The ladies' garland. [volume], October 27, 1827, Image 1

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

Image provided by: West Virginia University

                
Zi)t flilHifS*
HARPERS-fEREtY, VZRCmEA, OCTOBER 27, 1827.
VOL. 4,
2V O. 20
PUBLISHED EVERT SATI'HIIA Y EVENING,
BY JOHNS GALI.AIIER.
TERMS.—One dollar and fifty cents per annum,
payable at the expiration of the first quarter, or
one dollar and twenty-five cents, to be paid at the
time of subscribing. Payment in advance, from
distant subscriber, who are not known to the pub
lisher, will invariably be expected. Should pay
ment be deferred to the end of the year, £2 will
be required.
*„* Postage on all letters MUST be paid.
THIS SEFOSITOSY.
ROMANCE IN REAL LIKE.
The August number of the London New Monthly
Magazine, contains a highly interesting paper enti
tled “ Letters from the Levant.” We arc unable to
find room for more than the following pathetic nar
rative. The letter is dated at Smyrna.
[Middlesex Gazette.
“ On our return to the hotel, we f'ottnd the
landlord in a fiery dispute with two English gen
tlemen, who had just landed from a French
brig in Ihe bay. One was a tine looking young
man ofabuut lour or five and twenty, hut appa
rently in the last stage of emaciation and dis
ease ; and his companion, rather more robust,
was cndeavoiing to persuade the Italian host to
give him quarters in the locanda. This, how
ever, he obstinately refused, on the plea ol the
young gentleman’s illness, who was reclining,
as we entered, on a sofa, in a state of enfeebled
exhaustion, with sunken cheek and lustreless
vyc. ** hum me ucuaic v\ii» pi ucccumg, me
landlord, with expressive shrugs, unfeelingly
pointed to h s miserable appearance, and urged
that, as a few days must terminate his existence,
he should not only have the annoyance of his
death and interment, but his establishment
would lose its character, in the suspicious cli
mate of Smyrna, by an inmate having expired
in it. It was with difficulty that the elder gen
tleman procured permission for him to remain
on the sofa whilst he went to seek more hospi
table ijuarters for him ; he succeeded, however,
and in the evening the invalid was removed to
a house near St Catharine’s Gardens, where he
stretched himself on the bed from which he was
never to rise, as he expired on the following day.
The particulars of tins story, as they were re
lated to us by his companion, combined with
the circumstances of his death, contained some
thing peculiarly melancholy and romantic.
His name was \V-, and his father, a gen
tleman of opulent circumstances, is still resident
in Dublin, where he was originally destined for
the profession of medicine, in the preparatory
studies for which he had made considerate-ad
rancement. it happened that in the hospital in
which he was in the habit of attending clinical
lectures, and where a considerable portion of
his time was spent,adjoined a private establish
ment lor the care of insane patients, and the
garden of the one was separated from the
grounds of ihe other by a wall of inconsiderable
height. One day, whilst lingering in the walks
in the rear of the hospital, his ear was struck
with the plaintive notes of a voice in the adja
cent garden, which sang the melancholy Irish
air of *• Savourneen Oceli^h curiosity prompt
cd him to see who the minstn l was, and clam
bering to an aperture in the division wall, he
saw immediately below liim a beautiful ”irl,
who sat in mournful abstraction beneath a tiee,
plucking the leaves from a rosebud as she sang
her plaintive air. As she raised her head and
observed the stranger before her, she smiled and
beckoned bun to come to her - aficr a moment s
hesitation, and reflection oi tin* consequence,
he threw himself over the wall and seated him
self beside her. Iler mind seemed in a state of
perfect simplicity: her disorder appeared to
have given her all the playful gentleness of
childhood, and, as she fixed her dark expressive
eyes on his, she would smile and caress him,
and sing over and over the. song she was trilling
when he had' fust heard her. .Struck with the
novelty of such a situation, and the beauty of
the innocent and helpless being before him,
\V-stayed long enough to avoid detection,
and then returned by the same means lie had
entered the garden, but not till she had induced
him to promise to come again and see her.
The following day he returned and found her
at the same spot, where she said she had been
singing for a long time before, in hopes to at
tract his ear again. He now endeavoured to
find out her story, or the cause of her derange
ment, but lus efforts were unavailing, or her
words so incoherent as to convey no connected
meaning. She was, however, more staid and
melancholy while he remained, with her, and
smiled and sighed, and wept and sang, by turns,
till it was time for him to again bid her adieu.
W ith the exception ol those childlike wander
ings, she betrayed no other marks of ins-unitv ;
