Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
A singular story is told of Arnold's last moments, which if true (and
pray God it may be!) should be linked with the memory of his crime for
ever. It is said that he ordered to be brought from the garret of his
house the old Continental uniform and sword he had worn for the
last time on the memorable day of his escape from West Point. With
trembling hands he unfolded the coat, and, drawing it painfully over
his shoulders, sat lost in long and deep reflection: then, rousing
himself with a sigh, he drew the sword from its scabbard, and
clenching one hand upon the rich hilt, passed the other absently along
the blade; then with a wild look of regret in his fast-glazing eyes he
let the weapon drop from his grasp, his head sank upon his breast and
he remained motionless until he died, drawing each breath longer and
longer until all were spent. I love to think that he died with the
Continental coat upon his shoulders, nor was it again dishonored by
the contact: it even seems to have lent a ray of its own untarnished
lustre to brighten the last dark, remorseful hours of a ruined life.
K.T.T.
THE WATCH: AN OLD MAN'S STORY.
BY IVAN TOURGUENEFF.
I.
I will tell you my story about the watch. A singular story! The whole
thing at the very beginning of the century, in the year 1801. I was
just sixteen. I lived at Riasan with my father, aunt and cousin, in
a little wooden house not far from the banks of the Oka. I don't
remember my mother: she died when she had been only three years
married, and my father had no child but me. My father's name was
Porphyr Petrovitch: he was a quiet man with feeble health, who
occupied himself with managing law-business, and--in other ways. In
old times they used to call such people sowers of discord: he called
himself an attorney. His sister, my aunt, kept the house. She was an
old maid of fifty: my father had already left his fortieth year behind
him. She was a very pious woman. In fact, to tell the truth, she was a
great hypocrite, gossiping and meddlesome, and she did not have a kind
heart like my father. We were not poor, but we had no more than we
really needed. My father had also a brother, named Gregory, but he had
been accused of seditious actions and Jacobinical sentiments (so it
ran in the _ukase_), and he had been sent to Siberia in 1797.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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