Latest / The Best Short Stories of 1917 / Rover Vol. 01 No. 08 - Lawrence Labree, Seba Smith

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Rover Vol. 01 No. 08 - Lawrence Labree, Seba Smith · The Best Short Stories of 1917

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Rover Volume one number eight. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. The Rover Volume one, number eight, edited
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  Speaker 1: by Seba Smith and Lawrence LaBrie. Section one The Mother's
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  Speaker 1: Warning by Lawrence LaBrie, Oh, Memory Mine, How often from
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  Speaker 1: the shadowy past dost thou bring up visions of youth
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  Speaker 1: and beauty with the magician's wand conjuring up from the
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  Speaker 1: dark Charnel house of time forms of loveliness and grandeur,
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  Speaker 1: till my heart throbs anew with old attachments and associations
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  Speaker 1: which float before the eye of my imagination like ghosts
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  Speaker 1: in the drapery moonlight. How materially does time soften and
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  Speaker 1: mellow the events of the past, harsher features, seeming more mild,
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  Speaker 1: fainter lines becoming more strongly marked as the heart receives
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  Speaker 1: and embalms all impressions of the beautiful and the intellectual.
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  Speaker 1: Alas we've learned to exclaim, the days of chivalry are past.
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  Speaker 1: Tis an everyday world we live in now. No romance,
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  Speaker 1: no poetry of life, Knighthood and military dignity. By this
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  Speaker 1: ipse dixit sort of sentence are banished from this trading world,
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  Speaker 1: this speculating world. But the poetry of life, Ah, there
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  Speaker 1: is more of it than there are hearts to feel it,
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  Speaker 1: minds to sympathize with it. Gertrude, my sweet child, give
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  Speaker 1: me your hand while I ask you a simple question,
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  Speaker 1: and I wish you to look me in the face
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  Speaker 1: as you answer me. Poor Gertrude, She approached the table
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  Speaker 1: at which her mother sat and extended her hand, the
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  Speaker 1: other resting upon her snowy bosom, Tell me, my daughter,
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  Speaker 1: if that which I expect is true that you love
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  Speaker 1: Maurice Denning, has he made any avowal of attachment to you?
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  Speaker 1: A crimson flush overspread the fair features of Gertrude as
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  Speaker 1: her eyes sought the floor, and her silence betrayed how
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  Speaker 1: much she dreaded to attempt and answer. Why this silence?
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  Speaker 1: My child? Have you any partiality to Maurice above all others? Mother,
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  Speaker 1: said the blushing girl, But she could speak no more.
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  Speaker 1: The crimson deepened, her hands trembled, and her eyes were
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  Speaker 1: moistened with tears. Ah, said her mother. I see it
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  Speaker 1: is so. I am sorry, very sorry, Gertrude. You would
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  Speaker 1: oblige me, my dear child, if you would think no
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  Speaker 1: more of him. I think it not a happy choice,
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  Speaker 1: and it were better put an end to it once
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  Speaker 1: before your heart has too far committed its feelings. Take
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  Speaker 1: the age and experience of those older than yourself for
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  Speaker 1: it that he is no worthy match for you. No answer,
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  Speaker 1: poor Gertrude had nought to say, no denial, to make
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  Speaker 1: no excuse to frame her. Pale and anxious mother looked
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  Speaker 1: fondly in her face and saw how true her doubts,
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  Speaker 1: how well founded her fears. The lover's letter lay on
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  Speaker 1: the table before them, The mother's hand rested upon it.
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  Speaker 1: Who could withstand the pleading expression of that fond parents
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  Speaker 1: face as she addressed her only child. Gertrude dared not
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  Speaker 1: her eyes to meet that gaze. Her shelter was in silence.
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  Speaker 1: Even so, Gertrude, what I feared is true. There is
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  Speaker 1: more confession in your looks than you could make with words.
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry that I did not sooner speak of it,
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  Speaker 1: that you kept it a secret from me, my child.
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  Speaker 1: That was wrong. I could have advised you, I could
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  Speaker 1: have cautioned you. You Gertrude are my only tie upon earth.
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  Speaker 1: You have been my joy and comfort for seventeen years.
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  Speaker 1: And oh, how brief their existence, how swift their flight.
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  Speaker 1: I do not expect to hide you from the worlds,
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  Speaker 1: to guard you with up miserly affection. But still I
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  Speaker 1: may presume to advise you, to watch you, to fear
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  Speaker 1: for you, to set your steps aright when I find
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  Speaker 1: you astray, and to pray for you to that great
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  Speaker 1: fount of life and love which holdeth the destinies of
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  Speaker 1: the human family. Oh, if you knew with what an
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  Speaker 1: anxious heart I have watched you from your cradle, up
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  Speaker 1: your budding and your blossoming, you would be careful to
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  Speaker 1: avoid aught that would cause me a moment's pain. Your
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  Speaker 1: unhappiness would be misery to me. Therefore, Gertfrud Wilton, think
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  Speaker 1: well on it to day, sleep calmly on it tonight,
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  Speaker 1: and arise in the morning, determined to receive no more visits,
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  Speaker 1: no more letters from Maurice, denning he is unworthy of you.
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  Speaker 1: They parted. Gertrude retired to her own room and wept.
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  Speaker 1: She thought of Maurice who loved her, Maurice whom she
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  Speaker 1: loved he appeared, always noble and kind. Why should she
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  Speaker 1: relinquish him? Her mother must be prejudiced, had probably been
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  Speaker 1: misinformed by persons who were enemies of his. Then again,
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  Speaker 1: the melancholy pleading of her mother's voice, the persuasive and
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  Speaker 1: tender eloquence of her words, went deep to the poor
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  Speaker 1: girl's heart. And to please that mother, whose only joy
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  Speaker 1: she was, whom she so tenderly loved, she was to
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  Speaker 1: relinquish Maurice altogether, to see him no more, to receive
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  Speaker 1: from him, no more letters. Weak heart, There sometimes seems
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  Speaker 1: a destiny which no human efforts can avoid, a maelstream
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  Speaker 1: of circumstances which no power can steer clear of. Like
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  Speaker 1: insects that flutter around the blaze that destroys them, do
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  Speaker 1: we often group around and follow the ignis fatuus that
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  Speaker 1: leads us to destruction. That evening, Gertrude was on a
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  Speaker 1: visit to a friend. Marie came in as usual, He
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  Speaker 1: was agreeable and lively. The time passed away pleasantly, and
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  Speaker 1: when Gertrude was ready to start for home, Maurice, as
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  Speaker 1: a matter of course, prepared to accompany her. She could
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  Speaker 1: not refuse. Besides, her mother must be prejudiced. What could
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  Speaker 1: there be wrong in so nice a man. They left
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  Speaker 1: the house together in the bright moonlight, and the air
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  Speaker 1: was balmy with the odor of flowers and the fragrance
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  Speaker 1: of apple blasts, and the fireflies sported around them with
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  Speaker 1: their glittering wings. It was a sweet spring evening, and
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  Speaker 1: the very elements around them seemed harmonious with love. What
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  Speaker 1: harm was if they did not go immediately home. It
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  Speaker 1: is the last time I shall see him, thought Gertrude.
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  Speaker 1: And I cannot tell him all in so short a time. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: to be abrupt would be so unkind. So they walked
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  Speaker 1: back and forth in the bright moonlight and on the
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  Speaker 1: green grass, Maurice, all the time pouring fond assurances of
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  Speaker 1: love into the willing ear of sweet Gertrude, and she
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  Speaker 1: more and more pleased, and wondering more and more how
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  Speaker 1: our mother could possibly dislike him, and thinking all the
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  Speaker 1: while that he never seemed half so kind nor half
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  Speaker 1: so dear to her as then and here she had
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  Speaker 1: three times passed the shadow of her own dwelling. She
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  Speaker 1: had made her mind not to cast him off, but
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  Speaker 1: to cling to him in spite of all circumstances. Notwithstanding
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  Speaker 1: the prejudices ungenerous, she doubted not which existed against him. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: how the rosy moments flew Time's wings were not clipped.
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  Speaker 1: He caught the breath of the lover's vows as he
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  Speaker 1: swept along, and they were written in the story Registry
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  Speaker 1: of Heaven. The mother's warning was forgotten, and the moon
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  Speaker 1: had weaned, as Gertrude, on the threshold of her dwelling,
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  Speaker 1: gave the parting kiss to her lover. How with a
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  Speaker 1: chiding heart did the daughter seek the chamber of her mother.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment the clock struck, She counted the hour twelve. Impossible.
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  Speaker 1: Where had she been so late? Where had the hours flown?
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  Speaker 1: What fascination had covered her? That time had stolen so
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  Speaker 1: much the march of her Her heart answered Maurice, Ah, Gertrude, Gertrude,
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  Speaker 1: it is the first time that ever you felt a
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  Speaker 1: shame to enter into the presence of your mother. What
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  Speaker 1: a humiliating feeling, and so good, so kind a mother too,
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  Speaker 1: And who, with patience and with prayer, is awaiting her
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  Speaker 1: daughter's return. Tremblingly did Gertrude put her finger upon the
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  Speaker 1: latch of the door, for she felt like a guilt.
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  Speaker 1: She entered the room and her mother arose. Gertrude said, she,
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  Speaker 1: I am so glad you have returned. Why did you
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  Speaker 1: stay so late? I got frightened at your absence. It
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  Speaker 1: is now midnight, and the hours have been so very long,
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  Speaker 1: and I was so fearful that you was unwell, and
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  Speaker 1: so tired with waiting for you. Do not stay so
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  Speaker 1: long another time, my dear child. They retired to rest,
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  Speaker 1: but Gertrude could not sleep. Her mind was filled with
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of Maurice and of her mother. So patiently had
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  Speaker 1: missus Wilton watched for her coming through the long, tedious
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  Speaker 1: hours of the night, hours that to her had flown
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  Speaker 1: so swiftly by, so fondly did she chid her on
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  Speaker 1: her return, touching her heart more sensibly than sharp rebuke.
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  Speaker 1: No slumber touched her eyelids that night, for her torturing
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  Speaker 1: heart beat wildly in her bosom, no happy dreams, in
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  Speaker 1: rapt her senses and elyzian bliss. It was all painful reality, lingering,
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  Speaker 1: enduring miss But how could she avoid her destiny? How
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  Speaker 1: could she escape from that strong current of fate which
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  Speaker 1: seemed hurrying her onward. Poor Gertrude. The morning sun found
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  Speaker 1: her without sleep, restless and impatient. After the above night,
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  Speaker 1: several days passed without a meeting between Gertrude and Maurice.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Wilton had avoided saying anything to her daughter that
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  Speaker 1: might in any way aggrieve her. For believing her to
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  Speaker 1: be a girl of sense, She left her to draw
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  Speaker 1: her own conclusions and deductions, knowing as she did, what
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  Speaker 1: were the sentiments of that only parent respecting her intimacy
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  Speaker 1: with Maurice denning nor for a whole week did she
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  Speaker 1: mention his name. Indeed, Gertrude herself, sometimes, as she looked
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  Speaker 1: upon the pale countenance of her mother, almost formed the
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  Speaker 1: resolution never to see him again. But her reason was
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  Speaker 1: too weak. The affections and sympathies of her heart overbalanced,
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  Speaker 1: and all right resolutions kicked the beam they met, their
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  Speaker 1: hearts go mingled, her mother was forgotten, and theirs of
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  Speaker 1: lasting affection were exchanged. She could not believe that Maurice
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  Speaker 1: was not the best, the most kind and amiable man
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  Speaker 1: on earth. What possible fault could her mother see in him?
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  Speaker 1: Still she kept her meetings private. She had not the
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  Speaker 1: courage to acknowledge her intimacy with him, advice she had
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  Speaker 1: already disregarded. Thus, affairs progressed, and day by day, with
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  Speaker 1: each succeeding interview did her attachment strengthen, and she soon
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  Speaker 1: felt as if she could sacrifice everything all persons for Maurice.
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  Speaker 1: Among the multitude, Maurice Denning would pass for a very clever,
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  Speaker 1: a very agreeable young man. His appearance was in his favor, tall, graceful,
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  Speaker 1: and good looking. His manners were winning. His voice was
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  Speaker 1: persuasive and at times tender. He really had no very
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  Speaker 1: bad trait in his disposition. He would not sit down
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  Speaker 1: with an intention of doing a wrong thing, But temptation
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  Speaker 1: was luresome. Maurice was impulsive, and he became a particularly
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  Speaker 1: improper companion for weak minded young woman. A few weeks
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  Speaker 1: more and a secret marriage was performed. The advice so kind,
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  Speaker 1: so mild of a mother was forgotten. She had wandered
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  Speaker 1: into the dark. The morn of experience would show whether
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  Speaker 1: she had ventured upon misery or happiness. But his secret
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  Speaker 1: could not rest long a mother's watchful eye. The curious
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  Speaker 1: tongue of speculation soon brought to light the marriage of
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  Speaker 1: Gertrude with denning. There was no chiding. It was now
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  Speaker 1: too late. But the matron's brow was clouded with sorrow,
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  Speaker 1: her heart beat heavy with dread. Her eyes grew dim
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  Speaker 1: and weary with weeping and watching. But she did not murmur.
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  Speaker 1: She feared her daughter would be full soon acquainted with woe,
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  Speaker 1: and she forbore to add one pang to her tender heart.
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  Speaker 1: She could not part with her at any rate. So
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  Speaker 1: matters were arranged, and they all resided together for the
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  Speaker 1: first month. Of course, everything went well and pleasantly. He
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  Speaker 1: seemed kind and attentive. She appeared smiling and happy. The
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  Speaker 1: next and the next month asked away. Maurice lived, spoken,
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  Speaker 1: acted as other men did. When business did not control
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  Speaker 1: his time, it was spent in the society of his
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  Speaker 1: wife and her mother. Indeven missus Wilton began to think
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  Speaker 1: she had been hasty in forming an opinion. In the
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  Speaker 1: ordinary circumstances of a married life. There is nothing novel
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  Speaker 1: or very interesting. Affection at any rate is a matter
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  Speaker 1: of course, while it was an object to be sought
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  Speaker 1: for when the contest was to win, then, indeed, particularly
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  Speaker 1: when doubtful, there is a charm of romance thrown around
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  Speaker 1: the pursuit, and man's natural inclination for acquiring whips him
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  Speaker 1: to perseverance. But the prize secured the goal one other
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  Speaker 1: objects for pursuit appear, ambition becomes wedded, and nothing but
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  Speaker 1: the wonderful lamp of Aladdin could turn to light all
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  Speaker 1: that the craving and thirsty soul of man requires. But
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  Speaker 1: why speculate upon the philosophy of the human soul? Its
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  Speaker 1: destiny is uncontrollable and absolute, and the mists serious influences
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  Speaker 1: that govern it are subject to no positive laws other
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  Speaker 1: than certain nerved byelic principles which lie beyond the perfect
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  Speaker 1: grasp of mortal intellect. Six months flew by, and the
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  Speaker 1: novelty of marriage had ceased. With Maurice denning, he was
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  Speaker 1: less at home, less attentive, less kind. He began to
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  Speaker 1: find companions more congenial to his feelings than was the
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  Speaker 1: company of his sweet wife and her pious mother. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: he even answered their questions with harshness that caused Gertrude
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  Speaker 1: to weep and sad foreboding to possess the heart of
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  Speaker 1: Missus Wilton. Thus affairs went on for some time, until
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  Speaker 1: at last the irregularities of Maurice began to encroach upon
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  Speaker 1: the evenings that had hitherto been spent at home. For
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  Speaker 1: some time longer, and it was not an unfrequent sight
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  Speaker 1: to see him wandering home in the gray of the morning.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes read himself nervous with excitement and dissipation. Woe
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  Speaker 1: woe to the young heart that had linked its fate
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  Speaker 1: with his. Why was it marked for desolation? Why were
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  Speaker 1: the he happy feelings of youth to be blasted in
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  Speaker 1: their budding? For many months did Maurice continue in his
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  Speaker 1: reckless course of dissipation, eating not the tears of his
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  Speaker 1: fond wife, the reproving counsel of her mother. Old associations
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  Speaker 1: were too strong upon him. The giant grasp of ice
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  Speaker 1: was too powerful for his weak mind. His companions were
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  Speaker 1: wild and heedless. Where cared they for household ties, for
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  Speaker 1: the opinion of the world. Drinking, gambling, and wrangling were
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  Speaker 1: their amusements. Home had no thoughts for them, Many of
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  Speaker 1: them had none, and they often slept in the very
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  Speaker 1: place where they had held their hellish orgies. But this
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  Speaker 1: course of things could not last long. The heart of
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  Speaker 1: Gertrude was breaking. The mother was drooping with anxiety for
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  Speaker 1: her daughter's health and happiness. Everything went unfortunately. They were
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  Speaker 1: pressed with creditors to whom they could give no excuse.
