Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American TaleMitchell, I. (Isaac)
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Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American Tale
Mitchell, I. (Isaac)
Gothic fiction; Love stories; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
"You are unhappy, Alonzo, said Beauman, in the death of your Melissa,
to which it is possible I have been undesignedly accessory. I could say
much on the subject, would my strength permit; but it is needless. She
is gone, and I must soon go also. She was sent to her uncle's at
Charleston, by her father, where I was soon to follow her. It was
supposed that thus widely removed from all access to your company, she
would yield to the persuasion of her friends to renounce you: her
unexpected death, however, frustrated every design of this nature, and
overwhelmed her father and family in inexpressible woe."
Here Beauman ceased. Alonzo found he wanted rest: he enquired whether he
was in want of any thing to render him more comfortable. Beauman replied
that he was not: "For the comforts of this life, said he, I have no
relish; medical aid is applied, but without effect." Alonzo then left
him, promising to call again in the morning.
When Alonzo called the next morning, he perceived an alarming alteration
in Beauman. His extremities were cold, a chilling, clammy sweat stood
upon his face, his respiration was short and interrupted, his pulse weak
and intermitting. He took the hand of Alonzo, and feebly pressing
it,--"I am dying, said he in a faint voice. If ever you return to
America, inform my friends of my fate." This Alonzo readily engaged to
do, and told him also that he would not leave him.
Beauman soon fell into a stupor; sensation became suspended; his eyes
rolled up and fixed. Sometimes a partial revival would take place, when
he would fall into incoherent muttering, calling on the names of his
deceased father, his mother and Melissa; his voice dying away in
imperfect moanings, till his lips continued to move without sound.
Towards night he lay silent, and only continued to breathe with
difficulty, till a slight convulsion gave the freed spirit to the
unknown regions of immaterial existence. Alonzo followed his remains to
the grave: a natural stone was placed at its head, on which Alonzo,
unobserved, carved the initials of the deceased's name, with the date of
his death, and left him to moulder with his native dust.
A few days after this event, Jack Brown informed Alonzo that he had
procured the means of his escape. "A person with whom I am acquainted,
said he, and whom I suppose to be a smuggler, has agreed to carry you to
France. There, by application to the American minister, you will be
enabled to get to your own country, if that is your object. About
midnight I will pilot you on board, and by to-morrow's sun you may be in
France."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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