Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

"He is innocent, dear uncle, I am sure he is innocent!" and the unhappy girl stood, pale as death, before the group.

"Agnes, my niece! what means this?" exclaimed her uncle.

"Wait but a few days-a few hours, before you pronounce his doom. Think-oh! think, how many an innocent person has suffered from misconstruction!" She would have gone on to say that it was in her brother's power to clear the accused, but the fear of making matters worse, instead of better, deterred her. She stopped, gazed wildly a moment on the inquiring faces before her, and would have fallen to the floor, had not Louis sprang forward, and caught her in his arms.

The sound of horses' feet arrested the attention of the officers. The door was opened in haste, and Captain Chester, heated with long travel, and apparently fresh from a bloody affray, entered. Agnes raised her drooping head, but relapsed with a deep sigh when she saw who it was, and, nearly as much overcome as herself, Bradford bore her to the window, where the fresh air soon revived her.

General Howe greated the new-comer with warmth, and expressed his surprise at his flushed look and travel-soiled costume.

"I may well be in haste, my dear general," | replied Chester. "Six hundred rebels are this moment advancing upon us, and we shall hardly have time to prepare for their reception, ere they are in our midst. I have myself narrowly escaped being made a prisoner. It was only through your poor fool of a servant-General, I beg pardon, he proved himself any thing but a fool in this instance he came along as I lay on the ground in the claws of one of these rascally 'skinners,' and, hitting the fellow a tap over the head, set me free. I must look after Dromio when I have more time; he shall be well repaid for his trouble. I suppose he has finished the 'skinner' by this time. He was nearly used up by the first blow, or I should have stayed to assist. But, my dear sir, we must be moving at once. Ah! Miss

Fletcher," for the first time perceiving her, "this is an unexpected pleasure; I had hoped to have spent the next few hours more agreeably, but"-glancing at her changing countenance, and misinterpreting its expression-"I hope we shall not be obliged to remain long in the saddle; it will not be much trouble to scatter this undisciplined array. But who have we here?”

This question was addressed to General Howe, but his eye was fixed upon Louis, who stood, with arms folded, in silence, sometimes glancing at the officers present, and at the pale countenance of his beloved, but oftener at a cloud of dust approaching nearer and nearer, and perchance heralding his release from captivity and death.

Colonel Williams explained the causes of the arrest of Bradford, but, on referring to the letter, Chester started and drew from his pocket a torn piece of paper, which he handed to General Howe, saying: "I found this on the ground during the conflict with the skinner,' and suppose it to have dropped from him or your servant Dromio. Perhaps it will clear matters. For my part, I cannot comprehend a word of it. Howe took the paper and read as follows:

[merged small][ocr errors]

The remainder of the letter was so torn and defaced that it was impossible to decipher it. The eyes of Louis and Agnes met an instant, and hers were averted as she remembered what sentiments were contained in the rest of that letter. They called forth, however, new fears for the safety of the writer.

"Louis, it is my duty to unravel this mystery. Prevent me not; were not your life at stake, it were equally my wish to conceal what will be the means of separating us

for ever, perhaps of compelling my uncle to treat you with greater rigor; but your life

will be safe."

"And of what value would life be to me then, Agnes? Rather return the fetters to these limbs, and me to my dungeon, than banish me for ever from thy sight!"

"None shall ever do that! See, they are conversing in low tones, and their looks are ominous. Oh! Louis, if you love me, if you love my brother, let me go and clear your fame. What will become of me when hope and happiness are banished for ever?" "Not hope, not hope, dear Agnes; for, look, they come, they come! Heaven speed those gallant hearts! Proud Britons, do your worst; the unyielding soul of Louis Bradford will never stoop to wear your fetters, nor his body be spurned by coward feet, his name linked with that of spy or traitor! But what wretched object is that in advance, with terror in his aspect? Ha! it is your humble companion to my prison-cell."

"It is Dromio!" exclaimed Agnes, springing up eagerly, "and with a message from my brother!"

"I have orders to conduct you back to prison, sir," said the guard, placing his hand familiarly upon Bradford's arm.

“Stand back! I need not force to remind me of my doom!" replied Louis. "Lead on. If I may judge by yonder prospect, my imprisonment will be of brief duration."

"Wait, only wait one moment," said Agnes, looking beseechingly at the guard; "here is Dromio, and here is my brother's letter. Read it, uncle ;" and, snatching the paper from the hand of the servant, she flew to her relative, joy beaming in her counte

nance.

