Page:Tragical history of George Barnwell (1).pdf/2



MR. BARNWELL, the father of George, was the worthy and pious Rector of Hanworth; an ornament to society, and a blessing to those amiable beings who formed his domestic circle. An illness, with which he was suddenly attacked, threatened his speedy dissolution:mortification had nearly advanced to its last stage, and he had heard with placid resignation, the opinion of his Physician. Though he felt no pangs of guilt, no dread of future worlds, and though perfectly content to submit to the will of his Creator, and resign his soul to him that gave it; yet there were attractions whose resistless force made him yet wish for a longer existence. Around that couch from which he was never to rise, knelt objects, that awakened in his breast the feeling of a husband father, and friend. His amiable wife too deeply affected to weep, gazed alternately on her expiring husband, and on those who were soon to be the orphan pledges of his love, with the piercing wildness of despair. Their son a youth of sixteen held his father's hand clasped between his own, and bent his face over it to conceal his tears. A daughter who was