The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1864-12-23
THE REVENGE

f. We met in the beginning Of the action
/ / and my enemy, Richard Withers-he 4
rebel a Federist !! he on foot, | mounted
1t matters not why hated him with the
fercest wrath of my nature The heart
knoweth its own btterness;' and the de-
tails, while most painful to me, would be
of triiling interest to you. Suffice it that
our feud was not political one. Fol
ten years we were the closest intimates
that the same studies, the same tastes
and the same aims could make us.
was the elder of the two, and Stronger
physically; comparatively frlendless as
the world takes it, aud had no near rels.
tives. Young, solitary and visionary as
we we're, it is hard to make you under
stand what we were to each other. Up t.
this period OF our estrangement, working
together, eating together, sleeping to-
sether | Can safety say that We had not
\ grief, not apleasure ora vexation that
we didgnot share with almost Il Doyish
single heartedness. But one single day
changed all. We rose in the morning
dear friends and lay down at night bitter
foes. | was man Of extremes; | either
loved or hated with the whole strength
of my heart. The past was forgotten in
the present. The ten years of kindness,
of congeniality, Of almost womanly kind
ness, were erased as with sponge. We
looked each other in the face wish an
cry, searching eyes--said but few words
(our rage was too deep to be demons,
trative) and parted. Then in my soli-
tude dashed M, clenched hand upon
the Bible and vowed passionately: II
may wait ten years, Richard Withers |
may wait twenty, thirty. if you will, but
sooner or later l swear l shall have my
'revengep + 1888 .u,r .
Aud this was the way we met.
wonder If he thought Of that day
when he laid his hand upon my bride
reign and looked up at me with his
treacherous blue eyes. scarcely
think he did, or he could not have
given me that look. He was beautiful
as girl; indeed, the contrast of his
fair alistoclatic face with the regular
outline and red icurving lips, to my
own rough, dark exterior, might have
been partly the secret of my former at
traction to him. But the loviness of an
angel if it had been his would not have
saved him from me then. There was a
pistol IN his hand. but before he had time
to discharge it, cut at him with my
sword, and as the line swept on like a
gathering wave, I saw him stsgger, un-
der the blow, throw up his arms and 60
down with tire press. Bitterly as l hated
him the ghasdy face haunted 'oe the long
day through. A0 ''''..i'' '
YSu all remember how i! was at Fred
erick burg. How We crossed the river
at The wrong point, and ibder the raking
fire OF the enemy, were SO disastrously
repulsed: & secs
1t was sad mistake, and fatal to omany
a brave heart When night fell, [ lay
upon the field among dead aud wounded.
1 was comparatively helpless. A bali
had shivered the cap Of my right knee; );
and my shoulder was laid open with a
sabre cut. n The latter bled profusely;
I4ut by dinto knotting my hankerchet
tightly around it, managed to staunch
It in a measure! For my knee I could
dc nothing. Consciousness did not for-
sake me, and the pain was intense; but
from the moans and walls of the men
about me, ! judged that-Others had Jared
worse than L. cPoer fellows!e there was
many q mothers darling suffering there
Many OF my comrades, lads Of eighteen or
twenty, who had never seen,a night from
home until they Joined the army, spoiled
pets o: fortune, manly enough at heart
but children in years and constitution,
who had been used to have every little
sche and scratch compassioned with an
almost exttavagant sympathy--there they
lay, crippled and gashed, and bleeding,
crashed and dying. huddled together
some where they had fallen, some where
they had weekly crawled upon there
hands and kneesAaud never a3woman's
touch TO bind up their wounds, or a wo--
mans voice To whisner oenf la non isolation,