Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/127

122 MADAGASCAR SONG. [Translated by Sir John Bowring.]

I did not follow the counsel thus given; and lo, the terrible penalty I paid. My crime was rete mucosmal, and for that scarce a lecturer or paper devoted to "Reform" but had its fling at me, even to the extent of abusing my dead mother, who went to heaven nearly fifty years ago. But I bided my time! Hundreds of "Lecturers" and thousands of "The faithful and unco-Godly," most of whom I never saw, considered their labor incomplete, and their speech imperfect, unless they could soundly abuse my mother's only son. But what did it avail—in the end? They were compelled to borrow, or rather steal, my thought, and pass it off as their own; and I have cut out of their articles and speeches thousands of lines, and hundreds of thoughts, which I had