Secret History; or, the Horrors of St. Domingo: In a Series of Letters, Written by a Lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, Late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General Rochambeu — John Shaqi
Secret History; or, the Horrors of St. Domingo: In a Series of Letters, Written by a Lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, Late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General RochambeuSansay, Leonora
History
Secret History; or, the Horrors of St. Domingo: In a Series of Letters, Written by a Lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, Late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General Rochambeu
Sansay, Leonora
Haiti -- History -- Revolution, 1791-1804; Haiti -- Social life and customs
He addressed himself to her father, and this father was rich! He
lavished on his mistress all the comforts and elegancies of life,
yet refused to his family the scantiest pittance! He replied to the
proposal that his daughter might marry, but that it was impossible for
him to give her a shilling.
Clarissa heard the unfeeling sentence with calm despair. She had
just reached the age in which the affections of the heart develope
themselves. The beauty of her form was unequalled, and innocence,
candour, modesty, generosity, and heroism, were expressed with
ineffable grace in every attitude and every feature. Clarissa was
adored. Her lover was idolatrous. The woods, the dawning day, the
starry heavens, witnessed their mutual vows. The grass pressed by
her feet, the air she respired, the shade in which she reposed, were
consecrated by her presence.
Her mother marked, with pity, the progress of their mutual passion,
which she could not forbid, for her own heart was formed for
tenderness, nor could she sanction it, seeing no probability of its
being crowned with success. But the happiness of her daughter was her
only wish, and moved by her tears, her sighs, and the ardent prayers
of her lover, she at length consented to their union. They were
married and they were happy. But alas! a few days after their marriage
a fever seized Clarissa. The distracted husband flew to her father
who refused to send her the least assistance. She languished, and her
mother and her husband hung over her in all the bitterness of anguish.
The impossibility of paying a physician prevented their calling one,
till it was too late, and, ten days after she had become a wife, she
expired. I have held this disconsolate mother to my breast, my tears
have mingled with hers: all the ties that bound her to the world are
severed, and she wishes only for the moment that will put a period to
her existence, when she fondly hopes she may be again united to her
daughter. To the husband I have never uttered a word. His sorrow is
deep and gloomy. He avoids all conversation, and an attempt to console
him would be an insult on the sacredness of his grief. He has tasted
celestial joys. He has lost the object of his love, and henceforth the
earth is for him a desert.
For the brutal father there is no punishment. His conscience itself
inflicts none, for he expressed not the least regret when informed of
the fate of his daughter.
But when the story became known, the detestation his conduct excited
was so violent, that the friends of Madame C---- have caused her
to be separated from him, and obliged him to allow her a separate
maintenance. Unfortunately their interest has been exerted too late. A
few weeks sooner it might have saved her daughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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