Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 1 (of 2)Power, Tyrone
History
Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 1 (of 2)
Power, Tyrone
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
A family party, consisting of father, mother, son, two daughters, and
the betrothed of one of the latter, a fine girl of seventeen, arrived
in company at the "Retreat," where the parents decided upon remaining
whilst the rest of the company explored the more adventurous route
succeeding.
On went the young people in high glee,--the last fall was at length
achieved; here, after standing for a moment upon the table rock against
which the strength of the fall bursts, one by one the attentive lover
handed the merry girls up the dizzy step: he turned to offer to his
young betrothed the last and dearest act of gallantry, but the rock was
naked; the object of his care, who but the instant before smiled in his
face, was here no longer.
Not a soul of the party had witnessed any movement of their vanished
companion. Absorbed by the scene, they were struggling onward beneath
the overhanging cliff, when the arrival of the distracted lover, his mad
gesticulations and horror-stricken looks, recalled them to hear his loss
and aid his search.
For a few minutes the hope that she had turned back, or concealed
herself to cause a false alarm, held the worst conclusion at bay: but,
on reaching a little cove a few yards lower down, this hope was
crushed, and conviction of her fate placed before them; for here,
quietly floating on the smooth eddy, lay a gaily-trimmed bonnet. It was
at once recognised: the lover sprang into the river, snatched it up, and
found within its hollow the comb of her they sought.
She had, in truth, slipped from off that giddy ledge, and, sinking at
once below the influence of the whirlpool, lay calmly upon its rocky
bed.
Next day, after much perseverance, the body was found, and rescued from
beneath the very point off which she must have fallen; not a feature was
discomposed, as it is said, or a garment ruffled: to use the words of my
informant, who for thirty years has listened to the roar of this
torrent, "She looked just as though she had lain down to sleep in the
rain, where I saw her, stretched out upon the ledge here."
The details of this story were given to me with added interest by the
narrator, from the circumstance that, the very day previous, two of the
party alluded to had revisited the spot for the first time since the
chance which made it to them so memorable.
Our guide, I believe, related the particulars of one or two other
accidents; but after this I had ears for no more. That the young and
happy maid should in one moment be snatched from a world to her so
bright and beautiful, and engulphed down deep in that cold pool, her
brothers in her sight, her lover by her side, yet no hand held forth to
save her, was a picture too sorrowful to be shifted for any other. I
could not indeed forget it during the remainder of the day, and the rush
of the water no longer roused me to exertion. From this spot we turned,
and retraced our steps to the hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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