her aberrations were merely playful and inno
cent; she was often sad and melancholy, but
oflener lively and light spirited.
vv- it'll an excitement in lier presence
which lit- liatl lit ter Known befoie; sin- appeal
ed to him a pine cliiltl of Nature,in the extreme
of nature's loveliness. She seemed not as one
whom reason had deserted, hut as a being who
hat) lien r mingled with the woild, and dwelt in
(lie midst ol its vice and deformity in jiiimeval
beauty and uncontaminated innocence and af
fection. Mis visits were now anxiously repeat
ed and as eagerly anticipated !>v his interesting
companion, to whom he found himself, almost
involuntarily, deeply attached, the mote so.per
haps, from the romantic circumstances of the
case, and secresy, which it was absolute!', ne
cessary to maintain of the whole affair, so that
no ear was privy to his visits, and no eye had
marked their meetings At length, however,
ibe matter began to effect a singular change in
the mind of the lady, which became more and
more composed; though still subject to wander
ings and abstraction; but the new passion,which
was daily taking possession of her mind, seem
ed to he eradicating the cause, or at least coun
teracting the effects of her malady. This alter
ation was soon visible to the inmates of the
house, and the progress of her recovery was so
rapid as to induce them to seek for some more
latent cause, and totwatch her frequent and riro
longed visits to the garden ; the consequence
was, that at their meeting an eye was on them,
which reported the circumstance of \Y-s
visit to the superior of the establishment; an
immediate stop was then put to her return, and
the lady's walks confined to another portion ol
the grounds. The consequences were soon oh
vious: her regret and anxiety served to local
her disorder with redoubled vigour, and she ra
gerly demanded to he again permitted to see
him A communication was made to her pa
rents, containing a detail of till the eircumstan
ces, her quick recovery, her relapse, frnd the
apparent cause of both; and after some coil
ferenccs, it was resolved that \V-should he
invited to renew his v isits. and the affair be per
milted to take its natural course. lie accord
ingly repaired to the usual icndczvcms, where
she met him with the most impassioned eager
ness. atleetionatcly reproached his absence, and
welcomed him with fond and innocent caresses,
lie now saw her as often as he lore, and a sc
ennd time her recovery was rapidly progressing,
till at length she was so tar restored that her
parents resolved on removing her to her own
imnir—and she accordingly hade adieu to the
asylum.
There were here some circumstances which
Mr. W-s companion, Mr It., related indis
tinctly, or of which 1 retain but an imperfect re
collection; and he w ho could alone have inform
cd me of them was gone, to his long home be
fore 1 heard this singular story. It appeared,
however, that, after some fatther intercourse,
he was obliged to be absent from Ireland for
some time, and during that interval, the pro
gross of her mind to perfect eollectedness con
tinned uninterrupted : hut her former memori/
seemed to decay with her disease, and she gra
dually forgot her lover. Long protracted ill
ness ensued, am! her spuds and constitution
seemed to droop with exhaustion after their for
mer unhealthy excitement, till at length, after
a tedious recovery from a scries of i t lapses, her
faculties were perfectly restored; hut every
trace, of Iter former situation, or the events
vv inch had occurred to her during her illness and
residence in Dublin, had vanished like a dream
from her memory, nor did her family ever ven
ture to touch her feelings by a rectnrence to
them.
i
In the mean time, \V. returned, and eagerly
flew to hei embrace, after so long a separation;
lier who had never passed from his thoughts
and remembrance. Her family felt for him the
warmest gratitude and affection, from the eon
sciousness that he. had been the main instru
ment in the restoration of their daughter; but
I (he issue of this interview they awaited with
[ the most painful suspense. She had long ceased
I to mention his name, or betray any sympton of
recollecting him. lie seemed to have passer!
from her memory with the other less important
items of lier situation, and this moment was
now to prove to them whether any circumstance
could make (lie stream of memory roll hack to
this distracted period of her intellect. From
the shock of that interview \Y-never reco
vered. She received him as her family had an
tieipated, she saw him as a mere uninterested
stranger; she met hint with calm, cold polite
ness, and could ill conceal her astonishment at
tire agitation and despair of his manner, when
he found Jgij|faculy that he was no longer re
inemherefWfwPfhc fond affection he had antici
pated. He could not repress his anxiety to re
mind her of their late attachment; but she only
i heard his distant hints with astonishment and