The ladies' garland. [volume], April 22, 1826, Page 43, Image 3

About The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828

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must soon open for her reception, to rescue li* r
i.i in. ;»n! tirtue I'rom the cruel imputations im
cl* r which she sufic riot' Site then informed
tin* holy, that it Iter husband would call at No.
-. in-street, on a certain day. she would
e invoice him of the truth of her assertions.—
\ el she m:t\e not the remotest intimation as to
who was the hushand who had thus contrived
to keep her in seclusion, with hut a doubtful
ieputation. The douhts of the lady r.ud her
hushand were not removed, hut their interest
and curiosity to penetrate the veil whieh ap
peared to han^ over the fate of the unhappy
I 'male. wa r. powerfully awakened.
M * tuwlide, and before the appointed time for
t ie promised explanation had arrived. H
caned as ii'O'd. to impiire after the family, and
tde health ol his intended bride, lie had mo er
been more cheerful, and talked with his wonted
I rankness and seeming sincerity, of his approaeh
■ a a nuptials. \\ Idle the. eyenm^w .is passing;
tie;.- pleasantly away, tin* lady handed him the
i iir.iature ot in- deceased trieud, to impure of
dim whether it was a tcuod likeness. He took
the picture, hut had no sooner cast his eyes up
on it. than it dropped from his hands. For an i
nista.it hi'countenance was pale as ashes. Kve !
.* v drop ot blood seemed to have rushed hack I
upon lus heart. His lips quivered, and he trem
•■led in every joint. Hut he recovered his self
possession in a moment, (licked up the picture,
a' though it had fallen by a common accident,
■oid alter a lew common-place remarks upon it,
i'-lt the house, earlier, and more ubrublly than
usual. ‘ |
ah>- iniMni non increase,i ami a dark sii' 1
j<icion Hushed across 11n: 1 r minds. Mis'agita
tion luul been too obvious not to tie perceived ;
yet there ivas no definable, cause for it, only
•bat it appeared to be strongly connected with
the picture. 1 rue it mi.rht have been occasion
cd by tiie, sudden view of the well known fea
tures of an endeared and valuable friend, whose
remains had for more than three years been
mouldering beneath tic clods of the valley._
lint still the curiosity o! the l.umh was wrought
op to a higher decree of intensity; and although
the. gentleman had hitliertu doubled the pro
priety of attendinir the appointment of the un
iortiiRulc. fe.male, his resolution was now fixed,
and be at once determined to v isit her at the
time appointed, lie did so; and found her in a
retired dwelling, melancholy and sad as before,
but surrounded by her little family, and to all
appearance very comfortably situated. She en j
(•■real into a history of her life and situation, j
since her brother had entered the army several
years a; i. A few years alter his departure, she
had received the addresses of a gentleman
whom she had known as her brother's intimate
friend and associate, to whom some six or seven
years since she was privately married. And die
was induced to consent that their union should
be kept an inviolable secret, in consequence of
the representations of her husband, that this
privacy was of the utmost importance to bis pe
cuniary interests, as it re<rarded a larsre amount
of property in expectancy , which would certain
!y oe devised to him il bis marriage were not
known, but of which lie would certainly be de
prived, were the fact to come to the knowledge
of his aired relative. Another motive for score
c.y, lie represented to be some heavy losses,
whirl) would prevent his iroim; to house-keep
«ny in the style he wished, until he should have
retrieved Ins circumstances, w hich object w ould
be accomplished at no distant day. For a long
time. though deserted by the little circle of
friends, shi- bore the. seclusion cheerfully, and
her husband often strengthened her resolution.
l>y representing (lie pleasure tln'v would all dc
rive when liar brother arrived, Crum ilia agree
a I * I a surprise il would oecasion him. tu limi his
sister tha happy wile of his aarlv ami roiistant
Iricml. Hill from tha day of her marriage -ha
had mil haard from liar hajovad brother ; nor
"as it until l.uijj; attar hi- daalli that hy soma ac
cident. she came to tha knowledge of hi- mar
riage in this city, and In- suh.-np:cut decease.—
I far heart than sunk within her. Hut although
tha explanations of liar hu-hand ware unsati
taatory. still ha had always liaan kind ami at
tantiya to liar, (only that ha neyar dined at
home.) and fearing that tha estate would ha
h,-;. she had kept the secret within her own ho
sum And even yet. she said the secret would
not have linen wrung from liar, ware it not that
liar own dissolution appeared to ha near, and
she was anxious that her children -hould be able
to look the world in the fare without hlu-hing
at the imputation of unlawful parentage. While
giving this account of herself, she at times was
almost overcome with emotion ; and whan
speaking ol the doubt and suspicion which had
been ca-t upon her character,
“-—-in a joshing stream,
I ha tears ru-hed forth from iter oVrclouded hrn\y,
lake mountain mists at length dissolv’d 10 rain.”
Hut she still ;n yidad giving any intimation as to
the name ot liar hu-hand, nor could entreaty
induce her to altar ln r determination, until -lie
had turllier time and another interview.