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  Speaker 1: One thing after another went from their comfortable household to
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  Speaker 1: meet their necessary emergencies, until finally they were reduced to
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  Speaker 1: what was merely necessy. Sorry for their actual comfort, there
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  Speaker 1: was no hope, no expectation of reform in Maurice. He
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  Speaker 1: had passed the rubicon, whence there was no returning. One
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  Speaker 1: cold night in winter, when the wind whistled and the
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  Speaker 1: snow drifted into heaps, Maurice was returning home from his
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  Speaker 1: riotous departure. The fumes of the wine made his brain reel.
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  Speaker 1: He was maddened with continued losses, and he was also
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  Speaker 1: suffering from a severe beating, which he had received from
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  Speaker 1: one of his companions, whom he had accused of robbing him,
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  Speaker 1: and who had kept himself more cool and free from
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  Speaker 1: liquor than had Denning. He was raving like a madman,
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  Speaker 1: incoherently and violently, but evidently getting more quiet as he proceeded,
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  Speaker 1: for the effects of a parting glass were stealing over
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  Speaker 1: his brain well with the blast the snow and his intoxication.
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  Speaker 1: He made his way slowly and with difficulty toward his home,
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  Speaker 1: his blood almost freezing in his veins, and himself trembling
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  Speaker 1: like an aspen. All that weary, tedious night did the
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  Speaker 1: weeping wife's wait vainly for her husband's return. She thought
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  Speaker 1: over her innocent maiden days, and she could see no
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  Speaker 1: cause why her affliction should be so great. She recollected
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  Speaker 1: her mother's warning, but it was now too late to
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  Speaker 1: escape the misery that encompassed her. Patiently with prayer, must
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  Speaker 1: she wait her fate, trusting in the great disposal of
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  Speaker 1: events to soften her affliction or make her strength equal
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  Speaker 1: to the burden. She cared not so much for her
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  Speaker 1: own comfortless situation as for the happiness and reformation of
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  Speaker 1: her erring husband. What is the mystery in human nature
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  Speaker 1: that the innocent must suffer ofttimes? For the faults of
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  Speaker 1: the sinning daylight had scarcely streaked the east. On the
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  Speaker 1: following morning, ere Gertrude hastened to the door of her dwelling,
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  Speaker 1: for her ears had caught as she fancied strange sounds,
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  Speaker 1: And all through the long night had she watched for
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  Speaker 1: her husband's return. He came. Not the wind whistles really
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  Speaker 1: around her dwelling, and everything seemed snapping with a sharp frost.
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  Speaker 1: Tremblingly did she open the door, and the cold snow
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  Speaker 1: blew into her face. She looked out how dismal the air,
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  Speaker 1: No living thing seemed stirring. She would have stepped back,
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  Speaker 1: but her eyes caught a sight of unnatural horror, and
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  Speaker 1: with a wild shriek, she fell upon the floor. There,
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  Speaker 1: in the gray light, frozen and stiff, sat the lifeless
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  Speaker 1: form of Maurice Denny. His ghastly features were like marble,
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  Speaker 1: and he seemed a sculptured form carved by a demon spirit.
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  Speaker 1: He had been only able to reach his home, and
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  Speaker 1: too intoxicated and chilled by the cold open the door,
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  Speaker 1: he had sunk down upon the step, where steep and
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  Speaker 1: death had overtaken him, A dreadful lesson to the inebriate.
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  Speaker 1: For many weeks there was grief and mourning in that
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  Speaker 1: house of misfortune. But the kindness of friends in time
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  Speaker 1: softened their grief, and they learned to consider those things
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  Speaker 1: which had afflicted them as in the end a permanent blessing.
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  Speaker 1: A small property which Gertrude shortly after inherited gave her
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  Speaker 1: the means of comfort. In a few years after, she
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  Speaker 1: was married again happily and prosperously, and she lived to
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  Speaker 1: enjoy many days of contentment and peace. And she often
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  Speaker 1: took occasion to impress upon her young friend's the air
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  Speaker 1: of disregarding a mother's warning. End of section one.
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  Speaker 2: Section two of The Rover, Volume one number eight. This
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  Speaker 2: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 2: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 2: LibriVox dot org. Read by Alexander Judy The Rover, Volume
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  Speaker 2: one number eight, edited by Ceba Smith and Lawrence LaBrie.
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  Speaker 2: Section two The Tempter, a Tale of Jerusalem. It was
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  Speaker 2: fast approaching the eleventh hour. The busy hum of the
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  Speaker 2: Holy city had sunk into comparative stillness, and save some
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  Speaker 2: straggling wayfares and a field laborer's returning from their daily toil,
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  Speaker 2: few pass were to be seen in the streets of Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 2: One middle aged man alone kept his seat in the
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  Speaker 2: water gate, looking with placid smile along the rugged road
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: which led down to the Valley of Jehosephat a silver
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: geerah was held between his fingers as in the act
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: of giving an alms, But for some minutes no object
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: appeared on whom it might properly be bestowed. He rose
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: from his seat, and, gathering his flowing robe around him,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: was preparing to depart, when the figure of an aged
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: man tottering slowly up the steep arrested his attention. The
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: old man was meanly clad, and as he leant feebly
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: on his staff to take a breath after his toilsome ascent,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: his glance rested upon the person of the sage Rabbi Abeumelech.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: For it was he who sat in the gate, distributing
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: his daily alms to the poor hungry in the wayfarer
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the Lord direct thy goings out in thy comings in,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: said the Rabbi, with a self satisfied smile, dropping the
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: coin into the extended palm of the stranger. Lo I
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: have tarried from the ninth hour until the towers and
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: pinnacles of the temple have thrown their dark shadows across
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: the brook of Cadron, even unto the base of the
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Mount of Olives, to bestow this last ghirah of forty
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: in an alms, according to a vow which I made
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: last Pentecost, and behold thou art here to receive it.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Precious is the gift which comes from the heart, more
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: precious than the Arabian frankincense, and sweeter than the rich
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: honey of Hebron. If I might know my Lord's name,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: my heart would not forget it. When I lift up
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: my voice in prayer to the ruler of Israel, said
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the stranger respectively. I am called the Rabbi abeumelech, he
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: whom men term the sinless, who voice is as the
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: neighing of a war horse in the temple, whose works
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: are of the works of righteousness, who clothes the naked,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: feeds the hungry, and gives alms to the tenth part
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: of his substance, asked the stranger. The same, answered the
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: self glorified Rabbi. And now let me pray of thee
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: thy name. And in what city thou art the dweller Alas,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: answered the stranger, I am as a reproach to my
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: kindred in my name, as a defilement to the lips
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: of an israel Light unfortunate man. And what hast thou
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: offended against the law in this thing have I offended?
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Behold I went forth, at the last vintage season, into
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: the vineyards, and the vintagers were pressing the grapes in
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: the wine presses, and the red wine ran into the vats,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: even the red wine of Lebanon. In being weary with
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the heat and toil of the day, I was tempted
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: in foolishness. I did drink of the wine, which should
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: have been an abomination unto me, seeing that I am
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: an Azirite from my youth, the scrupulous Rabbi shrank from
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: the degraded Israelite as from a tainted leper, and elevating
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: his brow with a sanctimonious air. The way of the
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: wise man is pleasant, but the feet of the fool
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: treadeth in the mire. Stop, said the stranger, as the
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Rabbi was departing. Is it not also said that the vain,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: glorious man shall fall in the snares of his own
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: proud heart. Rabbi Abemelech, thy life has been righteous, but
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: fire hath not yet tried, nor water purified thee see
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: that thou stand fast when the time cometh. At these words,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the stranger, with more alertness than his seemingly feebleness, indicates
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: turned into an obscure street, while Abbemelech, pondering on the
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: warning of the strange man, took his way towards his
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: own dwelling. On reaching his own house, Abbeymelek retired to
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: his own chamber. It was a small closet or oratory
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: on the housetop, furnished in a style of simplicity approaching
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: to rudeness, and its cold, cheerless appearance was increased by
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: the dim twilight. There was, still, however, sufficient light for
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Abeumelek to distinguish a female figure standing in a thoughtful
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: attitude in the center of the apartment. A rich, mellow
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: ray fell upon her shape, which exceeded in height the
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: usual standard of her sex, but was so exquisitely proportioned
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: as to convey only an idea of graceful dignity to
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: the beholder. Her eye, as she turned it upon Abbeumelek,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: seemed dark and lustrous, and her smile was a sunbeam
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: upon the bosom of the still waters. The Rabbi stood motionless,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: for he never before had seen or beheld such beauty.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: A new pulse stirred in his bosom, and an unusual
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: fire burned in his veins. At length he found words
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: to express his admiration and astonishment. Fair damsel cried, he
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: thy visit is unforeseen, but thou art more welcome to
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: my chamber than the pleasant odor of the young vines
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: in the spring season. I am, said the abashed intruder,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: while a rosette blush as overspread the marble whiteness of
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: her soft cheek and lofty brow. I am, as you
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: may perceive a stranger and a gentile unworthy to come
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: beneath the roof of the far famed Rabbi, abey molech,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: the words of whose lips are wisdom, and whose precepts
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: are as pearls of great price. Nevertheless, let thy handmaiden
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: find favor in thy sight and turn aside. I pray
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: thee unto my lodging, which are nigh at hand, And
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: let thy hand maiden rejoice in the light of countenance
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: in the sweet sound of thy voice. The Rabbi, though
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: surprised at the novel address, felt a strange sensation thrill
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: through his frame. Gazing upon the lovely speaker, his resolution
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: began to waver, and almost unconsciously, he permitted himself to
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: be led out by his unknown visitor. Proceeding at a
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: rapid pace towards the western quarter of the city, they
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: had length stopped before a house of handsome exterior, but
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: which Abumelet could not ever remember having seen before. A
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: single tap at the door caused it to open, and
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: the Rabbi, still following his mysterious conductor, entered a hall
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: feebly lighted by a single lamp. Here, she motioned him
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: to remain for a short time, and disappearing through a passage,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: The Rabbi was left alone to meditate upon the strange
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: adventure in which he was engaged, but he had little
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: time allowed him for reflection. Ere The heavy folds of
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: a curtain which overhung a small door, were partially withdrawn,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: and a fair hand and a sweet soft voice invited
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: him to enter. He approached, lifted up the curtain, and
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: held a superbly furnished apartment, lit with silver lamps fed
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: with perfumed oil of Samaria. Mirrors of polished metal hung
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: around the room. While on a low couch sat, or
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: rather reclined, the beautiful stranger, whose charms now shone with
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: a splendor far surpassing anything the Rabbi could imagine of
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: mortal mold. He essayed to speak, but the words dwelt
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: upon his lips. She beckoned him to take a seat
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: beside her. He obeyed tremblingly. But the gentle, assuring smile
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: which she cast upon him at once banished his timidity,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: and he suffered his eyes to wander in unrestrained freedom
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: over those volumptuous beauties, till the sight became painful from
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: extreme delight. A female attendant spread before them a light
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: but luxurious repast of fresh and dried fruits, grapes, figs, aprocants, olives, pomegranates,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: and dates, interspersed with pots of pure honey, rose, cakes
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: of Damascus and bananas of Rosetta with Egyptian syrup, and
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: crystal vases in which the rich whine of Haulden sparkled
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: with tempting brilliancy. Fairest of the daughters of men, May
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I crave thy name and that of thy father's house,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: said the rabbi, addressing his unknown companion. My name is Zora,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: replied the damsel. My father is of the children of Ishmael,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: an abider in the desert. The fame of the sage
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Abemelech has reached unto the farthest orders of the wilderness.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: And behold the heart of thy handmaiden was moved to
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: see thy man, of whose wisdom all nations spake lovely.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Zorra exclaimed the enamored sage. My wisdom is become as
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: withered grasp before thy beauty, and the strength of my
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: heart as do in the consuming light of thine eyes.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Suffer me therefore to be unto Thee, even as Bous
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: was unto Ruth, and to love THEE with the love
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: wherewith Jacob loved Rachel. Zra smiled at the earnestness with
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: which these words were uttered, and, filling the cup, presented
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: it to the delighted Rabbi, who instinctively shrank from the
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: dangerous libation. But Zra would not be denied. Urge me
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: not fair, damsel, said he, I have a vow against
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: the juice of the vine until next new moon. Zora's
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: contenance fell, and the big tear hung trembling on her
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: dark eyes. Silken lash abey molect, torn with conflicting passions,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: passed his arms around her waist and drew her unresistingly
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: to his bosom. He felt the quick pulses of her
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: heart throb against his. Her warm sighs were upon his cheek,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: and the perfumed wine at his lips. Human strength could
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: resist no longer. He seized the cup with desperate hands,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: and had a single drought quafed it to the bottom.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: His vow was broken, and, having nothing farther to hope
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: or fear, drought followed drought in quick succession, till his
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes bore evidence that he was
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: no longer under the dominion of reason. Zra, my beautiful Zra,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: cried he. My love for thee is as the love
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: which floods cannot quench, nor many waters drown. Thou art
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: the light of mine eyes. I cannot part from thee
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: let us. Therefore flee unto my father tens, even unto
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: the wilderness, as unto a city of refuge. Ah, my lord,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: thy servant, hath neither gold nor silver to bear the charge?
