Page:The Lady's Book Vol. I.pdf/36

30 TO MY MOTHER. arose from the north east. Its suddenness and its fury quite disconcerted Charley's skill; the boat twirled about in spite of his utmost efforts, and the splashing of the waves, as they dashed against its frail sides, began to fill it with water. Mary sat fixed like a statue in the stern; she was perfectly paralyzed with alarm; and Charley himself felt too much apprehension to attempt the task of a comforter : he spoke not; he hardly breathed, but he desisted not his efforts to propel the little bark through the angry surge. Still the storm abated not, and presently the sky was overcast; the moon hid its pale light behind a dense cloud, and the lightning 'leaped about' as if in mockery of the elemental strife.

There was no time for the interchange of thoughts. Charley laboured with great energy, and he acquired new strength when he heard a prayer, slow, solemn, and impressive, breathed from Mary's lips. One so good, so innocent, was, he thought, like an angel's presence; there could not come harm to anything near her; and this opinion seemed to receive confirmation from the elements; for, on her obtesting heaven, the storm seemed to subside, and the moaning of the wind through the neighbouring hills was distinctly heard. This sound, which at another time would have filled them with melancholy, proved most delightful; it intimated that they were not far from land; but the gladness which suddenly arose within them was as suddenly dashed with fears.

A blast from a bugle burst upon their ears, and the voices of men, as if in reply, were heard indistinctly from various points. Charley, for a moment, suspended his toil; and, looking upwards towards the moon, which was now emerging from the cloud that had obscured it, he perceived that, in the confusion of the darkness and the storm, he had mistaken his course, and was now close upon the shore from which he thought himself receding. There was not a moment to be lost in rectifying his error, and, lest he should give alarm, he pulled his oars cautiously, but forcibly. His fears were but too well grounded; a cheer, long and deafening, struck terror into his soul; and Mary dropped upon her knees in the bottom of the bark.

Charley now saw that there was no chance of safety but by distancing his pursuers, who had already launched a boat, and he exerted all his remaining strength with the energy of a man conscious of being in the mouth of danger. His little skiff, though half filled with water, literally flew over the lake, but his enemies were as determined to capture as he was to escape; the report of a musket was re echoed from the distant hills, and, by the flash of its pan, he saw that they were no great distance from him; and, on another shot being fired, the bullet rebounded from the water just under his helm. This did not cause him to relax; he strained every sinew, and reached the opposite shore before they could overtake him. As the prow of his boat ploughed up the strand, he gave a triumphant cheer, and extended his arms for Mary to leap into them; but, at that moment, his pursuers fired a volley; a ball struck him, he reeled, groaned, and expired. A wild, an almost supernatural scream from Mary, announced to the pursuers that part of their object had been accomplished, and in an instant the wild Germans were hustling each other, in the general eagerness to seize the poor forsaken creature, who now thought of nothing but her dead lover, whose spurned corpse was clasped in her arms.

'Azy, boys, azy,' said a voice, which Mary recognized for that of Owney Sullivan, 'you must'nt injure this girl.'

'Save me, Owney,' she cried, wildly abandoning the dead body, as if suddenly awakening to a sense of her situation.

The soldiers gave a loud ironical laugh, and one of them seized her roughly by the arm.

'You shall not,' cried Owney, 'I've sould the pass, 'tis true, but it was bekase I loved this girl -you shall not injure her.'

Another laugh was the only reply he received; and, when he attempted to release Mary from the rude grasp of the Hessian, a blow from one of his comrades stretched him upon the ground.



Three days after this, a sad procession, with two coffins on men's shoulders, entered the cemetery of the ruined abbey; they contained the remains of Charley and Mary. After the usual form had been gone through, they were both committed to the same grave, and their hapless fate, even in this hour of peril, excited more than common sympathy. It was fortunate for Mary that she did not survive the brutal treatment which she experienced at the hands of her lover's murderers; the world no longer contained any one of #those who had made life joyous and happy; her parents had fallen in the attack upon the cottage; her lover was no more, and she herself Heaven, in mercy, did not permit her to survive her honor.

The wretch who had 'sold the pass,' who in a fit of jealousy betrayed his comrades into the hands of their enemies, had shame enough left to hide his face for ever from the eyes of all who knew him. He quitted the country, and was never afterwards heard of by those who detested his treachery.

TO MY MOTHER. ON HEARING HER SIGH.

Nay, sigh not! 'tis useless Oh! I would sigh too, If I knew any service that sighing could do; Nay, sigh not! 'tis better to smile if we may, And thus of our pilgrimage cheat the long way!

We must on, -be our pathway o'er flower, or o'er thorn, Do thunder clouds gloom it, or sunbeams adorn! Then sigh not! it never will lighten our woe, But smile, and e'en pleasure from sorrow may flow!

Our path through this wearisome life of a day, Is obstructed by thorns, which incumber the way, By a sigh, you those thorns will more thickly arrange; But, oh! smile, and the briers to roses will change!

In the 'midst of a home, where your children are nigh, Let your bosom ne'er heave with another sad sigh, For the fondest affection shall ever be there, To lighten the burden of sorrow and care!

Then sigh not! dear mother! our kindness shall leave No cause for a sigh, and no reason to grieve; “But in peace and soft rapture shall teach life to flow, And light up a smile on the aspect of woe!"