"Wounded-unable to leave! What is all this, child? Ha! what do I see? A conspiracy in my own family, and among those who owe me obedience. So! this accounts for your silence, young sir. I thank you, Agnes, for your fortunate mistake. This letter you were so anxious I should read, is a precious document from your brother, addressed to yourself, and intended

to be private. So he calls me a rigid judge! and advises you to assist in the escape of this rebel, asserting that he must not be known to be concerned in it, but you can do it, if you choose! There is more in this than can be investigated at present. Guard! once more I say, remove the prisoner. Friends, we must be up and doing. While we have delayed, they are taking advantage of our tardiness."

Poor Agnes! She sat with clasped hands, listening to the retreating footsteps of the company, and then burst into such a torrent of grief, that her maid, who had joined her, was alarmed for her reason. Every term of condolence was exhausted, but to no purpose. Agnes could only sob forth, "I have killed him, I have killed him!" Soon afterwards she perceived her uncle, with the other officers, hastening from the house, and then a tumult in the guard-room startled her. She ran to the door, listened; a voice was heard in loud tones, as if addressing an assembly. That voice was Louis Bradford's. Opening the door, she perceived that Louis had broken from the guard, and was surrounded by a band of soldiers, to whom he was pleading in earnest tones. They were the deserters who had that morning arrived. Many of them were well known to Bradford, and, tempted by hopes of rescue, and anxiety to gain them over again to the good cause, he burst from the guard, and, springing into their midst, thus spoke :

"Fellow-soldiers! I regret to see you thus deserting the standard of your country, and returning to a slavish allegiance, from which the efforts of your patriotic brethren are directed to set you free. Is it possible that men who have marched under the standard of Washington can submit to another leader? Rise! rise, I entreat you, and shake off the toils in which you are. ensnared. I pledge you my honor that, if you will return to your duty, you shall be restored to all your former privileges, and your past conduct shall be buried in oblivion. We are fighting in a noble cause. 'Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor,' are

pledged in the service of our country. When our rights are restored, and the smiles of Peace dawn upon our hapless land, would you like to be pointed out as those who deserted her in her greatest need? Shame on the coward wretch who shall be found upon this soil when that glorious season arrives. Say, then, are you willing to stand by me in effecting my escape, or shall I brave the storm alone, and return to the camp with the sad story of your disgrace?"

The recreant soldiers, who already half repented of their desertion, crowded around him, and unanimously declared themselves ready to obey his orders, and follow wherever he might lead them. The guard were bound; arms seized upon wherever they could be found, and they stood ready to do or die!

"I have one farewell to take," thought the young hero, "and then to busy war again." He returned to the room where he had left Agnes.

"I have heard all," she cried, as he appeared. "Go, Louis; Heaven prosper you!

but oh! remember, I have an uncle and brother at your mercy."

"Both, both are sacred in my eyes. Farewell! if victory crowns me, I return one day to lay my laurels at your feet. If I die, the name of Agnes will be the last upon my lips!"

Louis did not die, for victory awaited the little band, and they arrived on the field of battle in time to assist in pursuing the defeated royalists. Congress saw fit to pardon the misguided soldiers, who through the influence of Bradford were reclaimed; and many years after the Declaration of Independence, the mansions formerly inhabited by the families of Bradford and Fletcher were again made joyous by their children.

Little Edward Bradford was often told the story of his father's imprisonment, and of his almost receiving sentence of death from his mother's uncle; he delighted most in arranging the chairs in battle array, and pretending they were deserters, to whom he promised forgiveness, if they would fol| low him and return to duty.

[blocks in formation]

SORCERY AND

|

MAGIC.

fact, all learned men were supposed to have dealings with the Devil; and the ignorant, who, in our day, only give way to their instinctive promptings, were in those days the recipients of occult instruction, and, not possessing the intelligence to enable them to classify supposed revelations, or measure the extent or quality of any spiritual manifestation, were agitated and swayed by fear; and hence, through a distempered imagination, ran into the most absurd and unaccountable beliefs. Nothing was deemed impossible by them, if the magician willed it so.