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Could we live like the raven or the stork of
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: the desert. This objection had not struck Abbey Milet before.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: He was rich himself, but he could not immediately convert
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: his possessions into money, and his passion was too violent
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: to admit delay. He seemed perplexed, and spake not till
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Zorra inquired in a careless manner, if his next door
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: neighbor was not the rich publican erin Bin Rabbiat. It
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: is even so, replied the Rabbi, still musing, And he
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: hath i am told. Coffers filled with shekels of pure silver,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: it is said so, and shekels of gold, and pots
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: of double maccabees, and precious stones, pearls and sardonys and carbuncles,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: more costly than the jewels of the high priest's breastplate. Ha,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: exclaimed Abby Molek, as if a sudden ray of light
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: had darted across his mind. Speak on Aaron bin Rabiyat
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: is stricken in years and liveth alone. Riches are to
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: him as the dust of the earth. There is a
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: private way from thy house into his stop. Stop, cried
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the agitated man, grasping the arm of the tempter convulsively.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: What wouldst thou Shall I peril my soul in this thing? Zorra, Zorra,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: thy words are pleasant to my ears as the murmurs
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: of falling waters in the desert. But the bitterness of
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Mara even the bitterness of death is their taste. Nevertheless,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: and this also I will obey thee go about it. Then,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: instantly said Zora, arising, knowest the private passage into the
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: old miser's chamber, take this weapon, thou mayst need it.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: And when thou hast secured the treasure, returned quickly hither
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: and all things shall be ready for our flight. Abumelek,
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: whose scruples had by this time completely vanished, was no
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: less eager than his impetuous mistress to accomplish the deed.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: He ran with incredible speed through the now silent streets
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: and quickly reached his own dwelling. Lighting a small lamp,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: he entered a private passage which in time of danger,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: had been contrived between the two houses, and in a
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: few moments found himself in the strong chamber of Aaron
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: been Rabiat. Around him lay coffers filled with gold and
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: silver coins, and casks charged with precious stones that trembled
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: with varied but incessant luster in the sickly beams of
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: the lamp he bore. He had raised one jeweled box
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: to his eye to examine it more closely, when slipping
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: from his fingers, it fell to the floor with a
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: loud crash, and the next moment the alarmed miser rushed
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: into the apartment. Seeing a stranger at such an hour
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: in the sanctuary of the god of his idoltrey, he
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: uttered a piercing scream, and, throwing himself upon the robber,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: grappled him with almost supernatural strength. Vainly did Abu Malek
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: endeavor to escape from the old man's grasp or to
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: still his screams. Every moment increased his danger. He heard
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: the steps of persons ascending the stairs. Not an instant
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: was to be lost. The dagger which Zora had given
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: him was in his girdle. He drew it and plunged
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: it into the heart of the old man. A piercing
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: shriek run through the chamber, and the unfortunate erin bin
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Rabiet fell lifeless on the floor. Instead of providing for
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: his safety, the guilty rabbi stood petrified with horror over
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: the quivering body of his victim, watching the life stream
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: welling from his side in a bubbling tide. When the
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: persons attracted by the publican's screams entered the room, he
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: made no attempt to escape, but surrendered himself quietly into
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: their hands. He was instantly hurried to the prison, and,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: amidst the revilings of the crowd, was plunged into a dark,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: noisome dungeon to await the public ignominy of a trial
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: on the following day, in the sight of that people
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: before whom he had set himself up as an example
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: of righteousness. Dashing himself on the earth, he lay withering
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: in bitter agony, cursing the hour of his birth, in
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: the initial madness which had led his steps from the
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: paths of virtue, when suddenly a ray of light illuminated
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: his prison. He looked up. It was Zorra, her eyes
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: dark orb still shone with undiminished luster. But there was
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: in the proud smile which curled her elevated lip, an
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: expression of demonic triumph which chilled the Rabbi's blood. Hiding
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: his face in his robe, he exclaimed, false, tempter, begone.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I have done thy bidding, and lo, innocent blood is
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: upon my hands. I am broken and trodden under foot
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: like a defiled thing. The cup of my pride has
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: been filled with gall Depart, Depart, therefore I pray thee
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: lest in the bitterness of my wrath, I curse thee. Also,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Rabbi Abemelek, it is said, the vain, glorious man shall
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: fall in the snare of his own heart. The time
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: hath come, and thou couldst not stand fast. RecA art thou, There,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: shouted Abemelek, as he recognized in the speaker the voice
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: of the mendescent, to whom he had given alms at
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: the water gate on the previous evening. Burning with rage,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: he seized the prophet of evil by the throat. But
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: the strength of the old man far exceeded his own,
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: and he flung him to the earth with a violence
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: that shook his frame. Starting up, he beheld not the
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: old beggar of the water gate, nor the tempter of Zorah.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: He was alone, not in the dungeon of a prison,
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: but in his little chamber, with a yellow harvest moon
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: streaming through the lattice. Several minutes elapsed before he could
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: convince himself that the hoars he had undergone were but
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: the airy painting of a dream. And then, prostrating himself
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: on the ground, he exclaimed, in the fullness of his heart,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: it is a lesson from the Lord I was proud
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: of my own strength, and when the trial came, I
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: was delivered to the evil one. From that day forth,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Abbey Malet walked in the path of humility. He had
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: experienced the dangers of self confidence, and he learned to
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: pity rather than condemn, those who, like himself, had fallen
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: and struggle with the tempter. End of section.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Two Section three of The Rover Volume one number eight.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: visit libervox dot org. The Rover Volume one number eight,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: edited by Ceba Smith and Lawrence Libree. Section three passion,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: its history, its evening, clear and frosty. I stood in
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: one of the small and deserted streets that intersect Mayfair,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: waiting for Julia. Yes, our attachment had now progressed to
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: that point. We met alone and in secret from the
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: hour Julia first consented to these interviews. As Medeas left me,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: I have not seen him since. My gratitude stops here,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: said he. It was my task to amuse to interest you,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: but no more. I deal not with the passions. I
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: can do nothing for you in this affair. You are
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: in love and in the hands of a stronger demon
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: than myself. Adieu, when the spell is broken, we may
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: meet again. With those words, he vanished, and as I, suspect,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: engaged his services for the present to the Marquess of Hartford.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I was waiting then, in this lonely street for the
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: coming of Julia. I heard the clock strike eight, the
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: appointed hour, but I saw not her dark mantle and
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: graceful form emerging from the cross street which led to
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: our rendezvous. And who was Julia and what she was?
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: A relation of the gaming adventurer at whose house and
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: with whose daughter I had first seen her. And she
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: lived at a somewhat distant part of the town with
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a sister who was a widow and much older than herself,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: occupied in the business of an extensive trade and the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: cares of a growing family. This sister left Julia to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the guidance of her own susceptible fancy and youthful inexperience
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: to reflect, to imagine, to act as she would, And
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the consequences was that she fell in love. She was
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: thoroughly guileless and almost thoroughly ignorant. She could read, indeed,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: but only novels, and those not of the gravest. She
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: could write, but in no fluent hand. And if her
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: heart taught her the sentiment that supplies skill, her diffidence
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: forbade her to express it. She was quiet, melancholy, yet
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: quickly moved to mirth, sensitive and yet pure. I afterward
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: discovered that pride was her prevailing characteristic, But at first
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: it lay concealed. I already loved her, even for her deficiencies,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: for they were not of nature but of jucation. And
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: who in what is her Lover long as I have
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: been relating these adventures, I've not yet communicated that secret
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: writing about myself. I've not yet disclosed myself. I'll do so.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I am then an idle, wandering, unmarried man, rich well born,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: still young, who has read much, written somewhat, and live
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: for pleasure, action and the hour, keeping thought for study,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: but excluding it from enterprise, and ready to plunge into
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: any plan or any pursuit, so that it promised the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: excitement of something new. Such a life engenders more of
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: remembrance than of hope. It flings our dreams back upon
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: the past, instead of urging them to the future. It
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: gives us excitement in retrospection, but satility when we turn
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: toward the years to come. The pleasure of youth is
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: a costly draft in which the pearl that should enrich
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: our manhood is dissolved. And so much for Julia's lover.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: The best thing in his favor is that she loves him.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: The half hour has passed? Will she come? How my
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: heart beats? The night is clear and bright? What can
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: have delayed? I hear feet, I'll do you. It is you. Indeed,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Julia took my arm and pressed it silently. I drew
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: a sider veil, and beneath the lamp looked into her face.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: She was weeping. And what is the matter, dearest? My
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: sister has discovered your last letter to me. I dropped it,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and heavens, how could you be so imprudent? But I
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: hope it is no matter. What does your sister say
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: that that I ought to see you no more? She
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: is kind, but you will not obey her. My Julia,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: I cannot help it. Why surely you can come out
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: when you like? No, I promise not. She has been
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: a kind sister to me, sir, and she spoke so
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: kindly now on this matter that I could not help promising,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and I cannot break my promise, though I may break
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: my heart. Is there no way of compromise the matter,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: said I, after a pause, no way of seeing me
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: my Julia. You will not desert me now? But what
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: can I do? Said Julia, simply, my angel. Surely the
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: promise was not willingly given. It was extorted from you. No, sir,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: I gave it with all my heart. I thank you. Pray, pray,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Do not speak so coldly. You must, you must own
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: it was very wrong in me ever to see you.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: And how could this end? God knows, but not to
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: my good and my family's honor. I never thought much
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: about it before, and went on and on till I
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: got entangled, and did not dare look much back or
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: much forward. But now you see, when my sister began
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: to show me all the folly I have committed, I
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: was frightened. And in short, it's no use talking. I
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: can meet you no more, but I shall at least
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: see you at your relations the miss four Stars. No, sir,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I promised also not to go there, go anywhere without
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: my sister. Confound your sister, I muttered, with the most
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: conscientious hardiness, You give me up, then said I aloud,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: without a sigh and without a struggle. Ju You wept
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: on without answering. My heart softened to her, and my
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: conscience smote myself. Was not the sister right? Had I
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: not been selfishly reckless of consequences? Was it not now
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: my duty to be generous? And even if generous answered passion?
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Will do you be happy? Have not matters already gone
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: so far that her heart is implicated without recall. To
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: leave her is to leave her to be read you?
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: We walked quietly on, neither speaking. Never before had I
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: felt how dearly I loved this innocent and charming girl,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and loving her so dearly A feeling for her began
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: to preponderate over the angry and bitter mortification I had
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: first experienced for myself. My mind was confused and bewildered.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I knew not which course to pursue. We'd gone on
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: thus mute for several minutes, when at the corner of
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: our street, which led her homewards, Julia turned and said,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: in a faltering voice, farewell, sir, God bless you let
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: us part here. I must go home now. The street
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: was utterly empty, the lamps few and at long intervals
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: left the place where we stood in shade. I saw
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: her countenance only imperfectly through the low, long bonnet, which,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: modestly as it were, shrouded its fearful loveliness. I drew
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: my arm round her, kissed her lips, and said, be
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: it as you think best for yourself, Go and be happy,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Think no more of me. Julia paused, hesitated as about
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: to speak, then shook her head gently and still silent,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: as if the voice were choked within, lowered her veil
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: and walked away. When she had got a few paces,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: she turned back, and, seeing that I stood still in
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: the same spot, gazing upon her, her courage seemed to her.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: She returned, placed her hand in mine and said, in
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: a soft whisper, you are not angry with me. You
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: will not hate me, Julia, to the last hour of
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: my life, I shall adore you that I do not
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: reproach you. That I do not tamper with your determination
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: is the greatest proof of the real and deep love
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: I bear to you. But go go, or I shall
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: not be so generous long now. Julia was quite a
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: child in mind more than years, and her impulses were
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: childlike and After a little pause and a little evident embarrassment,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: she drew from her finger a pretty low, plain ring
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: that I had once admired, and she said, very timidly,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: if sir, you will condescend to accept this. I heard
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: no more I vow, than my heart melted within me
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: at once, and the tears ran down my cheek almost
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: as fast as they did down Julia's. The incident was
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: so simple, the sentiment that veiled was so touching and
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: so youthful. I took the ring and gissed it. Julia lingered.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I saw what was at her heart, though she dared
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: not say it. She wished also for some little remembrance
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: of the link that had been between us, But she
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: would not take the chain I pressed upon her. It
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: was too costly, and the only gift that pleased her
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: and she at last accepted, was a ring not half
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: the value even of her own. This little interchange, and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the more gentle and less passionate feelings to which she
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: gave birth seemed to console her. And when she left me,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: it was with a steadier step and up less drooping air.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Poor Julia I stayed in that desolate spot to the
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: last glimpse of that light form vanished from my gaze.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: In the whole course of light, there is no passiage
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: in It's so weary, stale, and unprofitable as that which
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: follows some episode of passion, abruptly broken off, still loving
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: yet forbid the object we love. The heart sinks beneath
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: the weight of its own craving affections. There is no
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: event to the day. A burdensome listlessness, a weary and
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: distasteful apathy, fill up the dull flatness of the hours.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Time creeps before us visibly. We see his hour glance
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and his side, and we lose all the charm of life.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: The moment we are made sensible of its presence, I
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: resolved to travel. I fix the day of my departure.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Would to Heaven that I had been permitted to carry
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: at least that purpose into effect. About three days before
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: the one I had a pointed for leaving London, I
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: met suddenly in the street my friend Anne, the eldest
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of the damsels to whom I played the sorcerer. She knew,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: of course, of my love for Julia, and had assisted
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: in our interviews. I found that she now knew of
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: our separation. She had called upon Julia, and the sister
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: had told her all and remonstrated with her for her
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: connivance at our attachment. The girl described the present condition
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: of Julia in the most melancholy colors. She said she
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: passed the day alone, and the widow had confessed, for
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: the most part in tears, that she had already lost
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: her color and roundness of form, that her health was
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: breaking beneath an effort which her imperfect education, feeding her
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: imagination at the expense of the reasoning faculty, and furnishing
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: her with no resources so ill prepared her to sustain.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: And with her sister, however well meaning, she had no sympathy,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: she found in her no support, and seldom even companionship.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: This account produced a great revulsion in my mind. Hitherto
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I had at least consoled myself with the belief that
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: I had acted in the true spirit of tenderness to Julia,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: and in that hope I had supported myself. Now all
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: thought of prudence virtue vanished beneath the idea of her unhappiness.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: I returned home, and in the impulse of a moment,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: wrote to her a passionate, imploring letter. I besought her
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: to fly with me. I committed the letter to my servant,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a foreigner well used to such commissions, and in a
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: state of breathless fever, I awaited the reply. It came.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: The address was in Julia's writing. I opened it with
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a sort of transport. My own letter was returned unopened.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: The cover contained these few words. I have pledged myself
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to return your letters in case you should write to me,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: and so I keep my word. I dare, dare not
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: open this, for I cannot tell you what it cost
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: me to keep my resolution. I have no idea that
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: it would be so impossible to forget you, that I
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: should be so unhappy. But though I will not trust
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: myself to read what you have written, I know well
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: how full of kindness every word is, and feel as
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: if I had read the letter. And it makes me
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: wickedly happy to think you have not yet forgotten me.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Though you soon must pray, do not write to me again.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: I beseech you not, as you value the little peace
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: that is left to me, And so sir, no more
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: from Julia, who prays for you night and day, and
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: will think of you as long as she lives. What
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: was I to do after the receipt of this letter.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: So artless was Julia that every word that ought to
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: have dissuaded me from molesting her more seemed to make
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: it imperative to refrain. And what a corroboration in these
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: lines of all I had been told. I waited till
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: dark I prepared with my servant to that part of
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: the town in which Julia's sister resided. I reconnoitered the house,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: and how asked I, for the first time of my servant,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: how Louis did you convey the letter? I rent sir first,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and Sir Louis to the young lady, Miss Julia's cousin
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: in that street, and asked if I could not carry
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: any parcel to her relation. She understood me and gave
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: me one. I slipped the letter into the parcel, and,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: calling at the private entrance of the house, desired the maid,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: who opened the door to give it only to Miss Julia.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: I made sure of the servant with half a guinea.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: Miss Julia herself came down and gave me the answer. Ah,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: And you saw her then, not her face, sir, for
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: she had put on her bonnet, and she did not
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: detain me a moment in this account, there was no
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: clue to the apartment which belonged to Julia, and that
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: was now my main object to discover. I trusted, however,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: greatly to the ingenuity and wit of my confidante, and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: a little to my own. It was a corner house, large, rambling,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: old fashioned. One side of the house ran down the
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: dark and narrow street, the other faced a broaden public thoroughfare.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: In walking to and fro the former street, I think
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: saw a sudden light in a window of the second floor,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and Julia herself, yes, herself, appeared for one moment at
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: the window. I recognized her gentle profile, her parted hair,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: and then she drew down the curtain. All was darkness
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: and a blank That then was her apartment. At least
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: I had some right to conjectureself how to gain it
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: was still the question rope letters exist only in romances.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Beside the policeman and the passengers. The maid servant flashed
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: across me. Might she not bought over to the minor
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: indulge be purchased also to the greater one. I called
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: my servant and bade him attempt the task. After a
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: little deliberation, he rang at the bell luck favored me.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: The same servant as before answered the summons. I remained
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: at a distance, shrouded in my cloak. At length the
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: door closed, Louis joined me. The servant had consented to
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: admit me two hours, hence I might then see Julia undetected.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: The girl, according to Louis, was more won over by
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: compassion for Julia's distress, whom she imagined compelled by her
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: sister to reject the addresses of a true lover, than
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: even by the bribe. In two hours, this sister would
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: have retired to rest, the house would be still. Oh heavens,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: what a variety of burning emotions worked upon me and
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: stifled remars. Nay, even fear lest we should attract observation
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: by lingering for so long a time about the spot,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: I retired from the place at present. I returned at
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: the appointed hour. I was admitted. All was dark. The servant,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: who was a very young girl herself, conducted me up
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the narrow stairs. We came to Julia's door. A light
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: broke through the chinks and under the threshold. And now
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: for the first time, I faltered. I trembled, The color
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: fled my cheeks, my knees knocked together by a violent effort,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: I conquered my emotion. What was to be done? If
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: I entered without premeditation, Julia, in her sudden alarm, might
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: rouse the house. If I sent in the servant to
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: acknowledge I was there, she might yet refuse to see me. No,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: this one interview, I would insist upon. This letter course,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: was the best, the only one. I bade the girl
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: then prepare her young mistress for my presence. She entered
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: and shut the door. I sat down at the threshold,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: conceive all I felt as I sat there, listening to
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: the loud beating of my own heart. The girl did
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: not come out. Time passed. I heard Julia's voice within,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: and there seemed fear agony in its tone. I could
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: wait no more. I opened her door gently and stood
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: before her. The fire burnt low and clearer in the grate.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: One candle assisted its partial light. There was a visible
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: air of purity of maidenhood about the whole apartment that
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: struck an instant reverence into my heart. Books in small
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: shelves hung upon the wall. Julia's work lay upon the
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: table near the fire. The bed stood at a little
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: distance with its white, simple drapery. In all was that
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: quiet and spotless neatness, which is as a type of
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: the inmate's mind. My eye took the whole scene at
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: a glance, and Julia herself reclined on a chair, her
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: head buried in her hands, sobbing violently, and the maid
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: pale and terrified, having lost all presence of mind. I'll
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: attempt to cheer her, mistress, much less to persuade. I
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: threw myself at Julia's feet and attempted to seize her hand.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: She started up with a faint cry of terror. You,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: she said, with keen reproach. I did not expect this
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: from you. Go go what would you have? What could
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: you think of me at this hour in this room?
