538 



THE MALEDICTED. 



approach her in its delivery. I was yet weak, and I trembled for the 

 consequences of an interview, at which I knew tears, even of blood, 

 would be shed on either side. 



Whilst I thus hesitated betwixt duty to the dead and feelings of 

 regard for the living, I became apprized of a fact which determined me 

 to make the visit at every hazard. From the time of my illness, some 

 secret enemy had been most industrious in undermining my character in 

 the family of the Kennedy's, and so successfully had the * tale of fraud 

 been administered, that, by all but one, I was believed to have been 

 actually the seducer of young Kennedy into crime, if not wholly his 

 betrayer to punishment? Where was this species of persecution 

 to end? Oh! there is nothing so bitter in all the cup of human 

 calamity, as the lot of a young and generous heart bruised and tram- 

 pled in the dust of misrepresentation and ingratitude throbbing in 

 the pride of injured innocence, for rigid investigation, yet becoming 

 more and more inextricably entangled in the meshes of imposture and 

 dissimulation. What are the boasted barriers of innocence to the suc- 

 cessful aggression of inordinate villany ? With whom was I to plead 

 my cause ? The ear that would have listened to me was closed by the 

 cold earth! Was I to be eloquent in the presence of the weeping 

 mother, who already believed me the most abject the most faithless of 

 mankind? Catherine Kennedy, I knew, would spurn me, and Marian 

 would look at me with her tear-dimmed eyes, and weep yet more with a 

 newly awakened incentive to sorrow. 



With a heavy heart I proceeded to the demonstration of my inno- 

 cence. 



The daughters were sitting in deep mourning. On my approach, 

 Catherine rose and left the apartment with every mark of impatient 

 disdain. Marian did not attempt to stir ; she neither spoke nor looked. 

 I took her hand in mine; I looked stedfastly upon her pale but 

 beautiful countenance, and pronounced her name in a voice choking with 

 emotion. She fixed upon me a glance which shot like lightning through 

 my frame ; she saw I did not flinch, and she seemed about to speak. 



" Not to him ! not to that sycophant and seducer must Marian 

 Kennedy ever speak more. No ! in this family that task must now be 

 mine alone." 



I turned, and beheld the commanding form of my poor friend's mother. 

 She did not leave me a moment for explanation. " Double traitor," she 

 said, " traitor to your country and your friend ; what seek you here ? I 

 have no more sons, and my poor girls are beyond the pale of your 

 paltry machinations. Begone, sir ! Yet, before you go, bear with you 

 the bitterest curse of a bereaved a broken hearted mother !" 



I raised my hand in silent deprecation. 



" Wretch I" she said with ungovernable fury, " would you seek to stay 

 the thunder ! Oh ! may you be doubly cursed by bed and board ; in 

 the field or on the hearth ; in the hall or in the hovel ; on shipboard or 

 on shore. May the mother's curse mix with your dreams and haunt 

 your waking footsteps, till your heart be crushed and withered, like my 

 own ! May it cling to you and yours for ever ; to wife and child, and 

 every living wretch who shall dare to claim your alliance ; and, SHOULD 

 YOU MISS THE SCAFFOLD, may it fall with tenfold weight upon your 

 death-bed ! Come, my children, kneel down beside your miserable mo- 

 ther ! Clement Kennedy, thou art avenged \" 



She threw herself with frightful violence upon her knees, and strained 



