The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1858-07-17

! bacK ana forward throughout the night.
Facing this alternative / stood till the
day of my trial-just one month. Ny
brother came often to see me !; he lavish
ed tears and embraces on ME he re-
tanned for me the best of couusel-yet
he always seemed like one in the delirilu,
of a fever, and ever, just as the turnkey
swungsback tie heavy door to let him
out, he would stop for a moment tfem-
bling and with his lips half open, as If
about to say something more to me
then, without meeting my eye, he would
] rush from the cell Suffering as l was
l-suilering still more, as was about to
be, from the consequences of his SIM
could forbcar with the cowardice which
could not confess Tor knew how price
less liberty must be to u man who, losing
if, leaves his other soul in that most
hcart~brokcn of all widowlood of con-
yict's wife
She whom | loved visited me many
times, always bringing ne sweet mes
snGcs in her presence from the birds,
and the flowers, and the free sky out
sidc-always talking with II voice in
tcnsely sustained into cheGrfulness Of my
acqnlttal, and restoration to our old
| hopes. told her [ was innocent, and
she believed ne. / could not tell her
who was guilty
My trial came on. ] need not pain
myself with long recital of the throngcd
court, the weary qucstionings and cross
! 4ncstiorings, the audible silence of the
crowd when the pleas were made, and
thea tho moment whose shadow fell upon
Inc when the foreman solcmnly said
equity THAT other moment when |
was condemned to the awful alicnaee Of
prison fer the fifteen years to come.
Then parted from home and friends.
Ny brother did not bid me good by: he
lay sick Of II raging fever, on whose
chances hung life. But shc-thc holy,
the heroine had borne all things and
came to see me 30. She claspcd my
manacled hands in Der own, she pressed
one long, last kiss upon the conyct's
lips, and said, with solemn cheerful
ness, " | will wait for You. :" Then,
with Il superstition which frivolous
though it may seem, still crcpt into the
cwfulncss Of that hour, I stopped my
watch, and vowed inwardIy that its hands
should never move more till VIC met
! again.
After that the gates of my prison
opened to let i'll but one message from
the life outside. The chaplain brought
me a lock of well-know soft brown hair,
and told Inc with tear in his eve, that
an old man had given it to linn for me,
saying, " My daughter is with God
She died, whispering that she would wait
for John Markham.'
endured the knowledge Of her death
with benumbed Impotence, mcom-
planning, rarely weeping single drop
| went through the uNarying round of
daY-labor in the priSon-yard with IL
steady, mechanical industry, which sur
priscd my tasllmaster-for heretofore |
had been tainted as {" the weak gentle
man." "whitc fngcrs,' and whatever
other cpithcts of insult the hardened
bullies OF discipline are accustomed, at
discretion, and without fear Of resent
ment, to confer upon the wretched in
their grasp. At evening | held up the
trcss into that faint twilight which just
filtered through my grNes and, kissing
it, seemed to see her By mc-for | could
never think Of her as dead. That rculi-
cation was kindly spared me by the fact
that no new void can be felt, no now
unnnturalness, in tho eternal void and
unnaturalncss ola prison.
But one night, coming from work,
found the tress gone. Asking the turn
key for it, | was told, "prisoncrs arc
allowed no useless articlcs.' From that
moment | knew that she whom loved
was dead. Like wild frcShct, the
agony Of that knowledge gushcd in upon
me. With it came the memory of my
burning wrongs-thc scorn of man spent
upon my innocent hcad--thc perlidy of
my only brother-the irredecmablc hope
lcssncss Of all things. And shut my
self up in u sullen, silent madness. A
most dangerous madness it was. From
the time that | lost the trcss, five years
were to clapsc before went out, and if,
i'll that time, revolt had sprung up in
prison, | had died fighting in its 'front.'
for ! was ripe for any crime. AS it was,
| only abode my time. Once out, /
should wrcak condignest vengeance on
society--on law-on my own brother.
The five years passcd-fivc years OF
dust, and blinking in the yard Of dark
ness, muttering low, smothcrcd heart
burning in the cell. At last, one lnorn-
ing, the warden threw upen my door,
and passed out with the slow, locl-stop
which had been practising nearly the
quarter II lifetime. | was going to
chapel with the rcst-to hear of the
Prodigal Son and the Magdalcn-thcy
the guilty, but the welconlcd-I, the
innocent, yet the thrust out. But the
officer stopped me with these three words
-" You arc free !"
did not cheer, nor wiring the mans
hand, nor even smile One grows used
to forget these ways of the world, after
fifteen years i'll prison.
But the revenge which, little by lit
tie, had stretched its fbrous roots
through the soil of my heart till every
drop of life-juico went to nourish the
plant, now begin to put forth its BIOS
SONS, and let them bud into in ccstatic,
poisonous fragrance. And my sweet,