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: And as she said the last words, she again hid
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: her face with her hands, but only for a moment. Go,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: she claimed, in a sterner voice, Go instantly, or or what, Julia,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: you will raise the house? Do so in the faith
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: of all foes are friends. I will demand the right
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: to see and speak with you this night and alone,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: now some in the house. The name of indomitable love.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I swear that I will be heard. Julia only waved
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: her hand in yet stronger agitation than before. What do
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: you fear, I resumed in a softer whisper. Is that I, I,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: who for your sake gave up even the attempt to
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: see you till now? And now? What brings me hither
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: a selfish purpose? No, it is for your happiness that
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: I come, Julia. I fancied you well at ease forgetting me,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: and I bore my own wretchedness without a murmur. I
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: heard of you ill, pining, living only on the past.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: I forgot all prudence and I'm here. Now. Do you
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: blame me? Or do you yet imagine that this love
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: is of a nature which you have caused a fear
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: and sow me?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: Julia, I.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Cannot here and now go, I implore you, and tomorrow I
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: will see you this night, or never said I, Rising
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: and folding my arms. Julia turned round, gazing on my face.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: Was so anxious, so inquiring, so alarmed a look that
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: it checked my growing courage. Then, turning to the servant,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: she grasped her firmly by the arm and muttered, you
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: will not leave me, Julia, Have I deserved this? Be
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: yourself and be just to me. Not here, I say,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: not here, cried Julia in so vehement a tone that
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: I feared it might alarm the house. Hush, hush, well,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: then said I come downstairs. Doubtless the sitting room below
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: is vacant enough. There. Then let me see you only
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: for a few minutes, and I will leave you contented
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: and blessing your name, I will, said Julia, gaspingly. Go
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I will follow you. Promise, yes, yes, I promise. Enough,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: I am satisfied. Once more, I descended the stairs and
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: sat myself quietly on the last step. I did not
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: wait many moments. Shading the light with her hand, Julia
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: stole down opened a door in the passage. We were
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: in a little parlor. The gaping servant was about also
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: to enter. I whispered her to stay without. Julia did
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: not seem to observe or to heed this. Perhaps, in
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: this apartment, connected with all the associations of daylight and safety,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: she felt to herself secure. She appeared, too to look
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: round the little room with the satisfied air, and her face,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: though very pale, had lost its aspect of fear. The
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: room was cold and looked desolate enough, God knows, the
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: furniture all disarranged and scattered, the table strewed with litter,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: the rug turned up, and the ashes in the grate.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: But Julia here suffered me to take her hand. And
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Julia here leaned upon my bosom, and I kissed away
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: the tears from her eyes, and she confessed she had
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: been very, very unhappy. Then, with all the power that
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: love gives us over the one beloved, that soft despotism
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: which melts away the will, I urged my suit to
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: Julia and implored her to let us become the world
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to each other. And Julia had yet the virtue to refuse,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: and her rank simplicity had already half restored my own
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: better angel to myself. When I heard a slight, alarmed
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: scream from the servant, without an angry voice. The door opened,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: I saw a female whom I was at no loss
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: to conjecture, must be Julia's sister. What a picture it made,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: the good lady with her bonnet de nui and her
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: but Alas the story is too serious for jest, yet
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: imagine how the small things of life interfere with its
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: great events. The widow had come down to look for
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: her keys that she had left behind. The pathetic, the
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: passionate all marred by a bunch of keys. She looked
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: hard at me before she even deigned to regard my companion,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and then approaching us, she took Julia rough enough by
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: the arm. Go upstairs, Go, she said, how have you
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: deceived me? And you, sir? What do you hear? Who
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: are you? My dear lady? Take a chair and let
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: us have some rational conversation. Sir? Do you mean to
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: insult me? How can you imagine I do leave the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: house this instant, or I shall order in the policeman,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: not you. How will I not? Julia, glad of the escape,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: had already glided from the room. Madam said, I listen
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: to me. I will not leave this apartment until I
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: have exonerated your sister from all Blaine in this interview.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I entered the house unknown to her. I went at
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: once to her own room. You start, It was so
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: I speak the truth. I insisted on speaking to her
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: as I insist on speaking to you now, And if
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: you will not hear me, know the result. It is this.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: I will visit this house guarded as you can, day
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: and night. I will visit it until it holds Julia
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: no more, until she is mine? Is this the language
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: of a man you can control. Come, be seated and
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: hear me. The mistress of the house mechanically took a chair.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: We conversed together for more than an hour, and I
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: found that Julia had been courted the year before by
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: a man in excellent circumstances of her own age and
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: her own station in life, that she had once appeared
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: disposed to favor his suit, and that since she had
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: known me, she had rejected it. This sister was very
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: anxious she should now accept it. She appealed to me
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: whether I should persevere in a suit that could not
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: end honorably to Julia, to the exclusion of one that
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: would secure to her affluence, respectability, a station, and a home.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: I was struck by this appeal. The widow was, like
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: most of her class, a shrewd and worldly woman. Enough,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: she followed up the advantage she had gained, and at lengthened,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: boldened by my silence, and depending greatly on my evident
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: passion for Julia, she threw out a pretty broad hint
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: that the only way to finish the dispute fairly was
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: to marry Julia myself. Now, if there be any propensity,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: comment to a sensible man of the world. It is suspicion.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I immediately suspected that I was to be taken in Julia Canni,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: that this had a reserve so great, yet her love
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: so acknowledged, been lures to fascinate me into the snare.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: I did not yield to the suspicion, but somehow or
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: other it remained half unconsciously on my mind. So great
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: was my love for Julia, that had it been less
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: suddenly formed, I might have sacrificed all and married her.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: But in sudden passions there is no esteem. You are ashamed,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: You are afraid of indulging them to their full extent.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: You feel that as yet you are the dupe, if
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: not of others, at least of your own senses. And
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: the very knowledge of the excess of your passion put
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: you on your guard lest you should be betrayed by it.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I said nothing in answer to the widow's suggestion, but
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: I suffered her to suppose for my manner that it
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: might have its effect. I left the house after an
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: amicable compromise. On my part, I engaged not to address
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: Julia herself anymore. On the widow's part, she promised that
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: on applying to her, she would suffer me at any
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: time to see Julia, even alone. For the next two
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: days I held a sharp contest with myself. Could I,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: with love still burning in every vein, consent to renounce Julia? Yet?
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Could I consent to deprive her of the holy and
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: respected station she had it in her power to hold,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: to pursue my suit to accomplish its purpose in her degradation.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: A third choice was left me. Should I obey the
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: sister's hint and profer marriage, marriage with one beautiful, indeed simple, amiable,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: but without birth, education, without sympathy with myself in a
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: single thought or habit, be the fool of my own desire,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: and purchase what I had the sense to feel must
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: be a discontented and illnated life for the mere worship
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: of external qualities. Yet, yet in a word, I felt
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: as if I could arrive at no decision myself. I
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: remembered an old friend and adviser of my youth. To him,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: then I resolved to apply for counsel. John Mannering is
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: about sixty years of age. He is of a mild temper,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: of great experience, of kindly manners, and of a morality
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: which professes to be practicable rather than strict. He had
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: guided me from many errors in the earlier part of
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: my life, but he had impressed no clear principle on
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: my mind in order to guide myself. His own virtue
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: was without system, the result of a good heart, though
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: not an ardent one, and a mind which did not
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: aspire beyond a certain elevation, not from the want of
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: a clear sense, but of enthusiasm. Such as he was,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: he was the best adviser I knew of, for he
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: was among the few who can sympathize with your feelings
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: as well as your interests. With him, I conversed long
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: and freely. His advice was obvious. To renounce Julia. I
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: went home. I reasoned with myself. I sat down and
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: began twenty letters. I tore them all in a rage.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: I could not help picturing to my mind Julia pining
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: and in despair, and in affecting to myself to feel
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: only for her. I compassionated my own situation. At length,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: love prevailed overall. I resolved to call on the widow
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: to request permission to be allowed to visit Julia at
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: her house, and, without promising marriage, still to pay her
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: honorable courtship with a view of ascertaining if our tempers
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: and dispositions were as congenial as our hearts. I fancied
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: such a proposition seemed exceedingly reasonable and common sense. Like
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: I shut my eyes to the consequences, and, knowing how
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: malleable is the nature of women in youth, I please
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: myself with that notion, which has deceived so many visionaries,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: that I should be able to perfect her education, and
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: that after a few years travel on the continent, I
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: might feel as proud of her mind as I was
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: now transported with her person. Meanwhile, how tempting was the
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: compromise with my feelings. I should see her converse with
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: her live in the atmosphere of her presence. The next
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: day I called on the sister, whose dark, shrewd eye
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: sparkled at my proposition. All was arranged. I saw Julia,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: with what smiles and tears she threw herself in my arms.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: I was satisfied and happy. And now I called every day,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: and every day saw Julia. That after the first interview,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: the charm was broken. I saw with new eyes the
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: sister commercial to the backbone of her soul, was delighted Indeed,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: at the thought of the step in life her sister
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: was to make. Julia was evidently impressed by the widow's joy,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: and visions of splendor evidently mingled with those of love.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: What more natural love perhaps predominated over all. But was
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: it possible that in a young and imaginative mind the
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: worldly vanity should be whole dormant. Yet it was natural
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: also that my suspicion should be roused, that I should
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: fear I was deceived, that I might have been designedly
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: led on to this step, that what had seemed nature
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: in Julia was in reality art. I looked in her face,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: and its sunny and beautiful candor reassured me. But the
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: moment afterwards the thought forced itself upon me again. I
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: recalled also the instances I had ever known of unequal marriages,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: and I fancied I saw unhappiness and all it seemed
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: to me in awe that the superior had been palpably duped.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Thus a coldness insensibly crept over the wonted ardor of
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: my manner, and instead of that blessed thoughtlessness, that Elysian
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: credulity with which lovers should give themselves up to the
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: transport of the hour, and imagine that each is the
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: center of all perfection. I became restless and vigilant, forever
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: sifting motives and diving deeper than the sweet surface of
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: the present time. My mind thus influenced the delusion that
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: conceals all faults and uncongenialities gradually evaporated. I noted a
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: thousand things in Julia that made me start at the
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: notion of seeing her become my wife. So long as
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: marriage had not entered into my views, so long those
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: faults had not touched me had passed unheeded. I saw
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: her now with other eyes. When I sought in her
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: love and beauty alone, I was contented to ask no more.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: At present I sought more. She was to become the
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: companion of a life, and I was alarmed. Nay, I
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: even exaggerated the petty causes of my displeasure and inelegance
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: of expression. A negligence of conversational forms fretted and irritated
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: me in her, far more than they would have done
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: in one of my own stations. When love first becomes reasonable,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: it soon afterwards grows unjust. I did not scruple to
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: communicate to Julia all the little occurrences of the day,
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: or little points in her manner that had annoyed me.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: And I found that she did not take my suggestions,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: mild and guarded as they were, in a manner I
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: thought I had a right to expect. She had been
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: accustomed to see me enamored of her lightest word or gesture.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: She was not prepared to find me now caviling and reproving.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: Her face always ingenuous, evinced at once her mortification at
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the change. She thought me always in the wrong, wearies
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: and exacting and unjust never openly resented. At first, merely
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: pouted out her pretty lip and was silent for the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: next half hour. But by degrees, my beautiful Julia began
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: to evince traces of a spirit, a spirit not indeed unfeminine,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: and never allowed a spirit of sorrow rather than anger.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: I was ungenerous. She said, I've never found these faults before.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: I'd never required all this perfection, And then she wept,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: and that went to my heart, and I was not
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: satisfied with myself till she smiled again. But it was
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: easy to perceive that from taking pleasure in each other's society,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: we grew by degrees to find embarrassment, the fear of
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: a quarrel, discontent, and a certain pain supplying the place
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: of eager and all absorbing rapture. And when I look
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: to the future, I trembled. In a word, I repeat
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: once more that charm was gone. Oh epic in the
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: history of human passions. When that phrase is spoken, what
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: volumece does it not convey? What bitter? What irremediable disappointment?
