The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1861-03-01

voume-lsy open upon the mothers knee
Add now the pale faced tory flung himself up
ON his knees and confessed he had butchered her
husband on the night VI Paoli, and begged his
life at her hands
''Spare me for the sake OF my wife-chid''
He had expected this pititul moan would
touch the widows heart, but not one relenting
gleam soitened her face.
''rhe Lord shall Judge between US" she said
in cold icy tone that troze the murderers
heart. "Look, the Bible is IN my lap will
close the volume, and this boy shall open it,,
and place his fingers at random upon line and
by that you shall live or die.'
This was strange proposal, made in good
faith OF wild and dark superstition OF olden
times. For moment the tory, pale as ashes,
was wrapped in deep thought-then IN faint
ing voice he signiied his consent.
Raising her dark eyes to heaven, the mother
prayed to the Great Father to direct the FINGER
OF her son. She closed the book--she handed
It 10 that boy whose cheek redeemed with loath-
ing as he gazpd upon his fathers murderer
He took the Bible opened its holy pages at ran
dom, and placed his finger upon verse.
There was silence. The continental sol
der, who had a sword to avenge his brothers.
death, stood with dial.ng eyes and parted lips.
Tne culprIt kneeling upon the floor, with his
face like discolored clay, felt his ehesrt leap to
his throat.
Then in clear, bold voice, the widow read
this line from the Old Testament. 1t was short,
yet terrible:
"That man shall dien
Look the brother springs forward to plunge
a knite in he murderer's heart but the tory,
pinoned as he is, Clinss TO the widows knees.
He b.gs that one more trial may be made by
the little girl, that child of five years old, with
golden hair and laughing eyes
The widow consents. There is an awful
pause. With a smile in her eye, without
knowing what she was doing, the little girl
opens the Bible as it lay on. her mothers knee
she turned her face away and placed her finger
upon Ine.
The awful silence grows deeper. The deep
drawn breaths of the brother, and broken gas7
OF the murderer, alone disturb the stiffness the
widow and dark haired boy were breathIess.
The little girl as she caught feeling of awe
from those about her, stood breathess, her face
turned aside, and her tiny fingers resting on
the lines of life and death.
At length gathering courage, the widow
bent her eye upon the page and read, it was
a line from the New Testament:
"Love your enemies"
OG, book of terrible majesty and childlike
love-zof sublimlty that crushes the heart with
rapture, you never shone more strongly than
there IN that lonely co; OF the Wissahicon
when you saved the muiderer's heart.
Now look how wonderful are the ways of
heaven. That very night as the widow sal
by her freside- sat there with a crushed heart
and hot-eyelids, thinking of her husband who
now lay mouldering IN the drenched soil of
Paoli-there was d tap at the door She
opened it, and that husband living, though
covered with wounds was in her arms.
He had fallen a; Paoli, but not in death he
was alive, and his wife lay painting on his bo-
SON..
That night there was prayer in the wood
em5owered cottage of Wissahicon.