sea-
ward, came winds replete with odors almost
siekening in their sweetness; still on his head
rained showers ofcrimson and snowy petals; and
on, on, he went past visions of beauty, which
seemed more like glimpses of fairy-Iand than
any reality on earth.
An hour had elapsed since the rover left the
harbor, and the full blaze of tropic night lay
over land and sea.
"a glorious land-a magic cline. But this
hot blood in my veins must be cooled in north
ern airs, ere long" murmured Arnold as he
drew his skiifashore at an opening, beyond whose
vista of arching vines might be caught glimpses
of the white walls of a villa, and stood for mo-
ment with barred head beneath the starlight.
GA glorious land to live, and dream, and love
in; but such life would kill me. must have
action, the sterner strife, thd combat" he ex-
claimed, as he parted the vines, strobe up fight
of marble steps, and entered the hOwery wilder
ness beyond.
There, meath the bright starlight, CLEANED the
white walls Of an old Moorish mansion, built
around an open, paved court, where tountaiHl
played, and shimmered like silver in the star
light. -.--
There, in quaint-looking old garden, with
green terraces and broad flights Of marble steps,
where the stately palm reared its turfted corO-
nal high above all other trees, where the scar
let pomegranate tossed its scented blossoms on
the air, had the first love dream Of Benedict
Anold's life begun; and there, too, were his
own lips, that night, to speak the words which
ended it. r-.1 -.--a~e 20 %
There, too, IL died; but in after years, when
the flush Of glory was wOn-beSide tho watch
fires Of Quebec, in the rush Of the battle, and
the stiffness Of the calm night-tide, did no mem
DRY of that trusting Spanish girl who bad Law
ished her lOve'On the gay, gallant and chivalric
young AmeriesnO come to his heartI-of the girl
who came there to meet him under the starlight,
who cried, " o, do not goi'' as standing there