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: What dread conviction of the fallacy of hope and the
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: false coloring of imagination? What a chill and dark transition
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: from life as we fancied it to life As it
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: is in the Arabian tale, when one eye was touched
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: with the misticpointment, all the treasures of the earth became visible,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: and the stair of rock was transformed into minds of
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: inexhaustible wealth. But when the same spell is extended to
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: both eyes, the delusion vanishes, the earth relapses into its
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: ancient barrenness, and the mind phades once more into the desert.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: In the the experience of the passions, while we are
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: as yet but partially the creatures of the enchantment, we
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: are blessed with the power to discover glory in all things.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: We are as magicians, we are as gods. We are
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: not contented. We demand more custom touches both eyes and
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: lo The vision is departed, and we are alone in
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: the wilderness again. One evening, after one of our usual
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: quarrels and reconciliations, Julia's spirits seemed raised into more than
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: usual reaction. There were three or four of her friends present,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: a sort of party, her cousins, the fortune seekers among
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: the rest, and she was the life of the circle.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: In proportion to her gaiety was my discontent. I fancy
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: she combined with the confounded whither who evidently wanted to
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: show me off in her own damnable phrase, as her
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: sisters wore. And this is a position in which no
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: tolerably vested these man likes to be placed. Add to this,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: my readers very well know that people who have no inelegance,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: when subdued, throw off thousand little grossierities when they are elated.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: No ordeal was harder for a young and lovely woman
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: who has not been brought up conventionally to pass with
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: grace than that of her own unrestrained merriment. Levity requires
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: polish in proportion to your interest in the person who
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: indulges it, and levity in his mistress is almost always
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: displeasing to a passionate lover. Love is a very grave
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: and so very refined a deity. In short, every instant
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: added to my secret vexation. I absolutely colored with rage
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: at every jest bandy between poor Juliet and her companions.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: I swear I think I could have beat her with
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: a safe conscience. The party went. Now came my turn.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: I remonstrated you. We both lost our temper. I fancied
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: then I was entirely in the right, But nowthless I
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: will be leave myself wrong. It is some sacrifice to
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: a dread memory to own it. You always repined it.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: My happiness to Julia to be marry is always in
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: your eyes a crime. I cannot bear this tyranny. I'm
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: not your wife, and if I were, I would not
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: bear it. If I displease you? Now, what shall I
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: do hereafter? But my dear Julia, you can so easily
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: avoid the little peculiarities I dislike. Believe me unreasonable, Perhaps
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: I am so. It is some pleasure to a generous
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: mind to sacrifice to the unreasonableness of one we love.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: In a word, I own it. Frankly, if you meet
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: all my wishes with this obstinacy, we cannot be happy.
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: And I see, interrupted Julia, with unwanted vehemence. I see
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: what you would say. You are tired of me. You
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: feel that I do not seecure notions. You thought me
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: all perfect when you design me for your victim, But
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: now that you think something is to be sacrificed on
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: your part, you think only of the paltry sacrifice, and
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: demanded me an impossible perfection and return. There was so
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: much truth in this reproach that had stung me to
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: the quick. It was indelicate, perhaps in Julia to use it.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: It was certainly unwise. I turned pale with anger. Madam,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: I begin with that courtesy which conveys all reproach, Madam,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: repeated Julia, turning suddenly round, her lips parted, her eyes
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: flashing through her tears alarm, grief, but also indignation, quivering
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: in every muscle. Is to come to this go Let
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: us part my love ceasis. Since I see yours as over,
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: were you twice as wealthy, twice as proud, I would
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: not humble myself to be beholden to your justice instead
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: of your affection. Rather, oh God, Rather would I have
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: sacrificed myself, given up all to you, then accept one
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: advantage from the man who considers it an honor? Let
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: us part. Julia had evidently conceived the word I'd used
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: in cold and bitter respect as an horony on her station,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: as well as the proof of coldness. But I did
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: not stop to consider whether or not she was reasonably provoked.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: Her disdain for the sacrifice I thought so great galled me.
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: The violence of her passion revolted. I thought only of
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: the escape she offered me. Let us part. Ranging in
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: my ear like a reprieve to a convict, I arose
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: at once, took my hat calmly, and not till I
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: reached the door did I reply enough, Julia, we part forever.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: You will hear from me tomorrow for the last time.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: I left the house and trod as on air. My
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: love for Julia, long decreasing, seemed crushed. At once I
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: imagined her former gentleness or hypocrisy. I thought only of
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: the tournagent I had escaped. I congratulated myself that she,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: having bro the Jane, I was free and with honor.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: I did not then know run till it was too late,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: recall with despair printed on her Hewles's face, when the calm,
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: low voice of my resolution broke upon her ear and
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: she saw that she had indeed lost me forever. That
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: image rises before me to my grave, her features pale
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: and locked, the pride, the resentment, all sunk merged in
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: one incredulous, wild stony aspect of deserted love. Alas alas
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: could I but have believed that she felt so deeply.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: Wrote to her the next day, kindly and temperately, But
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: such a turn made the wound deeper. I bade her
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: farewell forever. To her sister, I wrote more fully. I
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: said that our tempers were so thoroughly unsuited that no
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: rational hope of happiness in our union could exist for either.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: I besought her not to persuade or induce her sister
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: to marry the suitor who had formerly addressed her, and
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: she could return his affection. Whomsoever she married. Her fortune
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: should be my care. Doubtless, in a little time someone
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: would be to her as dear as I once had
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: fancied myself to be let. I said, no disparity in
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: fortune then be an obstacle on either side. I will
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: cheerfully give up half my own to redeem whatever affliction
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: I may have occasioned her. With this letter, I entirely
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: satisfied my conscience. It is almost incredible to think in
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: how short a time the whole of these events had
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: been crowded. Within a few weeks I had concentrated the
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: whole history of love, its first mysterious sentiment, its ardent passion,
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: its dissension, his coolness, its breach, it's everlasting farewell. In
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: four days I received a letter from Julia's sister, none
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: from Julia. It was written in a tone of pert
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: and flippant insolence, which made me more ever reconciled to
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: the turn of events. But it contained one piece of
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: news I did not hear with indifference. Julia had accepted
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: the offer of her former suit and was to be
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: married next week. She bids me, say, wrote the widow,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: that she sees it once through your pretense under an
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: affected wish for her happiness to prevent her forming this
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: respectable connection. She sees that you still assume the right
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: to dictate to her, and that your offers of generosity
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: are merely the condescensions of a fancied superiority. Shures you, however,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: that your wish for her happiness has already realized. This
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: undeserved and insulting message completed my conquest over any lurking
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: remorse or regret, and I did not, in my resentment
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: at Julia's injustice, perceive how much it was the operation
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: of a wounded vanity upon despairing heart. I still lingered
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: in town, and some days afterwards I went to dine
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of Westminster, at the house of one
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: of the most jovial boon companions I had for some
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: weeks avoided society. The temporary cessation gave a new edge
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: to my zest for its pleasures. The hours food rapidly,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: my spirits rose, and I enjoyed the present with the
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: gusts that had been long denied to me. On leaving
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: the house on foot, the fineness of the night, with
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: its frosty air and clear stars, tempted me to turn
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: from my direct way homeward, and I wandered mechanically toward
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: a scene which has always possessed me at night, a
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: great attraction viz. The bridge which devised the suburb from
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: the very focus of the capital, with its stroud abbey
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: and gloomy senten. I walked to and from the bridge,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: gazing at times on the dark waters, reflecting the lights
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: from the half seen houses and the stars of the
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: solemn heavens. My mind was filled with shadowy and vague presentiments.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: I felt awed and saddened without impalpable cause. The late
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: excitement of my spirits was succeeded by a melancholy reaction,
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: amused over the various disappointments of my life and the
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: exxion like delusion with which I had so often wooed
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: a deity and clasped a cloud. My history with Gulia
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: made a principal part of these meditations. Very much turned
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: to me irresistibly, and with renewed charms in vain, I
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: endeavored to recur to the feelings of self acquittal congratulations,
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: which a few hours ago had actuated me. My heart
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: was softened, and my memory refused to recall all Harsher retrospection,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: her love, her innocence only obtruded themselves upon me, and
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: I sighed to think that perhaps by this time she
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: was revocably another's I retraced my steps and was now
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: at the end of the bridge, when just by the
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: stairs I perceived a crowd and heard a vague and
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: gathering clamor a secret impulsorated meat to the place. I
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: heard a policeman speaking with the eagerness which characterizes the
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: excitement of narration. My suspicions were aroused worthy as I
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: passed and saw a female standing by the bridge. So
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: you see, I kept loading there, and a minute after
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: I went gently up, and I heard the young woman groan,
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: and she turned round as I came up before I
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: frightened her, and I never shall forget her face. It
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: was so well begune, and yet she was so young
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: and handsome, And so you see, I spoke to her
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: and I said, says I, young woman, what do you
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: hear at this hour? And she said, I'm waiting for
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: a boat. I expect my mother from Richmond. And somehow
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: or other I was foolish enough to believe what she said.
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: She looked so quiet and respectable like. And I went away,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: you understand. And then about a minute after before I
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: kept near the spot, I heard a heavy splash in
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: the water, and then I knew what it all was.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: I ran up and just saw her once rise and
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: so as I could not swim, I gave the alarm
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: and we got the boat, but it was too late.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: Poor girl lisp in the old costume. I dare say
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: she was crossed in love. What is this? Said? I'm
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: mixing with the crowd, a young woman as has drowned herself, sir,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Where I do not see the body. It be taken
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: to the log house, and the doctors are trying to recover.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: Horrible idea had crossed my mind, unfounded, improbable as it seemed,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: I felt as if compelled to confirm or remove it,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: and made the policeman go with me to the watchhouse.
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: I pushed away the crowd. I approached the body of God,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: that white face, the heavy dripping hair, the swollen form,
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: and all that decent and maiden beauty, with the corpse
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: cover hath thrown over it, and the unsympathizing surgeons standing by,
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: and the unfamiliar faces of the women. What a scene,
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: what a deathbed? Julia thou Art avenged. It was her
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: then whom I beheld her, the victim, the self destroyer.
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: I hurry over the awful record I'm writing my own condemnation,
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: stamping my own curse. They found upon the corpse a letter,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: drenched as it was, I yet could decide for its characters.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: It was to me it ran. Thus I believe now
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: that I've been much to blame for. I'm writing calmly,
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: with a fixed determination not to live, and I see
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: how much I've thrown away the love you once gave me.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Yet I have loved you always, how dearly I never
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: told you, I never can tell. But when you seem
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: to think so much of your what shall I say,
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: your condescension in marrying perhaps loving me, It maddened me
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: to the brain. And though I would have given worlds
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: to please you, I could not bear to see the
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: difference in your manner after you came to see me
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: daily and to think of me as a woman ought
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: to be thought of. And this, I know, made me
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: seem cross and PEVs and unamiable. But I could not
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: help it. And so you ceased to love me, and
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: I felt that and longed madly to release you from
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: a tie. You repented, the moment came for me to
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: do so, and we parted. Then you wrote to me,
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: and my sister made me see in the letter what
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: perhaps you did not intend, But indeed I was only
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: sensible to the thought that I had lost you forever
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: and that you scorned me. And then my vanity was roused,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: and I knew you still loved me, and I fancied
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: I could revenge myself upon you by marrying another. But
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: when I came to see and meet and smile upon
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: that other, and to feel the day approach, and to
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: reflect that you had been all in all to me,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: and that I was about to pass my whole life
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: with when I loathed after having loved so well and
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: so entirely, I felt I had reckoned too much on
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: my own strength, and that I could not sustain my
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: courage any longer. Nothing is left to me in light.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: The anguish I suffer is intolerable, and I have at
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: length made up my mind to die. But think not
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: I am a poor love, said girl. Only I am more.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: I am still a revengeful woman. You have deserted me,
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: and I know myself to blame. But I cannot appear
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: that you should forget and despise me as you would
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: if I were to marry. I am about to force
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: you to remember me forever, to be sorry for me,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: to forgive me, to love me better than you have
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: done yet, even when you loved me most. It is
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: in this that I shall be revenged. And with this
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: well turmoil of contending feelings, the pride of womanhood, wrestling
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: with the softness forgiveness, with revenge emotions, with urrying principles,
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: agony led on to death by one hope to be
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: remembered and deplored with this contest that thy heart, didst
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: thou go down to thy watery grave? What must have
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: passed within the in those brief and terrible moments when
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: thou stoodest bye the dark waters, hesitating, lingering, fearing yet resolved.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: And I was near the in that hour, and knew
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: be not at hand, and saved not. Oh bitter was
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: the revenge lasting as the remembrance. Henceforth I asked no
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: more of human affections. I stand alone on the Earth.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: End of section three Section four of The Rover Volume one,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: number eight. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Rover Volume one number eight,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: edited by Ciba Smith, and Lawrence LaBrie, Section four The Tournament.
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: Rosal Lee, beneath thy gaze, my young heart's pulse has bounded, Rosalie,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: to sing thy praise. My wild harps strings have sounded.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: I've proved myself thine own true knight, at barrier and
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: in bower by every token that beseems a gallant troubadour.
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: Then say, may such devoirs pretend to love so hot
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: as thine? Say Rosalie, my lady love, Oh say wilt
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: thou be mine? The singer was a young man of
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: noble and commanding appearance, who cased in complete armor and
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: mounted on a barbary steed which seemed to have borne
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: its brighter Many a weary league was slowly, yet evidently
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: with the jaded animal's utmost speed, pursuing his road to
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: moo Land. It was one of those inclement autumn evenings
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: which intimate the near approach of winter. The sun was
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: setting in sullen majesty, and the frequent hollow gusts of
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: wind that swept from the trees which lined the road
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: with their seer and yellow foliage, foretold the gloom of
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: the coming night was about to be deepened by an
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: impending storm, and entirely absorbed by his reflections, the traveler
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: scarce heated the threatening aspect of the sky till aroused
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: from the reverie by a loud and reverberating peel thunder,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: succeeded by a deluging rain. Hastily seeking the shelter of
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: some chestnut trees that arched the roads, he patiently waited
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: till the storm should exhaust its rage. Lo lie your
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: glories now, ye scattered emblems of human life, mused he,
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: as the withered leaves at every gust of wind fell
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: around him in an almost overwhelming shower. Ye whisper forth
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: a tale of faded hopes and blighted joys that might
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: well repress the tumultuous throb of the young and ardent bosom.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: Not long ago ye were smiling in the bloom of
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: luxuriant vigor and beauty, foretelling but little of the sickening
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: change the worm and the canker that were so soon
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: to rot on your verdure. And then perchance the hopes
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: that long have flourished, and my own breast are doomed
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: to a speedy decay. Thus the fair prospect that fancy
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: has decked out with brightest hues, may be eir long
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: or clouded the blight of an untimely winter. Rosalie may
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: be another's. The storm was of sure duration. The moon
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: broke from behind the deep lowering clouds that had before
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: obscured her fair face, and the traveler pursued his journey.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: Coming it linked to a spot where two roads met.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: An ignorant which to follow, he determined to take up
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: his abode for the night at the first cottage he
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: might chance to discover. His search was not long fruitless.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: He presently observed a dwelling at a distance, which, on
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: a nearer approach, proved by the cross before the door
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: to be the cell of an anchorite. The door was
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: opened by the venerable inhabitant of the retreat, who received
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: the stranger courteously and prepared a simple but plenteous meal,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: to which he pressed him with the utmost cordiality, And
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: though his portion was but scant, he gave it with
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: good will. As the anchorite busied himself in performing the
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: rites of hospitality, our traveler had leisure to observe him
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: more narrowly. His silvery locks and snowy beard imported to
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: his singularly handsome features of venerable and impressive air. Yet
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: the undiminished glances of his bright hazel eye and his
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: tall and bending form told that the hand of sorrow,
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: rather than the weight of years, had sprinkled its untimely
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: frost upon his brow. The furniture of the simple apartment
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: was as singular as its owner, various astronomical and scientific instruments,
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: whose uses were then little known in Europe, with an
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: hourglass and water dove lay. Scattered about and depended to
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: the wall were several wallets and flasks containing medicaments and
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: preparations of the healing art, which the traveler readily perceived
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: was practiced by the actorte less as a profession than
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: as a charitable exercise. The stranger was not a little
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: surprised to find his frugal meal flanked with the flagant
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: a bird. I taste not myself the juice of grapes,
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: said the solitary, in reply to his guests commendations of
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: the generous beverage. I taste it not myself, but reserve
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: it for travelers who like thee honor with a visit
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: my humble cell, I have of late experienced no lack
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: of guests for many a gaged chevalier, as within these
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: few days vouchedafe to enter my lowly porch on his
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: way to the tournament, where I trow thou art wending.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: The stranger replied in the negative, professing his ignorance of
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: any such meeting. Is it possible, added the solitary, that
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: thou hastn't heard nought of the gay doings, aid the
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: castle of Never. I've been journeying from a distant province, father,
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: said the young man. But may I ask the cause
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: of these merry makings. Nothing less rejoined the anchorite than
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: to honor the approaching napsis of the Count's fair niece,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: Rosalie Saint Clair. Saint Mary ejaculated the youth, to whom
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: is the maiden betrothed to the chevalier. Dora, replied the
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: solitary with a deep sigh to Rosney by Saint Michael.