How slender is the thread of human intelligence, as compared with Intelligence itself as a principle-that great principle which is developed in the vastness and the magnificence of creation! Man, with his semimaterial intellect, catches but a glimpse of the living essence of pure spirituality, and all his supernatural reasonings are but a mass of confused, undefined, half transparent ideas. His soul is so entrammeled with materiality, that all his searchings beyond the operations of tangible nature are speculative and uncertain; and yet, being half spiritual in his conformation, there exists in him a sympathy with and a yearning to- The same elements of popular superstition. wards the immaterial world that is irresist- that existed during the middle ages, and ible. He seeks for knowledge that he cannot during every age of occult belief, exist now; comprehend, and reaps from his labors only and it is only necessary to turn the popular a harvest of labyrinthine doubt. Superstition mind in that direction, and to convert the clings to him; an innate power, from which train of popular thought into the supernahe cannot escape without divesting himself tural channel, to develop all the phenomena of all religion, and without religion he cannot of those superstitious eras of the world. We exist a sentient being, because the religious may talk of a superior intelligence as much or spiritual attributes of his character com- as we please; it does not remove the fact. prise all that he possesses of intellectuality; Let the restrains of custom—a custom which and it often occurs that what we call super-recognizes superstition as an intellectual stition, in its true meaning, exists most weakness-be removed, and we should witstrongly, and is most plainly developed, in ness, in the middle of the nineteenth century, minds of the highest intelligence. This as- a reenactment of all the follies and crudities sertion is not in conformity with the received of the middle ages, or of any other age that idea; but, if men of intelligence do not in stands prominent in occult belief. Professor our day exhibit all the phenomena of that Anderson, McAllister, Adrien, and others, principle which is exhibited by the ignorant, who delight large audiences with their amusit is partly because the ordinary channels of ing tricks and sleight-of-hand, would become superstition, as manifested by the lower order sorcerers of renown; and, even as it is, there of intellects, is beneath their regard; and are many who believe they are the agents of partly because they do not like to confess Satan, and would as soon swallow molten what is regarded as an intellectual weak- lead as eat any of the rare confections which ness. In the days when sorcery and magic these gentlemen produce with such astonishwere fashionable theories, some of the most ing celerity. intelligent minds were foremost in the study and propagation of the occult sciences; in

Let us make it fashionable to believe in the assumed "spiritual manifestations" of

the day-the rappings, thumpings, removing of tables, throwing of pokers, &c., &c.— and we should find the human mind as ready to adopt them as it is to don the last fashion from Paris. And this tendency of mind at the present day is greatly enhanced by modern developments in the material world, and the phenomena exhibited by Mesmerism, electro-psychology, &c., wherein, through physical causes, the whole nervous system, and hence the whole man, is made the dupe of the superstitious faculty, or, in other words, the imagination. That these phenomena are real, and not the result of collusion,* none who understand the close affinity of mind with matter in the human construction can doubt; and it requires but a slight effort of the superstitious principle to go a little beyond the surface of facts, and associate the whole thing with superhuman

agency.

History, as well as every-day experience, is fruitful of instances which prove the unlimited control of the imagination, when unduly excited, over not only the nervous system and physiology of man, but also, through the medium of the physical construction, over the mental faculties. The mind is as liable to transition as the body; and when the nerves, which serve as the medium through which the electric fire of thought is conveyed to the muscles and sinews of the body, are operated on by an over-wrought or distempered imagination, the effect of the mental aberration is visible throughout the whole frame; thus a sudden fear disturbs the healthy current of thought, paralyzes the nerves, destroys muscular action, and stops the flow of the blood; the heart ceases its pulsations, and, in some instances, the creature dies. Or it may be that, by the injury done to the physical machinery, the whole mind is rendered imbecile, or, rather, incapable of emitting its spirituality, and the person becomes, as we say, insane; the mind, the

*We speak of the phenomena themselves, without regard to the imposture and deceit that may readily be practised under cover of a science.

soul, remains, perhaps, as potent and brilliant as ever, but its efforts to develop itself or to receive impressions from without are perverted by the imperfect action of diseased nerves; the pure and graceful thoughts that it would convey are distorted into grotesque fancies, as objects are distorted when viewed through an imperfect glass; and we are sometimes prompted to smile at the strange sallies of the lunatic, even while we pity his condition. He is like a delicate musical instrument out of tune, possessing still within itself all the elements of a sweet harmony, yet, until it be tuned again, the most experienced performer can bring forth from it nothing but discord; and in the man we behold

"That noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy."

So with the insane from any cause; it is the physical medium, not the mind, that is diseased; and it is also through that medium, viz., the nervous system, that the electro-psychologist reaches the mind of his subject, and obtains a control over it. The power of mind is more forcibly developed in some than in others, and more capable of resisting false impression; hence some are more readily subject to the influence of other minds. The psychologist tests this power by placing the nerves of his subjects under a preliminary, but quiet restraint, and, if the imagination yields under this process, the subject is entirely under the control of the operator, or magician, as he was called in the ages of enchantment. How slender, then, is the thread of human intelligence!

An exhibition of what is called electropsychology, where one man causes another to imagine that he is solitary in a desert, or in a garden of flowers, or in a storm, while at the same moment he is well housed and in the midst of an audience of a thousand people; or leads him to believe that a cane is a serpent, or that he is not himself, is well calculated to affect the superstitious imagination even of a spectator, and prepare his nerves and his mind for a ready belief in

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »