Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. IX.—February, 1851.—Vol. II.Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. IX.—February, 1851.—Vol. II.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Hitherto, amid all his own grief, Hume had appeared to feel deeply for
the bereaved father; but now he started from his side with a look of
horror and detestation; and wild were the words of reproach and
indignation that burst from his lips as he realized the truth, that the
being he had so deeply loved--whom still he loved, though now there was
between them the barrier of a fearful death--had fallen a victim to
Tryon's ambition--that it was no evil chance that had caused Willow Dell
to be the scene of such a tragedy, but the deliberate resolve of the
Kafir to regain possession of the valuable ivory and skins Tryon had
received as his recompense--when he remembered that had not that fatal
passion filled Tryon's heart, Kate and himself might have been among
earth's happiest; and that now he stood well nigh broken-hearted beside
the smoking ruin that was her grave. And in the anguish of those
thoughts he forgot that Tryon was yet more unhappy than himself, for he
had no self-reproach; and he poured forth upon him a flood of bitter
accusations, which the miserable man's conscience echoed to the
uttermost; nay, even more, for he mourned for all his children and the
wife of his youth, for whom he had procured a violent death.
But the violence of these self-upbraidings could not last; and ere the
sun again shone on the grave-ruin, Tryon, unconscious of all things, was
writhing in the agony of a brain fever. Walter Hume attended him as
though he were his son; for he saw in him for the time but the father of
the gentle girl to whom his love had proved so terrible. But when that
was once over (for Tryon did recover, as those to whom life is a burden
often will), Walter shrunk from him again, as one whose hand had fired
the mine that overthrew his happiness.
Nor did Tryon seek his companionship, but wandered away none knew
whither, a sad and solitary man, leaving his name and his story to haunt
the once fair spot which his evil passions blighted.
THE WOODSTREAM.
A FRAGMENT FROM THE GERMAN.
The pine had finished his story, uttering his last words in a low and
melancholy tone. A deep silence lay over the whole forest; the babble of
the Woodstream was the only sound which interrupted the solemnity, as it
touched the stones and the roots with continued strokes--the eternal
time-piece of the forest; and as it prattled, the pictures which its
surface reflected sometimes clearly glittered in the sunshine, sometimes
sadly wandered through the shadows of the trees and the clouds, while
the monotonous sounds began to assume the form of rational discourse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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