238 A FRAGMENT. 



On the dying bed to which sorrow brouglit her, she blessed you ; 

 and the unborn evidence of her shame, which went down to the 

 grave in its mother's womb, would have smiled on you ! but now 

 you must endure the burning curse of a widowed and a childless 

 parent; it shall wither you, and blast every joy that might await 

 ypu upon earth." 



" Woman, you cannot feel more acutely than I have felt ; your 

 curse has fallen bitterly upon me; at times life is so unsupport- 

 able that I would call upon death.'' 



*' You shall not die till you have felt a pang more bitter than any 

 which will pursue you in hell. Money ? — have I not begged 

 from door to door, and found my rest on the bare earth that 1 

 might pursue you and curse you { cannot I yet live on the pea- 

 sant's crust and the traveller's well, that I may follow you and 

 curse you more? you have wealth and you hope to encircle with 

 your poisonous arms a bride not more lovely nor more gentle than 

 she whom you ruined : but Retribution will have its due." 



'* Robert Derwent, you shall see me once more." 



* * * ♦ ' * * * 



- Hovv' beautifully that morning looked down on the earth, all 

 the verdure of its bosom responded with a fair smile and a voice 

 of gladness rose up from the fields into heaven. The Watersprite 

 stood close in shore with her white wings wooing the rising breeze ; 

 many smiling faces were near and many blessings fell from the 

 lips of the young and the good as Derwent stepped into the boat 

 with his dear Matilda — in a short time they were on board and 

 a sweet murmur of joyful sound came from the shore and swept 

 over the waters, was it a harbinger of felicity ? 



" Mignonne, my angel girl, in two sl»oit hours you will be mine 

 for ever." 



Matilda looked a reply, and rested her face in his bosom; it 

 was bathed in tears, but they were the tears of extacy and love. 



They spoke no more, thought was too busy to expend itself in 

 words ; the breeze freshened and now they were within a mile of 

 the lonely chapel wherein that tie was to be perpetuated which 

 Love had already interwoven. They passed within a cable's 

 length of the fine perpendicularly bold coast, and Derwent was 

 making some ob.servation on the singular contrast of barrenness 

 and beauty which it presented, when Matilda called his attention 

 to a strange female figure which stood erect on the summit of one 

 of the nearest and highest cliffs, the face of which rose like an 

 unbroken line from the surface of the water. 



A cold shudder passed through the frame of Derwent. 



"Starboard ! hard a stai board !" shouted the old man from the 

 bows of the vessel; " starboard I there's a rock right under our 

 fore foot." 



The manoeuvre was made too late. 



" Let go the main halliards, down jib, haul the foresail to 

 windward — God Dam me ! we 're on it." And in full career the 

 beautiful vessel rushed with a crash on the rock ; Matilda was 