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: It must not be cried the stranger, Thou sayest will
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: young men, it must not be, replied the solitary, adding
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: in a solemn tone, the fate suppose it justice forbids
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: it to Rosney's nuptial Count shall be the bloody beer.
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: Give me thy hand, father, cried the youth. If thou
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: art a foe to the base to Rosney, thou art
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: indeed my friend. But who art thou, my son? And
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: what hast thou to do with that false knight? That
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: trade is to Rosney, My venerable friend, replied the stranger,
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: would I could answer thy inquiry? Who I am is
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: wrapped in mystery. What I am alas is to a parent.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: My father is a wayward lot. I never knew a
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: parent's fostering care. I never whispered to a mother's tender
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: ear my joys and sorrows. I'm a nameless orphan of founding.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: My earliest recollection carries me to a magnificent chateau, where
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: I was nurtured in the lap of splendid beneath the
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: eye of some indulgent friend. But of his rank or
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: his kindred, if any to myself, my memory retains no record.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: Anon A fearful change awaited me. My kind protector died
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: or perchance deserted me. But father thou art un well,
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the youth, abruptly terminating his narrative as he beheld
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: the anchorite trembling with ill suppressed emotion. It's nothing a
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: momentary pang. Proceed with thy tale, what more of thy protector,
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: poor child? In losing him, thou wert indeed deserted. My
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: kind friend left me, continued the stranger, and with him
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: perish the only happiness I ever knew. I was shortly
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: after removed from the chateau and consigned to the care
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: of some stern guardian, from whom I experienced nothing but severity.
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: I might perhaps have numbered ten summers when I was
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: removed from this comfortless asylum and became an inmate of
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: the Chateau de Rosny, but owed never to my dying hour,
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: can I forget the harsh, contempt suous treatment which I
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: received from the chevalier. The domestics imitated their lord in
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: cruelty to the poor, friendless, orphan, and bitter in truth
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: was my lot. I was considered the child of a
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: deceased friend of de Rosney, and often did I marvel
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: that my father left not his cold grave to reproach
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: my tyrant within humanity toward his defenseless boy. As I
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: approached to man's estate, the contumales of de Rosney daily
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: became more galling. At length disgusted with his haughty and
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: contemptuous bearing, I left him, and in the castle of
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: the Count of Nevers, I sought and found a home.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: My services in arms attracted that gallant nobleman's notice, who
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: greeted me his esquire and honored me with his especial regard.
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: But still my evil destiny pursued me. In my attendance
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: on the Count, I could not feel full often to
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: enjoy the society of his niece and heiress, Rosalie Saint Clair.
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: My presumptuous heart dared to love the noble lady, and
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: her bosom did not sustain my hoarmor. Our intercourse was
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: discovered to the Count by an emissary of de Rosny,
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: who still beheld me with an eye of hatred and
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: watched occasion to undo me. I was disgraced and forfeited
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: the protection of my noble master. Driven from the home
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: that long had sheltered me, I joined as a volunteer
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: the arms of our monarch in Normandy. During a long
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: time of warfare, I won my road to renown, and
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: from the royal hands of Saint Louis I at length
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: received the honor of knighthood, the escutcheon of Henri of
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: the Arrow, mounted at the King's command. Thee anobling chevron,
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: and I stand forth, the first of my race, prepared
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: to prove by deeds of arm my title to nobility.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: What saidst Thou was thy name? Asked the old man.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: Henri of the Arrow replied the knight, I am so
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: named from a mark on my arm. Let me see it,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: cried the solitary, in breathless agitation. The youth bared his
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: arm and discovered the mark alluded to God. Thy ways,
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: though inscrutable, are just, cried the old man. Brave youth,
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: Thou art of no ignoble race. I knew thy father,
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: I knew thy sainted mother. Thou art hold my rash heart,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: added he checking himself, What tell me what I am?
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: Exclaimed the youth, sinking on his knees. Thou art what
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: thy future bearing shall prove? Thee replied the old man,
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: recovering his calmness, and adding, thy destiny is in thy
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: own hands. Early tomorrow, thou shalt high to the tournament
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: and against de Rosney enter the lists manfully equipment thyself
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: and a declaration of thy rights and restoration to thy
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: father's arms, shall be thy reward. Seek not to know more,
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: added he, as the youth was about to interrogate him.
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: Let us address ourselves to that being who avenges on
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: the head of the oppressor the wrongs of the fatherless,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: and then to our palace. For I promise thee to Rosney,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: approve no mean antagonist. Thou wilt need rest to recruit
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: exhausted powers, enter the lists with him. With daybreak onri
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: arose from his sleepless couch and prepared for his journey
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: to nevers Ere. His departure, the Anchorite knelt with him
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: and implored divine assistance on his hazardous enterprise. Then, invoking
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: a fervent benediction on his head, bade him adieu, go
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: forth and conquer my son, said he acquit thyself manfully,
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: and Heaven protect the righteous cause. Scarcely allowing himself to
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: reflect on the strange adventure he had witnessed, he Rhees
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: spurred his courser briskly forward, and, leaving the open country,
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: gained the road to Moulain first. However, having met a peasant,
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: he had taken occasion to learn somewhat of the hermit
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: with whom he had sojourned. Monsieur would ask if I
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: know the venerable Father Clement, replied the man in truth,
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: I know him, and may the blessed saints reward his goodness.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: He is the guardian angel of our hamlet. U but
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: Father Clement visited us in sickness and counsels us in health.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: Who but he instructs our children and directs us in
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: our affairs. Our neighbors deem him a wizard, because forsooth
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: he possesses knowledge for which simple cottagers cannot account. But
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: we who know him more intimately and are benefited by
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: his assistants, know him to be familiar with no other
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: spirit than the pure spirit of charity. As the peasant's
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: account had little effect in clearing the mystery that enveloped,
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: Father lament Henri bade him good day and continued his
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: route from Molain. Our traveler proceeded through the country whose
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: picturesque and romantic scenery, once familiar to his eyes, were
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: called to his memory the happy days he had spent
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: in the service of Count that Nevers, and filled his
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: bosom with sad yet delightful sensations. Not a forest reared
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: itself in magnificent grandeur before him, in which he had
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: not once hunted. The briskly sanglier, not a hillick, presented
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: itself on the bright landscape, which did not awake some
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: pleasing reminiscence. At intervals, the broad bosom of the war
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: burst upon the view, brightened by the beams of the
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: morning sun, to a sheet of liquid gold. The winged
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: songsters that fitted among the tall trees bordering the road
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: filled the air with their melody. A thousand wild flowers
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: flung round their wilderness of sweets, and the hedges, composed
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: of various fruit trees intertwined with maple and festooned with vines,
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: offered their choicest products in tempting profusion to the traveler.
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: Leaving Henri in his journey through these enchanting scenes, we will,
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: with the reader's permission, transport him in Nevers, which was
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: now the rendezvous of all the chivalry of the province.
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: Belted knights and barons, bowls strippings, gay and warriors, old
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: and ladies, decked in jeweled guise, their richest gems, their
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: own bright eyes. It was the last day of the tournament,
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: and was attended by the unusual assemblage of all the
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: bright and braid. The Chevalier de Rosny, who in his
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: various encounters had carried off the prize against all competitors,
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: had issued his defiance of all, arrived at the dignity
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: of knighthood to meet him at tilt turning or a barrier.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: From an early hour, crowds of spectators were thronging the
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: appointed spot, which was an extensive plain immediately below the town.
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: A view from the lists were of the most delightful
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: description and extensive range of hills formed in amphitheater. Around
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: it do the right appeared the town of Nevers, pleasantly
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: situated on the declivity of a hill and crowned by
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: the majestic chateau of the Count. At the foot of
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: the town flowed the Loire with galleys splendidly adorned, whose
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: streamers floated gaily in the morning air. At midday, a
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: flourish of Clarion's announced the approach of the Count, who,
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: with the ladies of his family and a numerous retinue,
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: arrived and took possession of the splendid marquee prepared for
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: his reception. The heralds sounded to the combat, and to Rosney,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: armed at all points, and mounted on a charge of
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: splendidly care Paris, and entered the lists and bowed to
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: the spectators, who received him with acclamations. The Chevalley was
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: a man of gigantic stature, apparently passed the meridian of life.
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: The traces of violent passions and of a haughty, imperious
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: temper were observable on his strong, marked countenance, And as
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: his eye glanced in proud triumph towards his intended bride,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: it spoke little of that chivalrous devotion which distinguished the
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: chevaliers of the day. It rather seemed to intimate a
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: consciousness that Rosalie could not, but seemed delighted with the
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: love he gave. No such expression was, however, perceptible on
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: the pale features of Rosalie, whose young and lovely form
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: offered a striking contrast to that of her destined lord,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: A rayed in smiles that ill agreed with her wounded feelings.
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: The maiden occupied as mistress of the ceremonies, the center
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: of a throng affair, and noble dames. Again, the clearings
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: plast through the air, and the hero pronounced to Rosney's challenge, once,
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: twice and thrice at the intervals of several minutes. The
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: trumpet sounded, and still no answer was returned. None except
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: the challenge exclaimed the heralds to. Rosney threw himself from
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: his steed in advancing to Rosalie claimed from her fair
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: hands the victor's meed. Rosalie trembled as she gazed on
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: her future husband. Yet as her tearful eye caught the
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: angry glance of her uncle, she repressed her emotion and,
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: with quivering lip, congratulated the chevalier. Already was her hand
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: extended to place upon his brow the wreath of triumph.
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: When a stir was perceived among the crowd, and the
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: words a defiance, A defiance burst from a thousand lips.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: Mounted on a foaming barbary steed, a knight pressed through
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: the throng and cleared the barrier. At a leap, entered
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: the list. His polished steel armor, totally devoid of ornament,
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: dazzled the eye of the beholder, and the white plume
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: that danced above his close beaver nodded in proud defiance.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: If shield bore a chevron in quailed ars with a
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: radiated star and surmounted by the moto knoo par Sey rayoon.
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: As he entered the list to Rosney's herald once more
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: proclaimed the challenge alone and unattended, cried the strange Knight.
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: I bring my own reply thy challenge. I accept, Sir Knight,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: and by the aid of God, of Saint Michael and
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: Saint George, will prove myself not unworthy of the spurs
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: I wear. Hadst thou not best recruit thy own and
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: thy good Steed's exhausted strength, Sir Knight demanded de Rosney,
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: advancing toward the stranger. I l like not, rest replied,
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: he and my steed will recover himself well. The conditions
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: are being settled. He is used to the service and
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: rects little of the few leagues he has carried me
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: this morning. Thou hast then traveled far to meet me
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: in the list, and dost reject my courtesy. I ask
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: the name of my antagonist, and if we meet his friends,
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: look at my esketcheon, Sir Knight, and read my answer there.
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: If success attend me in the tournament, thou wilt know
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: too soon. If not content thus with knowing, thou hast
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: vanquished one who never before new defeat. The signal for
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: the encounter broke off further converse, and the combatants took
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: their stations assigned them. De Rosny began the tilt with
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: more than his usual address, compelling his antagonist to remain
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: on the defensive. The stranger, however, proved himself an adept
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: in the use of the last, defending himself with consummate
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: skill against the herculean strength of De Rosney. At length,
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: the chevalier's impetuosity proved fatal to his success. Eager to
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: terminate the combat, he sprung violently forward, but the stranger,
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: keeping his lance at rest, received him with coolness and precision,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: and to Rosney's lance, shivering into a thousand pieces, he
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: was unhorsed and fell with stunning violence to the ground.
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: Roused from his trooper by the shouts that hailed his defeat,
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: he sprung from the ground and drawing his sword, prepared
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: to retrieve his ill fortune. Still, however, the stranger's coolness
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: and address proved superior, and after a desperate combat, De
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: Rosny was disarm and his antagonist declared the victor. Overcome
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: with shame and disgrace, the chevalier refused the consolation offered
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: him by his disappointed friends, and was retiring from the
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: lists when his attention was arrested by an unexpected circumstance.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: The strange knight had been summoned to receive the reward
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: of his victory from the hands of Rosalie Saint Clair.
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: As he knelt before her, he unclasped his beaver and
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: discovered the well known features of allri of the arrow Ownri,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the fond girl, too deeply agitated to repress her
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: tumultuous feelings, she arose and was clasped, weeping to the
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: bosom of her lover. Unhand her villain shattered de Rosny
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: as he attempted to tear her from his arms away.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: She is no longer thine, replied the youth. She has
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: found a valued friend, as thou false knight, are a
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: determined foe insolent, thinkest thou that noble may can bestow
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: her regards on the thole peasant, as thou art equally
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: beneath her love and my revenge. Yet dread my fury
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: and retire thou wretch without a name, if such he be,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: what but thy crimes have made him so, exclaimed a
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: voice from behind, and at the same instant the white
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: locks of Father Cloment were seen floating in the air.
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: De Rosny continued, the old man vengeance has overtaken thee,
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: he whom thou dist supplant, has brought thee to dishonor
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: the nameless boy thou long hast scorned, and has lived
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: to repay thy many contuminalies. That nameless boy is here
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: to claim his rights, to declare and to maintain to
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: the rank which thou hast long usurped Before this noble assembly.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: I proclaimed this founding to be the heir of the
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: Chevalier Albert de Rosny, who perished in the Holy Land,
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: the elder and injured brother of Jan Recreant Knight gaze
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: on him, noble diveres, continued the anchorat taking MRI's hand
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: and leading him to the feet of the Count to
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: examine well his features. Dost thou not discover the lineament
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: form if I once loved Albert and look upon young
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: cowering traitor, do not his quivering limbs, his haggard countenance
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: betray his guilt? To Rosny, said the Count, I call
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: on thee as a true knight to rebut a charge
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: that so immediately affects thy honor? Is it possible the
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: noble de Navies can give heed to the wild raving
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: of a maniac, replied the chevalier, whose agitation was visible,
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding his affected indifference. Because forsooth a driveling dodored wills
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: to vent on me the monstrous conception of his disordered brain.
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: Am I to be a judged guilty of the darkest deeds?
