The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1868-03-20
FREMONT, SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO; FRIDAY. MARC]

filial love and virtue; so much beauty
and maternal solicitude, made even
those infiexible patriots, who, after all,
were men, fathers, sons, brothers, pause
for a moment. The word 'pardon"
rose to the lips of all, but the doom was
irrevocable. Already the victims were
at the foot of the scaffold.
Already had the man whom we have
described seen them. They had seen
him, too, and at this aspect the daughter
had pressed to her bosom her poor
mother, pale with terror.
Trembling for Emma, the mother
was almost fainting. 1t was her he
roic daughter who supported her in her
arms.
Emma looked at that man. Those
beings, so totally different, held sort
of communication with each other
through that look. The man felt an
unaccounatble shudder run through his
frame. The splendor of the virtue that
surrounded her dazzled him. He ad-
mired; he felt proud of experiencing
this unwonted sensation, the existence
of which nothing had hitherto revealed
to him. The longer he gazed with ad-
miration upon the pair, the greater was
the pity, for pity had seized upon all the
spectators, and had communicated il
self, as by magnetic influence, to him.
These emotions to him so novel, threw
him into sort of reverie.
The man stood motionless as statue
upon his stage of death. He narrowly
observed the young girl who was sup
porting the totteriDg steps of her
mother, and who, at that moment, had
only eyes for her. He heard, through
out the length aud breadth Of the square
the voices of the spectators asking each
other in eager tones:
"Can nothing be done? Can no one
save them.
Then an idea suddenly struck him.
He leaped from his scaffold. The peo-
pie guessed it and applauded. He ap-
preached Emma, and made an attempt
to speak to her, but his tongue refused
to give utterance, and clave to hi;
mouth; but encouraged by the populace
and making a violent effort to obtain the
mastery over himself, he ventured tc
say:
"Mademoiselle-no, | mistake-citi
zens-the law permits good patriot tc
save a girl who unites her future with
his. Will you-pardon me-will you
marry me? Say but yes, and you shal
be saved"
Emma heard all, and gazed with q
yearniDg fervor at her mothers ghast
| ly face, for she was thinking of the blow
that was about to fall upon her daughter
She drew from that look divine strength
and heroism. Turning her beautiful
eyes towards the man, she said:
"Would you save my mother, tooP
1t was with no faltering voice that
she pronunced these heroic words. II
was while regarding this man without
agitation, without fear, and by the clear
light of reason, and with ineffable sweet.
ness, that she spoke these words:
81 know you; understand you;
see you, such as you are. Your hands
have shed innocent blood in torrents,
but in them will place mine. Your
existence, of opprobrium, of torture, oi
horror, 1 will share. l will be your wife
if you will save my mothers life as vel
as mine, and l will try not to die o.
grief. l will unite all the moments o.
my life to all the moments of yours
1 will swear to love you, and l will love
you. l will swear to obey you, and
will obey you. To this punishment,
renewed every day, at every hour, al
every instant, l will submit. l viii
accept it, will bless it, if only you will
save my mother"
In the sublime words she had uttered
all these things were implied: and wha1
her tongue did not express might bt
read in her eyes.
The man of blood replied in voice
which became timid:
81 can only save you"
Emma drew deep inspiration of re
lief from her tortured heart; and, freed
from the frightful fetters in which this
mans thought had for some moments
held captive hers, she forgot him. She
forgot the spectators-she saw nothing
but her mother. She thought of moth
ing but rejoining her in heaven with tht
angels she so nearly resembled.
| And SO she gave up her spirit to he
Father and Maker, noble example o
undying filial affection and duty.