All the comets and suns would go out in the sky! Christ would redeem us no longer; He would tear His bleeding hands away from the nails, and pitch the cross into the bottomless abyss. It falls! Listen! how this cross, the hope of millions, goes crashing and hurtling against the stars! Hark! it breaks! it flies asunder! the sky grows dark with the ruined fragments--they fall like hail, deeper, deeper--a wild storm surges from them--dreadful! The holy Mother of God alone continues to pray, and the faithful stars, her servants, which have not yet deserted her:--but she too will plunge where all created things are storming down, for God is mad--and Christ has thrown away His Cross! THE MAN. Mary, will you not come home with me to see our child? WIFE. I have given wings to our son, and dipped him under the waves of the sea, that he might take into his soul all that is beautiful, sublime, and terrible. He will return to you a poet, and you will rejoice in him. Ah me! ah me! THE MAN. Do you suffer, Mary? WIFE. Some one has hung up a lamp in my brain--and the light sways and flickers--I cannot bear it! THE MAN. My beloved Mary, be calm and tranquil, as you were wont to be! WIFE. Poets never live long. She faints. THE MAN. Help! Save her! Help! Several women rush in. THE WIFE OF THE PHYSICIAN. Pills--powders--no. She can swallow nothing solid; a fluid potion is the best. Margaret, run for the apothecary! Speaking to the Count. This is all your fault, and my husband will be very angry. WIFE. Henry, my Henry, farewell! THE WIFE OF THE PHYSICIAN. You are then the count! THE MAN. Mary! Mary! Takes her in his arms. WIFE. I am well--happy! I die near thee! Her head sinks upon his breast. THE WIFE OF THE PHYSICIAN. Her face grows crimson--the blood is rushing to her brain. THE MAN. Her pure heart breaks--nor love nor wrong can ever reach her more! O Mary! Mary! The Physician enters and approaches the sofa. PHYSICIAN. It is all over now: she is dead! SOUND REFLECTIONS. A TORCHER. What of the common lot of woman in the state hymeneal? Echo: High menial! BRIDAL. What does the world consider a proper tie? Echo: Property! THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. On Wednesday, the fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, the following resolution, which had already passed the Senate, was put upon its final passage in the House of Representatives as a joint resolution of Congress, to be proposed to the people of the United States for an amendment to the Constitution: 'SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 'SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.'