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: And without proof or trial? Both proof and trial? To Rosney,
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: thou shalt have said the count, And if thy accuser
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: be found to have trifled with thut reputation, not even
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: his horrid lockshall save him from condign punishment. Wiseing, Jessie
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: said to Nevers, added the anchorite now here the charge
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: I bring against the false knight. When I'll beert De
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: Rosney departed for Palestine, he confided to his brother's charge,
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: his infant heir, that faithless guardian determined to supplant the child, and,
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: having surrounded with his emissaries his unsuspecting brother for the
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: purpose of preventing his return. Should he survive the pairs
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: of warfare, he assumed to himself the title and estates.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: Albert escaped the hands of the infidels, and was, according
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: to his brother's instructions, attracted to a lonely defile and
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: left to perish. The child, from whom nothing could be apprehended,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: was permitted to live, and, after having remained some time
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: in privacy, was received an inmate of the chateau as
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: a protege of the chevaliers, driven from assumed by the
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: many contumalies of de Rosney, and he sought by protection,
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: Noble de Nevers, thou self knowest how faithfully he served thee.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: Subsequently he fought beneath the banners of the Royal Louis,
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: with what honor the charges on his sketched may show.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: He now stands forth prepared to maintain and come combat
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: his title to the rank and estates of the deceased
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: Albert de Rosny, as the anchorite concluded and readvance to
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: the center of the lists, and, throwing down his gauntlet,
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: repeated the defiance, which was accepted by de Rosny, and
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: the following morning was appointed for their combat on the
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: spot where before they had encountered in the bloodless exercise
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: of the tournament. The combatants met in mortal affray. They
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: fought with short asswords, in the use of which they
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: displayed an equality of skill that long rendered the combat dubious.
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: At length, the well directed thrust pierced the male of
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: the chevalier, who sunk mortally wounded to the ground. A
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: grim smile of defiance lit upon the features of the
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: dying chevalier as he gazed on his youthful victor, and
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: on his entreaties that he would lighten his conscience by
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: a confession. Replied, thou hast conquered, Let it content thee.
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: Thou wilt not confess thy guilt, cried his antagonist, raising
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: his weapon. Nay, think not, boy, to scare me to
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: confession thee and threats alike, I hold in scorn, replied
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: De Rosney, with a laugh that thrilled the spectators with horror. Enough,
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the count, and averirs the book God of battles
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: has upheld the righteous cause. But say mysterious being, he added,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: addressing the anchorite, how dost thou gain intelligence of De
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: Rosney's treachery of young Henri's wrongs? De Nevers replied the
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: old man, how is the midnight murderer brought to punishment.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: How is the wretch that robbed the fatherless, after a
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: long and triumphant course of undetected crime, dragged forth to
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: light with all his infamy upon him. There is an
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: overruling providence that avenges on the guilty head the deeds
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: of darkness. There is an eye that can discover the
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: most secret guilt that rests not till it has wreaked
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: terrible retribution on the oppressor. Let me ease the dying,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: wreighteous conscience of at least one pang, continued he as
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: he approached the prostrate Chevalier de Rosney cried. He continued,
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: not thus obdurate, confess thyself to God, in whose presence
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: that wilt shortly be, and let me lighten thy bosn't
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: of its heaviest load. Thy brother perish not by the
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: hands of thy emissaries. Thou art not Albert's murderer. Chevalier
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: seemed roused from his stupor by the words. Yet it
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: was but to evince his impenitence. Not Albert's murderer. He
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: faintly yet sternly ejaculated. Who dared to mock be this?
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: I till the Albert Perrish debt jappa I I commanded
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: the deed, and Allah Pertelier struck him to the heart.
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: Eustace died not with that terrible impression, proud, not with
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: that horrid delight upon a deed of guilt that will
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: sink THEE deeper in perdition. While thou hast time repent
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: and spare thyself to bang the guilt of Albert's destruction,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: He yet lives and implores THEE to regard thy eternal welfare.
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: Ah lives, Yes, yes, he has escaped me, and thou
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: thou art. He his dying hand grasped convulsively his sword,
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: which it had not once relinquished. He strove to raise himself,
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: but with the deep grown sent immediately expired. As soon
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: as the Count de Nevers could recover from the agitation
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: by which he had been thrown by the harrowing scene,
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: he addressed the Anchorite. What am I to understand, my
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: venerable friend? Said he from the last expression of that
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: impenitent wretch. Had his perception deceived him? Or do I
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: indeed address your friend? Albert de Rosny, interrupted the Anchorite,
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: grasping the hand of the Count, yes, added he with
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: grief and horror, I acknowledge that wretch, my relative, but
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: with pride with joy, I confess myself the father of
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: that noble boy. Come to my arms, my henri, he exclaimed,
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: rushing toward the youth. Thy father's heart has long throbbed
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: to feel thine beat upon it. He will no longer
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: hold my father. Oh, I am too happy, cried on
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: re sinking at the feet of his venerable parent. Forgive me,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: my dear count, said the elder de Rosny, when his
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: agitation allowed him utterance for having so long worn the mask.
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: Before thee resolved to prove my boy worthy his illustrious ancestry.
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: Before I acknowledged him, I conceal myself from even him,
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: informing him of nothing farther than was necessary to accomplish
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: my designs. Believe me, my dear Chevalier, replied the Count, warmly,
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: returning his friend's embrace. I cannot give expression to the
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: delight with which I hail a long lost, loved and
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: long lamented friend. But wherefore didst thou not before assert
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: thy rights? It is a long and melancholy tale de neveres,
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: of which I can at present give thee but a
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: rude outline left for dead by my brother's emissaries. I
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: have strengthened, remaining to call to an adjacent habitation. The
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: inmates receive me, and by skillful treatment, I recovered from
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: my wounds, and was, without ransom, sued at liberty. The
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: expedition had left Palestine when I was pronounced convalescent. After
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: a tedious journey, I arrived in France, enfeebled in mind
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: and body by suffering and fatigue. Judge my feelings at
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: discovering my inhuman brother, possessed of my title, and in
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: states poor child, despoiled of his rights, removed to some
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: place of secrecy, perhaps murdered by his treacherous guardian. Fearing, however,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: that a declaration of his rights might urge my brother
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: to cruelty toward my boy, if yet he lived, I
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: retired without making myself known, and occupied as a solitary anchorage,
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: a retreat near Moulin. A life of seclusion and austerity
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: weaned me from the world, and ere long I ceased
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: to consider my brother's injury a detriment to my own happiness.
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: My poor boy, I doubted not, had perished, and I
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: left the punishment of his barbarous uncle to the hand
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: of him who is declared. Vengeance is mine. That vengeance
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: has at length reached him. Three days since my an
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: revisited by chance my humble cell, I discovered in him
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: my long lost boy. Yet resolving that himself should win
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: his honors, I continued, unknown to him, thy self, Count
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: knows the rest and will not scorn the heartfelt warmth
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: with which a father thanks thy kindness to his endless boy.
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: I merit not thy thinks as yet, my dear de Rosny,
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: replied the Count. Let me first proclaim to this assembly
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: the restoration of thy rights. Nay, the nevers do honor
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: to my Henri, if thou wilt as for me, I
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: am too old to bear the burden I have so
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: long been a stranger to the anchorite self must still
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: be my home. The Count took the hand of Henri, and,
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: leading him forward, proclaimed him the lawful possessor of the
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: title so long usurped by the deceased. The decoration was
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: received with enthusiasm, and the cry I have long lived
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: the valiant Chevalier de Rosny burst from the lips of
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: the multitude. The reader will be prepared to learn that
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: ere long the fair Rosalie was united to the lover
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: of her choice, who long continued to wear his dignity
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: with honor to himself and advantage to his master, the
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: gallant Louis the seventh, who had honored his nuptials with
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: his presence, and ever remained the firm friend of the
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: Knight of the Chevron. In a section four, Section five
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: of the Rover Volume one number eight. This is a
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: The Rover Volume one number eight, edited by Seba Smith
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: and Lawrence LaBrie. Section five the Sexton of Cologne. In
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: the year fifteen seventy one, There lived at Cologne a
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: rich virgomaster, whose wife Adelaide, then in the prime of
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: her youth and beauty, fell sick and died. They had
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: lived very happily together, and throughout her fatal illness, the
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: doting husband scarcely quitted her bedside for an instant. During
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: the latter period of her sickness, she did not suffer greatly,
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: but the fainting fits grew more and more frequent, and
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: of increasing duration, till at length they became incessant, and
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: she finally sank under them. It is well known that
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: Cologne is a city which, as far as respects religion,
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: may compare itself with Rome, on which a county was
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: called even in the Middle agees Roma Germanica, and sometimes
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: the Sacred City. It seemed as if, in after times
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: had wished to compensate by piety the misfortune of having
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: been the birthplace of the abominable Agrippina. For many years,
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: nothing else was seen but priests, students and mendicant monks,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: while the bells were ringing and tolling from morning till night.
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: Even now you may count in it as many churches
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: and cloisters as the year has days. The principal church
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: is the Cathedral of Saint Peter, one of the handsomest
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: buildings in all Germany. Though still not so complete, it
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: was probably intended by the architect. The choir alone is arched.
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: The chief altars is a single block of black marble,
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: brought along the Rhine to Cologne from Namur. Upon the
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: mass in the sacristy, an ivory rod is shown, said
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: to have belonged to the apostle Peter, and in a
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: chapel stanza gilded coffin with the names of the holy
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: three kings inscribed. Their skulls are visible through an opening,
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: to being white, as belonging to Caspar and Baltazar, the
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: third black for Melchiore. It was in this church that
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: Adelaide was buried with great splendor, in the spirit of
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: that age which had more feeling for the solid than
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: real taste, more devotion and confidence than unbelieving fear. She
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: was dressed as a bride in flowered silk, a motley
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: garland upon her head, and her pale fingers covered with
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: costly rings, in which state she was conveyed to the
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: vault of a little chapel, directly under the choir, in
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: a coffin with glass windows. Many of her forefathers were
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: already resting here, all embalmed and with their mummy forms,
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: offered a strange contrast to the silver and gold with
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: which they were decorated, and teaching in a peculiar fashion
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: the difference between the perishable and the imperishable. The custom
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: of embalming was in the present instance given up, and
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: when Adelaide was buried. It was settled that no one
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: else should be laid there for the future. With a
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: heavy heart, had Adolph his wife to her final resting place.
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: The turret bells of two hundred and twenty hundredweight lifted
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: up their deep voices and spread the sounds of mourning
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: through the wide city, while the monks, carrying tapers and
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: scattering incense, sang requiems from their huge vellum folios, which
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: were spread upon the music desks in the choir. But
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: this service was now over. The dead lay alone with
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: the dead. The immense clock, which is only wound up
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: once a year and shows the course of the planets
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: as well as the hours of the day, was the
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: only thing that had sound or motion in the whole cathedral.
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: Its monotonous ticking seemed to mock the silent grave. It
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: was a stormy November evening when Pettier Bolt, the sexton
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: of Saint Peter's, was returning home after this splendid funeral.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: The poor man, who had been married four years, had
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: one child, a daughter, which his wife brought him in
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: the second year of their marriage, and was again expecting
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: her confinement. It was therefore with a heavy heart that
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: he had left the church for his scottage, which lay
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: damp and cold on the banks of a river, and
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: which at this dull season looked more gloomy than ever.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: At the door he was met by the little Maria,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: who called out with great delight, you must not go upstairs. Father.
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: The stork has been here and brought Maria a little brother,
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: a piece of information more expected than agreeable, and which
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: was soon after confirmed by the appearance of his sister
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: in law, with a healthy infant in her arms. His wife, however,
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: had suffered much, and was in a state that required
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: assistance far beyond his means to supply. In this distress,
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: he bethought himself of the old Jew Isaac, who had
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: lately advanced him a trifle on his old silver watch.
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: But now, unfortunately he had nothing more to pledge, and
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: was forced to ground all his hopes on the Jew's compassion.
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: A very unsafe anchorage. With doubtful steps, he sought the
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: house of the Miser and told his tale amid tears
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: and sighs, to all of which Isaac listened with great patience,
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: so much so that Bolt began to flatter himself with
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: a favorable answer to his petition, but he was disappointed.
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: The jew, having heard him out, coolly replied that he
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: could lend no moneys on a child. It was no
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: good pledge. With bitter execrations on the usurer's hard heartedness,
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: poor Bolt rushed from his door. When, to aggravate his situation,
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: the first snow of the season began to fall, and
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: that so Thick confessed that in a very short time
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: the house tops presented a single field of white. Immersed
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: in his grief, he missed his way across the market place,
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: and when he least expected such a thing, found himself
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: in the front of the cathedral. The great clock chimed
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: three quarters. He wanted then a quarter to twelve. Where
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: was he to look for assistance at such an hour,
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: or indeed, at any hour. He had already applied to
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: the rich prelates and got from them all that their
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: charity was likely to give. Suddenly a thought struck him
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: like lightning. He saw as little Maria crying for the
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: food he could not give her. His sick wife lying
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: in bed with the infant on her exhausted bosom, and
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: then Adelaide in her splendid coffin and her hand glittering
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: with jewels, it could not grasp. Of what use are
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: diamonds to her? Now? Said he to himself, is there
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: any sin in robbing the dead to give to the living.
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: I would not do such a thing for myself if
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: I were starving, no Heaven forbid. But for my wife
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: and child. Ah, that's quite another matter. Quieting his conscience
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: as well as he could with this opiate, he hurried
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: home to get the necessary implements. But by the time
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: he reached his own door, his resolution began to waver.
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: The sight, however, of his wife's distress, brought him up
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: again to the sticking place, and, having provided himself with
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: a dark lantern, the church keys, and a crow to
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: break open the coffin, he set out for the cathedral.
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: On the way, all manner of strange fancies crossed him.
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: The earth seemed to shake beneath him. It was the
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: tottering of his own limbs. A figure seemed to sign
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: him back. It was the shade thrown from some column
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: that waved to and fro as the lamp light flickered
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: in the night wind. But still the thought of home
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: drove him on, and even the badness of the weather
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: carried this consolation. With it, he was the more likely
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: to find the streets clear and escape detection. He had
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: now reached the cathedral. For a moment, he paused on
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: the steps, and then, taking heart, put the huge key
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: into the lock. To his fancy, it had never opened
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: with such readiness before. The bolts shot back at the
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: light touch of the key, and he stood alone in
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: the church, trembling from head to foot. Still, it was
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: requisite to close the door behind him, lest its being
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: open should be noticed by any one passing by, and
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: gave rise to suspicion. And as he did so, the
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: story came across his mind of the man who visited
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: a church at midnight to show his courage. For a
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: sign that he had really been there, he was to
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: stick his knife into a coffin, but in his hurry,
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: in trepidation, he struck it through the skirt of his coat,
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: without being aware of it, and, supposing himself held back
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: by some supernatural agency, dropped down dead from terror. Full
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: of these unpleasant recollections, he tottered up the knave, and
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: as the light successively flashed upon the sculptured marbles, it
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: seemed as if the pale figures frowned ominously upon him,
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: but desperation supplied the place of courage. He kept on
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: his way to the choir, descended the steps, passed through
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: the long, narrow passage, with the dead heaped on either side,
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: opened Adelaide's chapel, and stood it once before her coffin.
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: There she lay stiff and pale, the wreath in her
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: hair and the jewels on her fingers gleaming strangely in
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: the thin light of the lantern. He even fancied that
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: he already smelt a pestilential breath of decay, though it
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: was full early for corruption to have begun his work.
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: A sickness seized him at the thought, and he leaned
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: for support against one of the columns, with his eyes
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: fixed on the coffin. When was it real or was
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: it illusion? A change came over the face of the dead.
