The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1863-07-29
MY REVENGE.

We met in the beginning of the action,
| and my enemy Richard Withers-he
rebel, / a fedcraiist, he Oh foot, /
mounted. 1t matters net why hated
him with the fercest wrath of my nature.
The heart knoweth its own bitterness,
and she detaila while most painful to me,
would be of triflng interest TO you. Suf-
6ce 10 that orr feud was not political
one. For ten years we were the closest
friends that the same studies, the same
tastes and the same aims could make US
I was the elder of the two and the stron-
ger, physically com paratively friendlesa,
as the world takes it, and had no near
relatives. Young, solitary. and visionary
as we were, it is hard to make you under
stand what we were to each other. Up
to the period of eur enlargement, work
ing together, eating together, sleeping
together, can safely say that we had
not joy or grief, not pleasure or vexa-
tion that we did net share with an almost
boyish sipgle heartedDess. One day
changed all. We arose in the morning
dear frienda--we lay down at night, bit
ter enemies. | was a man of extremes
i either loved or hated with the whole
strength of uy heart. The past was for
gotten in the present. The ten gears of
kindness, of eongeniality. of almost wo-
manly tenderness, were erased, as with a
sponge We looked each ether in the
face sith angry and searching eyes-said
bat very few words (our rage was too
deep to be denonstrative) and we parted
Then, in my solitude. | dashed my
clenched hand upon the Bible aud vowed,
passionately -
II may wait ten years, Richard With
ers! may wait, twenty, thirty, if you
will, but sooner or later, swear | will
have my revenge !"
And this was the way we met
I wonder if he thought of that day
when he laid his hand on my bridle-relD
and looked up at me with his tleacherous
blue eyes. | scarcely think he did, or he
could not have given me that look, He
was beautiful as a girl.-indeed, the con
trast of his fair, aristocratic face, to my
own rough. dark exterior, might have
been partly the secret of my former at
traction to him. But the loveliness of
an angel, had it been his, would n ot have
saved him from NE then. There was a
pistol In bis hand, but before be bad time
10 discharge it, | cut at him with NY
sword and as the line swept on like a
gathering wave, | >aw him stagger under
the blow, throw up bis arms, aud 90 down
in the press Bitterly as | hated hiG,
the vision of bis ghastly face haunted me
the long day through.
You all remember how it was at Fred
erickrburg-how we crossed the river at
the wrong point. and under tEat raking
FIRE of the enemy, were so disastrously
repulsed
1t was a sad mistake and fatal to many
q brave heart When night fell, | lay
upon the 6eld among the dead and wound
ed was comparatively helpless. A
ball had shivered the cap of my right
knee and my shoulder was laid open by
sabre cut. The latter bled profusely,
bat by dint of knotting my bandker-
chief tightly around it, | managed to
staunch it in a measure For my knee
could do nothing. Consciousness did not
forsake me and the pain was intense but
FROM the means and walls about NE,
judged that others had Jared worse than
|. Poor fellows there was many a moth
er's darling suffering there-many of my
comrades, lads of eighteen and twenty,
who had never been a uight from home
uHtil they joined the aruy spoiled pets
of fortune, manly enough at heart, but
children in years and constitution, who
had beep used to have every little ache
and scratch coupassioDed with an almost
extravagant sympathy-there they ay.
crippled, gashed and bleeding, crushed
and dying, ,huddled together-soue where
they had weakly crawled upon their hands
and knees-never a womans touch to
bind up their wounds, or woman voice
to whisper gentle consolation.
1t wac pitch dark and cold, misera.
BILE rain was falling upon US. The very
heavens weeping over cur miseries. Then
through the darkness and the drizzling
rain, through the groans and prayers of
the fallen men about me, heard famil-
lar voice close BY my side: