Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/246

. WORLD OF FASHION.

lovely even in death, she passed "like the anthem of a breeze away !"

The gifted and the beautiful, whom no one hated, and on whose head old and young hourly invoked the blessings of heaven to descend ; whose step was light as the young fawn's on the green turf; whose merry laugh | once rang so joyously amid the old trees which grew around the home of her fathers, and whose voice was musical as the tones of the wind-harp, at length slept that sleep which knows no waking, this side the untried hereafter!

The fortunes of Clement Lee had all been bright and prosperous. Untiring zeal, care, labor, and incessant devotion of time, had raised him to the front rank in his profession. His hopes were fulfilled, his wishes gratified -he had won his way to distinction ! Profoundly versed in the attainments of science, deeply read in the blackletter of the law, talented, accomplished, and, withal, possessing that commanding eloquence which never fails to arrest attention and compel conviction, he could not but secure a strong hold upon the affections of his fellow-citizens. His society was courted by the gay and the noble ; and they were proud of him—proud of his talents and his growing reputation. They respected him, for, honorable and just in all his dealings, and stern and inflexible in the cause of right, envy dared not malign, nor calumny assail him. They reverenced him, because, to all outward seeming, he was the friend of justice, virtue, and morality. They worshipped him for the burning and thrilling words which hung on his lips, and the genius which kindled in his eye, or sat enthroned in its god-like. majesty on his brow. Their suffrages were gladly bestowed on him, when he appeared before them as a candidate at the hustings ; and their shouts of triumph were loud and cheering, when the contest was decided in his favor, and he was returned as their representative in the councils of the nation. Was he happy ? He would have said so, as he sat alone at midnight, in the privacy of his study, surrounded by the treasured volumes, from whose pages he had gathered the knowledge which men wondered at and admired. The arrangement of the books in their mahogany cases was admirable ; marble statues and antique busts were placed around the apartment with the taste of a connoisseur. A pair of fencing foils and masks hung over the mantel ; and from the ceiling depended an argand lamp, which threw a soft and mellow light over his wide, expansive forehead, as he sat beneath it, almost buried in the cushions of a highbacked, old-fashioned arm-chair, apparently intent on the volume of Rochefoucault he was perusing. On the table before him, amid numerous manuscripts, and fanciful ink-fountains, and paper cases, was a collection which might furnish an index to the character of his studies,

13

and the bent of his mind. Poets and philosophers, divines and scoffers, monarchists and republicans, appeared to have forgotten the warfare they have waged against each other since the foundation of the world. Massillon and Voltaire lay together as cozily as brethren ; Bulwer and Schiller, Byron and Shelley, were carelessly thrown side by side with Montesquieu and Bentham, Junius and Jefferson. "There is little consolation here !-it is bitter as the waters of Marah !"-he threw the book from him in disgust "I would that I had seen Rosalie to-nightshe says she is very ill ! It may be a trick of her's to bring me to her-peradventure she is still anxious for an alliance with me-but I will not believe it !-she was ever true, and good, and pure !" He sat for a moment in deep thought, and then continued-" I have a strange presentiment of ill ! -why is it ? My nerves are firm- my pulse beats regularly- I feel no pain ! It cannot be that now when I am nearly happy, when fortune smiles on me so kindly, and the path of honor and preferment lies open before me, the star of my destiny is to set for ever ! Must mine be the fate of yon meteor, which illumined the deep azure of heaven for a moment, and then vanished in the darkness of midnight ? Shall ' earth's fruits always turn to ashes in my mouth ?' Now, when the prize for which I have so long panted is within my reach, shall I be compelled to resign it ? Rosalie may yet be mine -I love her, why may I not one day be happy in that love ? It is idle to doubt itthese thoughts are foolish-I will drive them from me," thus speaking, he rose and advanced to the beaufet at the side of the room, and after tossing off a copious libation from one of the curiously-wrought decanters which stood upon it, he slowly paced across the floor. A light knock at the door interrupted his walk, and a servant, with a note in his hand, entered at his bidding. There was no mistaking the contents of that dark-edged paper-Clement Lee eagerly caught and opened it. Had an adder stung him he could not have started more wildly than when one word, one fatal word, met his eye-" Rosalie ! -oh ! my God-the fame for which I have so madly striven is at length won- but all beside, is lost ! Is this death ?" The servant hastened forward as he was falling, and received him in his extended arms. The sufferer gave one deep groan the blood gushed from his mouth and choked his utterance- he shuddered convulsively-his features relaxed - and he was-dead ! With all his faults and follies, his virtues and his crimes-for it cannot be less than crime, to wrong the high and holy love of woman- Clement Lee stood before his Maker ! AMBITION !-thou art a fearful master !