Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-10-07

niatter in his mind, and then said: 81 will
come"
"God willing; I pray you say, God will
ling" urged his visitor.
"God has willed it," he replied, solemn
ly; and again he bent bis eyes upon the
book.
The lady was a woman of strong affec-
tions, heightened by powerful imagination.
She had known many and severe griefs,
which had given her that half-desponding
cast of mind which is apt to superinduee
the mystical. The happy marriage of her
only surviving daughter, who has recently
given birth to a son, seemed 10 promise a
bright close to an eventful life,-so bright
that she could hardly believe so much good
could be in store for her; hence her appli-
cation, as we have seen, and the terrible
prediction to which she has listened.
She had entered the astrologer's like one
who had laid aside his armor and feel the
enervation of rest. She trembled at the
apprehension of evil, and shrunk at the
thought of danger. Despite her professed
unbelief, in the bottom of her soul, all that
she heard, as every one does, who listens
to the oracles of Fate. No matter from
what source comes the prediction, whoever
hears believes; trembles or hopes-what-
ever the lips may deny. What the oracle
of Delphi was to the Greeks, the flight of
birds and reeking entraiis of the Roman,
the Weird Sisteas TO Macbeth, the astrolo-
ger the gipsey, the ortdne-teller, is to the
modern ear.
The woman retired, feeling the worst
that could befall her was already known,
and all intermediate ills were pnt as the
dust in the balance From that time a
senee of mournful isolation grow upon her,
as the bolder of secret concerning others
but forever to be hidden in her own breast.
She grew more gentle than her WON'T for
she was woman of strong passions, and
of an individuality apart from the mass.
The evening of the day which we have
described, she sat with fair child sleeping
upon her knee, over which she bent silent
ly; but close observer would have seen
that a torrent of tears fell from her eyes,
| and dewed its robes. The shaded lights,
| cleaning amid crimson and alabaster, deli
cate flowers, and carpets noisless to the foot,
bespoke wealth and luxury; while the
blanched outlines Of fstatuary here and there
in the high and spacious room, gave spec
trail air of taste and grandeur not unallied
to that of mystery. Beneath the sump-
tuous hangings of the antique bedstead,
slept the fair mother of the child, lovely de-
spite her badness, shade and softened as it
was by dainty laces, that told of coming
health and renewed beauty, all the absence
of all danger. The ticking of the clock
alone broke the deep silence, and this had
stern, measured tone vibrating ominously
upon the ear.
The grandmother, for sucn she was, not
withstanding her glossy hair and cheek un-
touched by time, at length became con-
scious of what seemed the preternatural
loudness of the clock, and she arose and
arrested the pendulum, and row the death
ly stiffness of the room grew audible with
the beating of human hearts, counting the
seconds one after another, and to the soil
tary watcher with fearful distiuctness. As
her eye rested upon the clock she murmur-
ed, ARRESTED, not run out;;" and her eyes
slowly fell upon the marble base, which the
light thaew into bold relief. 1t consisted
of a gaoup of the LAGOON; and singularly
enough, as the light fell Upon the youngest
child of the suffering priest, clinging in ter
ror to his parent, the face bore astrange re-
semblance to the sleeping child. At first
this passed through the mind of the kins-
woman as sort of dreamy consciousness: !:
but as she gazed longer, the likeness be-
came so peculiar that she arose and exam
ined it more closely. Upon nearer view,
it in part disappeared, only to be renewed
as she resumed he position.
Fearful thoughts grew upon the mind of
the strong passioned woman, as she sat
holding that unconscious child Of destiny
in her arms. At one moment It's beauty
plead audible to her heart, and grief intense
and overwhelming, filled her with love
surmounting death and peril to shelter and
uphold it through life. She would aban-
don society for its sake-she would assume
the habiliments of man, and follow it in
all its terrible destiny, and give up her own
life that he might escape in the hour of
peril. Then she would retire into some
desert place, far from the laws of civilized
people, and train the child TO the freedom
and Responsibilities of savage life. Anon,
she determined to exchange him with some
child of humber blood, but better stars;
and then, when the evil day came she
would be ignorant of the event. More
tumulluous and wild grew the action of
her troubled thoughts; and at length the
final one of destroying it stood like shape,
airy-drawn before her eyes. More and
more distinct grew the image: it was a
virtuous, good deed-she might rid the
world of monster-prevent two-fold cal
ami,y. As these suggestions stieamed
rapidly through hcr mind she arose to her
feet--she approached the Laocoon, where
the strange resemblance and the look ofag-
ony gave at once defniteness to the Wild
uess of her emotions. She lifted the child
upward---it did not awake-"Ah! alb ! she
laughed aloud, "the old man did not say
how long he should live-now is his desti-
ny complete;' and her fingers gathered
around the throat of the babe There was
a slight scream, and the hurrying of gath
ering household. The almost inauimate
child was laid by the side of its no less in
animate mother, and the unhappy woman
WAS borne away, bereft of reason.
Some years after the event which we
have here shsdowed forth, two persons,
each at the extreme limit of human life,