I In* conversation having; been changed to the
allairs of her brother and his widow, the gentle
man with apparent carelessness, mentioned as
a piece, ot intelligence that would naturally in
terest her. that the. latter was to lie married
again in the spring, to II-. Hut had a holt
been hurled upon her head from the angry
skies, the shuck upon her feeble frame could
hardly have been greater. She clasped her
hands in an agony of grief, and a- soon as her
agitation would permit utterance, she exclaimed,
“ Oh, (iod .' lie is my hu-hand! Oh! (she con
tinned) is it possible!—Hut I see it all now !'"—
and swooned in convulsions upon the lloor.—
The shock was severe upon the gentleman, and
had if not been for the mysterious incident of
the picture, would have been much more so;—
hut the singular conduct of I!-on that occa
sian. had in a measure prepared him for some
strange disclosure. The usual restoratives hat -
ing been applied, the unfortunate lady was so
far recovered as to speak further upon the sub
jevt, and the secret having been thus divulged,
she unburtliened her heart more freely, and
proved the truth of her representations, by pro
ducing the certificate of her marriage from a
re-idcnt clergyman, who confirms it- genuine
ness and authenticity.
THE MEDLEY.
ITALY.
“ Italia ! Oil Italia ! thou who hast
The fatal g-ift of beauty”
The name of Italy is connected with many asso
ciations that are dear to the soul. Not with more
enthusiasm did the crusaders visit the Holy I .and,
than does the man of literature this classic clime._
He cannot think of Virgil or Horace, Tasso, Oriosto,
or the visionary Dante, or the divine Petrarch,
without conjuring up to his imagination this “land
ol sweet sounds,”—this paradise of the world.—
Nor is it less endeared, or become less interesting
b> the pilgrimages of men of modern times. Addi
son and (lOldsmith, and the living bard whose genius
lias shed its departing rays over the remnants of its
freedom, rush at once upon our minds when we
think of Italy. The poet there takes his full draught
of inspiration ; ami wlien contemplating 11.1 mins
o] all tl.at was great and glot ions on the earth, parts
nig as it wen- over the wrecks of time, arid pmuh i
i * 'ft' on tlie vanity of all things, insensibly imbibes
the pervading spirit of its former greatness ; and in
describing the dim forms of old, as they are shadow
ed to Ins imagination, his breast glows with a cl.
valrotis ardor at their exploits, and lie becomes af
once a partaker ot then pleasures and their inure ;
tality.
The richness and fertility of tin - soil, its alum, lien
of rattle, the salubrity of the air, tin- endless ur,. ' v
of its frmis and flow er>, its aromat.e gums, its wna
and oil, howe-’er beautiful they appear upon the
face of the country, arc not to "be competed with
the deep interest that is excited bv its eoimexiun
with the mistress of tire world. Koine, the rpn r n
ot the nations, whose ruins are now enshrined in the
jewels ot poesy—Rome, the kingdom of the arts
and sciences, whose literature was disseminated
over the whole civilized wotld. — Home, whose
proud line of Catsars are slumbering in the dust, and
whose mighty consuls are no more—Rome, whose
golden eagles glittered in the sunbeam, and ex
tended their ambitious wings over the face of the.
earth—Rome still survives the poet, the painter, the
sculptor, and the enthusiast:
“ While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand,
And while Rome stands—the world.”
We cannot step even on the confines of Italy with
out being overshadowed and overwhelmed u itii the
mysteries of its mythology. Here Saturn reigned
and gave the golden age—and two-faced Janos, who
built up splendid temples, and reared the sacred
altars. Here the nymphs and satvrs danced to the
inspiring music of the timbre 1—here Agrippa erect
ed his noble fame to the honour of ail the gods —
The Tiber, with its golden sands, still (lows ; and
is the same river which Horace describes as he saw
it forced backward from the Tuscan shore ! We
may even now stand upon the ('apitoliue-hill, and
look down upon ruined Rome—the “skeleton,” a*
some author has expressed himself, of that gigantic
form which was once terrible to the nations. 'Tra
dition still consecrates the name of Hannibal with
the lake of Thrasymene, and there is an old circu
lar ruin which the peasants still call “the (tar!hage ■
Ilian’s tower.” The Kgerian grot brings to our
memory the (aided interview' of Noma with the
beautiful nymph, w ho, during her mighty visita
tions, instructed him to rule full well the Roman
people. The springs over winch she presided still
bubble from among the pumice rocks ami trickle
through the mosses and long grasses that flourish
there.
Tile swift (’am It scoured the plains of Italv, and
opposed tin: laitd.og of .tineas, \\ ho, having escaped
from the dangcis ol the Trojan war, and the perils
of the deep, by command of \ cutis here rested
trom Ins toils and founded a cit\. — Here Pvthago
ras, after having travelled fur knowledge to Tigypt,
and beyond the walls of liahylon, founded ins
school ot philosophy, an 1 taught the transmigration
of souls. Nor should we forget Rome’s founder,
the son of warlike Mars, with the ‘she wolf,’ hi.
nurse, whose story seemed so wondrous in our
youth. 'The luxurious Ovid attached his name to
the immortal city, when in the spirit i f propheev
he divined the perpetuity of his fame, and shouted
“One hall of round eterniu is mine I”
Corinim and the wanton Julia, and the rb.vde
Virginia, and the vestal train who watched the vital
(ire, and I ullia, the proud pariicidc, and a numer
ous tram o( women, endeared i>v tin u \.riurs, or
odious for their vice:;, rush ov. r tin- mn.ioi'. when
we think ot Italv. Cato and Rrut.c, names dear
to liberty , and Cicero, tiie parent ol Roman do
ijuence, and what was still dearer to his honor and
his virtues, the father of the Roman people Ports,
philosophers, historians,and orators, rise and p:t>., in
review before us with all their attributes, and in all
their glory, mid render Italy a countrv desenedlv
the most famous in the world. 'The Alps and the
■Yppeuines, and the now 1 spouscltss Adriatic,’ and
the I y rrhene sea, names sac;- d to sv. ect s »ng, w d i