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Show 254 RTC'IIAHD Jl URDIS. recoYcr from the start wltich it hac.l occasioucd ltim, aud \\ J. ; :._~ he was about to throw his eyes along the barrel, his mnrrow!t'!':i purpose was ngain defeated, by one of the simplest incidcntn in the world. A flock of pnrtridgcs, stmtkd by tltc tread of tLc horse, flew u11 from the road~sidc, at the very feet oftltc tr:wcll<'t·. The moment l1ad passed. The victim wns out of reach Lcf<J! c his wretched enemy could rcco,·c1· his resolution. DC'spcr:.tc and wild, John llurdis rushed out of his covert, :mel lllllf.way down tl1c hill. lie wCluld hrwc cried nloud to the rctrcnting emissary. lie would have defied him to :m cqunl, mortal struggle. But the soul was wanting, if not the will. The souud died away in his husky tl1ront. T he Yoice stuck - the tongue was palsied. 11he imbecile dropped !tis weapon, and sinking down upon the grass beside it, thrust his fingers into the cartlJ, and moaned aloud. It is a dreadful misery to feel that we cnn confide in no friend - that we can trust no neighbor; but tl1is sorrow is notl1ing to tlwt last humiliating conviction, which tells us that we can not trust ourselves. 'l'hat our muscles will fail us in the trying moment-that, when we most need resolution, we shall find none within our hearts. 'l'hat our ne rves shall be unstrung when their tension is our safety-that our tongue shall refuse its office, when its challenge is necessary to w:.nm our own hearts, and alarm those of our enemies. Co11scious imbecility next to conscious guilt, is the most crushing of all mental maladies. To look upon that poor, base criminal now, as he lies upon the grass- his fingers stuck into the sod and fixed there-his jaws wide, and the froth ing tongue lolling out and motionless- big drops upon llis fo rehead - bigger drops in his red and glassy eyes-his hair soaked by the sweat of llis mental agony, and all his limbs without life - and we should no longer hate, but pity- we should almost forget his crime in the paralyzing punishment which followed it. But this was not the limit of his affiictions, though, to the noble mind, it must appear the worst. T here were yet other terrors in store for him. lle was yet to learn, even in this narrow life, that u the wages of sin is death." I • NAi\IELJ-:&:; 'rc:nnon.-;. OHAP'l'ER XXX VII. NJ\MELESS TERHORS. "Why stnn~ you thull amnu·df Methiok!l your eyes Are fi~ed Ill tneditntion; nud nll heJ•e Seem ltke so rnnny ll\!nsel(.lss stntues. As if .your souls hnd sufl"et·cJ nn eclipse ButwJxt your judgmcut. nud uffectione."- JVoman ]later. 255 IIouns elapsed before John II ·I" f wlJich !J l ! ! . Ill( JS arose rom tlie earth upon 1. c. IU( .t lr0\\~1: hnnself, qvcrcome by the mortification of ~IS ~~~lSCI~us ~nbecJhty. 'Vhen he did arise he was like one ewJ ere . ut he went forward. Stunned and stn .· lle went :orward-the l:itains of the soil upon his r!~:~~;l~i lmn~s.-:Jns gun and clothes marked also with the roofs of ~hi hunulwtiOn. But whither should he go 1 II" . pd ' . s spa t 1 I d IS mm , LOr a bncf . ~ ce •. oo.: no '?e of this question. He wandered on without ~1nect~on/rom Ius thought; but, with an old lwbit he wandered ~war t te dwelling of his coadjutor, Pickett. 'ne was Jar~ tJnlly a~':aken?d from llis stUJlOr, by the sounds of a voic~ the .~CliJ votce of unheeding childhood. r.rhe sounds were ~~m~h~r- thcy half recalled IIim to himself- they reminded lJm ;v.ICre ~~~was, w!Jilc fu lly impressing upon llim his forlorn condttJon. ~ hey were those of the idiot girl, and she now ~1mc boundmg toward him with an old feeling of confid ut ere sl~e ~1rew nigh, sbc remembered the interview ~:i~~; John IIunhs, m which her mother unexpected} b 'Vithout knowiu(')' ,1 1 Y ecarne a party. moth . fj I f: o " ~· s le yet well enough understood that her reme:l•br~:~: s anltd With her conduct on that occasion, and the ba k •1 b ervc to arrest her forward footsteps. She hunoo c " 1011 ut a few feet from tl . . · · . 0 escnp d I Sl . .tc CIImmal ; aud a famt cry is no ;orr~er .. . le shnm.k fro~ his altered appearance. T here of Idwcy, whtch brmgs with it a n utter insensibility |