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: He started back, and that change, so indescribable, had passed
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: away in an instant, leaving a darker shadow on the features.
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: If I had only time, he said to himself, If
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: I had only time, I would rather break open one
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: of the other coffins and leave the lady Adelaide in quiet.
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: Age has destroyed all that is human. In these mummies,
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: they have lost that resemblance to life, which makes the
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: death so terrible, And I should no more mind handling
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: them than so many dry bones. It's all nonsense, though,
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: when is as harmless as the other. And since the
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: Lady Adelaide's house is the easiest for my work, I
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: must ian set about it. But the coffin did not
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: offer the facilities he reckoned upon with so much certainty.
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: The glass windows were secured inwardly with iron wire, leaving
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: no space for the admission of the hand, so that
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: he found himself obliged to break the lid to pieces,
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: a task that, with his imperfect implements, cost both time
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: and labor. As the wood splintered and cracked under the
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: heavy blows of the iron, the cold perspiration poured in
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: streams down his face, the sound assuring him more than
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: all the rest that he was committing sacrilege. Before it
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: was only the place, with its dark associations that had
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: terrified him. Now he began to be afraid of himself,
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: and would without doubt have given up the business altogether
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: if the lid had not suddenly flown to pieces. Alarmed
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: at his very success, He started round, as if expecting
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: to see some one behind watching his sacrilege and ready
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: to clutch him. And so strong had been the illusion
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: that when he found this was not the case, he
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: fell upon his knees before the coffin, exclaiming, forgive me,
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: dear lady, If I take from you, what is of
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: no use to yourself. While a single diamond will make
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: a poor family so happy, it is not for myself.
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: Oh no, it is for my wife and children, he thought.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: The dead looked more kindly at him as he spoke thus,
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: and certainly the livid shudder had passed away from her face.
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: Without more delay. He raised the cold hand to draw
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: the rings from its finger. But what was his horror
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: when the dead returned his grasp. His hand was clutched,
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: I firmly clutched, though that rigid face and form lay
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: there as motionless as ever. With a cry of horror,
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: he burst away, not retaining so much presence of mind
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: as to think of the light which he left burning
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: by the coffin. This, however, was of little consequence. Fear
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: can find its way in the dark, and he rushed
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: through the vaulted passage, up the steps, through the choir,
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: and would have found his way out had he not,
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: in his hurry forgotten the stone called the Devil's Stone,
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: which lies in the middle of the church, and which,
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: according to the legend, was cast there by the devil.
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: Thus much is certain it has fallen from the arch,
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: and they still show a hole above through which it
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: is said to have been hurled against this stone. The
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: unlucky sexton stumbled just as the clock struck twelve, and
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: immediately he fell to the earth in a death like swoon.
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: The cold, however, soon brought him to himself, and on
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: recovering his senses, he again fled, weinged by a terror,
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: and fully convinced that he had no hope of escaping
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: the vengeance the dead, except by the confession of his
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: crime and gaining the forgiveness of her family. With his view,
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: he hurried across the marketplace to the Burgo master's house,
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 1: where he had to knock long before he could attract
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: any notice. The whole household lay in a profound sleep,
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: with the exception of the unhappy Adolph, who was sitting
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: alone on the same sofa where he had so often
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: sat with his adelaide. Her picture hung on the wall
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: opposite to him, though it might be said rather to
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: feed his grief than to afford him any consolation. And yet,
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: as most would do under such circumstances, he dwelt upon
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: it the more intently, even from the pain he gave him.
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: And it was not till the sexton had knocked repeatedly
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: that he awoke from his melancholy dreams roused. At last,
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: he opened the window and inquired who it was that
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: disturbed him at such an unseasonable hour. It is only I,
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: mister Burgomaster, was the answer. And who are you, again,
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: asked Adolph Bolt, the sexton of Saint Peter's, mister burgo Master,
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: I have a thing of the utmost importance to discover
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: to you. Naturally, associating the idea of Adelaide with the
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: sexton of the church where she was buried, Adolph was
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: immediately anxious to know something more of the matter, and
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: taking up a wax light, he hastened downstairs and himself
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: opened the door to Bolt. What have you to say
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: to me, he exclaimed? Not here, mister burger Master, replied
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: the anxious sexton. Not here we may be overheard. Adolph,
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: though wondering at this affectation of mystery, motioned him in
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: and closed the door. When Bolt, throwing himself at his feet,
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: confessed all that had happened. The anger of Adolph was
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: mixed with compassion as he listened to the strange recital.
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: Nor could he refuse to Bolt the absolution which the
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: poor fellow deemed so essential to his security from the
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: vengeance of the At the same time, he cautioned him
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: to maintain a profound silence on the subject, poured everyone else,
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 1: as otherwise the sacrilege might be attended with serious consequences,
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: it not being likely that the ecclesiastics, to whom the
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 1: judgment of such matters belonged, would view his fault with
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: equal indulgence. He even resolved to go himself to the
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: church with both that he might investigate the affair more thoroughly.
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: But to this proposition, the sexton gave a prompt and
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: positive denial. I would rather, he exclaimed, I would rather
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: be dragged to the scaffold than again disturbed the repose
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: of the dead. This declaration, so ill timed, confounded Adolph.
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: On the one hand, he felt an undefined curiosity to
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: look more narrowly into this mysterious business. On the other
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 1: he could not help feeling compassion for the sexton, who,
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: it was evident, was laboring under the influence of a
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 1: delusion which he was utterly unable to subdue. The poor
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: fellow trembled all over as if shaken by an egg
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: you fit, and painted the situation of his wife and
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: his pressing poverty with such a pale face and such
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: despair in his eyes that he might himself have passed
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: for a churchyard specter. The burgo Master again admoniged him
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: to be silent for fear the consequences, and giving him
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: a couple of dollars to relieve his immediate wants, sent
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 1: him home to his wife and family, Being thus deprived
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: of his most natural ally. On this occasion, Adolph summoned
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: an old and confidential servant, of whose secrecy he could
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: have no doubt to his question of do you fear
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: the dead? Hans stoutly replied, they are not half so
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: dangerous as the living. Indeed, said the burgo Master. Do
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: you think then, that you have courage enough to go
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 1: into the church at night in the way of my duty? Yes,
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 1: replied Hans, not otherwise it is not right to trifle
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: with holy matters. Do you believe in ghosts, Hans continued Adolf, Yes,
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: mister Burgomaster, do you fear them? No, mister Burgomaster, I
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: hope by God and he holds me up, and God
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: is the strongest. Will you go with me to the cathedral, Hans,
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: I have had a strange dream tonight. It seemed to
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: me as if my deceased wife called to me from
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 1: the steeple window. I see how it is, answered Hans.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: The sexton has been with you, and put this whim
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: into your head. Mister Burgomaster, these grave diggers are always
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: seeing ghosts. Put a light into your lantern, said Adolf,
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: avoiding a direct reply to this observation of the old man.
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: Be silent and follow me if you bid me, said Hans.
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: I must of course obey, for you are my magistrate
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: as well as my master. Herewith He lit the candle
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: in the lantern and followed his master without further opposition.
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: Adolf hurried into the church with hasty steps, but the
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: old man, who went before him to show the way,
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: delayed him with his reflections, so that their progress was
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: but slow. Even at the threshold. He stopped and flung
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: the light of his lantern upon the gilded rods over
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: the door, to which it is accustomed to add a
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: fresh one every year, that people may know how long
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: the reigning elector has lived. That is an excellent custom,
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 1: said Hans. One has only to count those staves, and
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: one learns immediately how long the gracious elector has governed
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: us simple men. Not a monument would he pass without
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: first stopping to examine it by the lantern like and
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: requesting the burgomaster to explain its inscription. Although he had
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: spent his three and sixty years in Cologne, and during
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: that period had been in the habit of frequenting it
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: almost daily. Adolf, who well knew that no representations would
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: avail him, submitted patiently to the humors of his old servant,
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: contenting himself with answering his questions as briefly as possible,
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: And in this way they at last got to the
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 1: high altar. Here Hans made a sudden stop and was
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 1: not to be brought any farther, quick exclaimed the burger master,
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: who was beginning to lose his patience, for his heart
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: throbbed with expectation. Heaven and all good angels defend us,
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 1: murmured Hans through his chattering teeth, while he in vain
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: felt for his rosary, which yet hung as usual at
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 1: his girdle. What is the matter now, cried Adolph. Do
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: you see who sits there? Replied Hans, where exclaimed his master,
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: I see nothing. Hold up the lantern, heaven shield us,
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: cried the old man. There sits our deceased lady on
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: the altar in a long white veil, and drinks out
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 1: of the sacramento cup with a trembling. Had he held
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: up the lantern in the direction to which he pointed,
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: it was indeed as he had said. There she sat
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: with the paleness of death upon her face, her white
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: garments waving heavily in the night wind, rushed through the
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: aisles of the church, and holding the silver goblet to
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: her lips. With long bony arms. Wasted by protracted illness.
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: Even Adolph's courage began to waver adelaide. He cried, I
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: conjure you, in the name of the Blessed Trinity. Answer me,
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: is in thy living self or but thy shadow? Ah,
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: replied a faint voice. You buried me alive, and but
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: for this wine I perished from exhaustion. Come up to me,
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 1: dear Adolf. I am no shadder, but I shall soon
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: be with shadows unless I receive your speedy succor go
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: not near her, said Hans. It is the evil one
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: that has assumed the blessed shape of my lady to
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: destroy you. Away, old man, exclaimed Adol, bursting from the
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: feeble grasp of his servant and rushing up the steps
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: of the altar. It was indeed Adelaide that he held
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: in his eager embrace, the warm and living Adelaide, who
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: had been buried for dead in long trance, and had
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: only escaped from the grave by the sacrilegious daring the
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: Sexton of Cologne. In of section five.
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 3: Section six of the Rover, Volume one, number eight. This
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 3: is a liberyvox recording. All liberyvox recordings are in the
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 3: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 3: liberyvox dot org, Volume one number eight, edited by Seba
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 3: Smith and Lawrence LaBrie. Section six. I know thou hast
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 3: gone by T. K. Kurvy. I know thou hast gone
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 3: to the home of thy rest. Then why should my
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 3: soul be so sad? I know thou hast gone, where
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 3: the weary are blessed, and the mourner looks up and
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 3: is glad, where love has put off in the land
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 3: of its birth, the stains it had gathered in this
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 3: and hope the sweet singer that gladden the earth lies
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 3: asleep on the bosom of bliss. I know thou hast gone,
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 3: where thy forehead is starr'd with the beauty that dwelt
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 3: in thy soul, where the light of thy loveliness cannot
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 3: be marred, nor thy heart be flung back from its goal.
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 3: I know thou hast drank of the leathy that flows
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 3: through a land where they do not forget, that sheds
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 3: over memory, only repose and takes from it, only regrets
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 3: in thy far away dwelling, wherever it be. I believe
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 3: thou hast visions of mine and the love that made
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 3: all things amusic to me. I yet have not learnt
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 3: to resign in the hush of the night, in the
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 3: waste of the sea, or alone with the breath on
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 3: the hill. I have ever a presence that whispers of thee,
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 3: and my spirit lies down and is still mine. Eye
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 3: must be dark, that so long has been dimmed ere again.
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 3: It may gaze upon thine, but my heart has revealings
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 3: of thee and thy home in many a token and sign.
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 3: I never look up with a vow to the sky,
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 3: but a light like thy beauty is there. And I
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 3: hear a low murmur like thine in reply when I
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 3: pour out my spirits in prayer. And though like a
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 3: mourner that sits by a tomb, I am wrapped in
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 3: a mantle of care. Yet the grief of my bosom,
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 3: oh call it not gloom, is not the black grief
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 3: of despair by sorrow revealed As the stars are by
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 3: night far off, a bright vision appears, and hope, like
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 3: the rainbow, a creature of light, He's born, like the
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 3: rainbow from Tears. End of section six. Recording by Alan Mapstone.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: Section seven of The Rover Volume one number eight. This
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. The Rover Volume one number eight, edited
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: by Seba Smith and Lawrence LaBrie. Section seven. To be
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: good is to be happy. By Raul, to be good
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: is to be happy. Angels are happier than men, because
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 1: they are better. Guilt is the source of sorrow. Tis
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: the fiend, the avenging fiend that follows us behind with
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 1: whips and stings. The blessed no none of this, but
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: rest in everlasting peace of mind, and find the height
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: of all their heaven in goodness. End of section seven.
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 4: Section eight of The Rover, Volume one number eight. This
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Sonia The Rover, Volume one
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 4: number eight, edited by Ciba Smith and Laurence LaBrie. Section
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 4: eight The Last Man by T. Campbell. All worldly shapes
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 4: shall melt in gloom. The Sun himself must die before
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 4: this mortal shall assume its immortality. I saw a vision
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 4: in my sleep that gave my spirit strength to sweep
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 4: adown the gulf of time. I saw the last of
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 4: human mold, that shall Creation's death behold as Adam saw
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 4: her prime, the Sun's eye had a sickly glare. The
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 4: earth with age was when the skeletons of nations were
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 4: around that lonely man. Some had expired in fight the
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 4: brands still rested in their bony hands. In plague and famine.
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 4: Some Earth's cities had no sound nor tread, and ships
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 4: were drifting with their dead to shores where all was
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 4: done yet profit. Like that lone one stood with dauntless
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 4: words and high that shook the sea leaves from the wood,
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 4: as if a storm passed by, saying, we are twins
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 4: in death, proud son, Thy face is cold, thy races
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 4: run tis mercy bids thee go, for thou ten thousand
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 4: thousand years hast seen the tide of human tears that
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 4: shall no longer flow what thou beneath. Thee man put
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 4: forth his pomp, his pride, his skill, and arts that
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 4: made fire flood, and earth the vassals of his will.
• 2:36:41
  Speaker 4: Yet morn i not thy parted sway thou dim discrowned
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 4: king of day. For all those trophied arts and triumphs
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 4: that beneath thee sprang healed. Not a passion or a
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 4: pang entailed on human hearts.
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: Go.
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 4: Let oblivion s curtain fall upon the stage of men,
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 4: Nor with thy rising beams recall life's tragedy again. Its
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 4: piteous pageants bring not back nor waken flesh upon the
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 4: wreck of pain anew to writhe stretched in diseases, shapes
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 4: abhorred or moan in battle by the sword, like grass
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 4: beneath the sythe even I am weary in yon skies
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 4: to watch thy fading fire test of all sumless agonies.
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 4: Behold not me, expire my lips that speak thy dirge
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 4: of death, their rounded gasp and gurgling breath to see.
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 4: Thou shalt not boast. The eclipse of nature spreads my pall.
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 4: The majesty of darkness shall receive my parting ghost. This
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 4: spirit shall return to him that gave its heavenly spark.
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 4: Yet think not sun, it shall be dim when thou
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 4: thyself art dark. No, it shall live again and shine
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 4: in bliss, unknown to beams of thine by him recalled
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 4: to breath, who captive, led captivity, who robbed the grave
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 4: of victory, and took the sting from death. Go, Son,
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 4: while mercy holds me up on Nature's awful waste, to
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 4: drink this last and bitter cup of grief that man
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 4: shall taste. Go tell the knight that hides thy face.
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 4: Thou sawest the last of Adam's race on Earth's sepulchral
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 4: clod the darkening universe defy to quench his immortality or
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 4: shake his trust in God. End of Section eight. End
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 4: of The Rover, Volume one, number eight, edited by Siba
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 4: Smith and Laurence Labris,