Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/350

. THE BEGGAR'S PETITION.

Our engraving fur the month is an admirable representation of a scene familiar to many of our readers. The self-complacency of Puss, and the entreating look of the Dog are well pourtrayed. The picture altogether is one of the most truthful we have scen for a long time. Puss is quite as cager as the unfortunate Belinda of Gray, but her fate does not promise to be so melancholy. Many of our readers may have forgotten the adinirable verses to which we allude, and we easmot do better than quote a portion of them. The description of Puss will serve for our own heroine. The little pocm to which we allude was composed by Gray on a favorite Cat, drowned in a tub of Gold Fishes. Miss Puss, mounting to the edge of the china bow] in which they wore swimming, “gazed,” to use the poet's words, “on the lake below.” ‘Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She waw, and purred applause.

Still had she gazed, but, ‘mid the tide, Two angel forms were seen to glide, The Genii of the stream: Their scaly armour's 'Tyrian hue, Through richest purple, to the view Betrayed a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw: A whisker first, and then a claw, With wany an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize: What female heart can gold desp What Cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous Maid! with looks intent, Again she stretched, again she bent, ‘Nor knew the gulf between: (Malignant Fate sat by and smiled.) The slippery verge her feet beguiled; She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood, She mewed to every watery god Some speedy aid to send. No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirred, Nor cruel Tom, of Susan heard: A fav'rite has no friend!

From hence, ye Beauties! undeceived, Know one false step ne'er retrieved, And be with caution bold: Not all that tempts your wandering eyes, And heedless hearts, is lawful prize, Nor all that glistens gold.” In the works of Raphael painting seems to have attained its highest pitch. Almost contemporaneous with him, lived Coreggio and Titian; hut the seventeenth century produced no worthy successor.

THE CONVICT’S FATE.

A SKETCH FROM FACT.

So before, behind, around thee like an armament of cloud, the black fate labors onward. Hemans.

On the —— day of March 18—, might have been seen, in the country town of L—, an unusual collection of people of every age, size, and sex. All the public houses were filled to overflowing, and still there were many strangers unable to obtain shelter, but the inhabitants of the village, with generous hospitality, threw open their doors, and made the comers welcome. The cause of this concourse is soon told. The day succeeding the one above mentioned, had heen set apart to inflict the utmost punishment of the law on a criminal then lying in the prison. He was a man large in stature, and of powerful strength. He had a short time before, in a moment of passion, taken the life of one of his most intimate friends, a young man of promising talents, and universally respected by a large circle of relatives and friends, The criminal was arrested the day after the murder, tried, and sentenced to death; and that sentence was to be carried out upon the morrow.

The day appointed for the execution was one of the most delightful of the season. The sun rose unusual splendor. But for one being that luminary had no bright rays—to him there was no joy—no contentment—no happy tranquil feelings swelling the heart with love and adoration. Desperate with the thoughts of an ignominious death, he lay upon the floor of his cell, overloaded with chains, revolving in his mind rome bold attempt at an escape—escape when naught but death stared him in the face—escape, when the very hope seemned the roadness of despair! How was this to be accomplished? He was to be removed from the prison-house to the place of execution, which was about a mile distant, guarded by a portion of the militia of the county, carrying arms charged with ball cartridge. The only chance for escape would be when he was being temoved from ihe cart to the scaffold, ae at that period there would be the least suspicion of his intention. The attempt was desperate, but it was resolved upon.

At length the criminal was brought forth, clothed in the customary dress, and placed in the cart upon the coffin intended to receive hia lifeless remains. He was pale and dejected; but with none of his energies impaired by long confinement, His cye, that no suffering could dim, flashed with more than its wonted brilliancy. The prison was built upon an eminence, and upon the spot where he now stood he could look down upon the preparations for his death, and calculate hie chances for escape. One piercing glance revealed every thing——that glance proved sufficient.

The procession moved slowly on. The bell, suspended

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