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POL
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR}
POETRY.
[For the Transeript.]
IL MISANTROPO.
Oh, there is darkness upon his brow, |
Like a storm-cloud thickly shading
The sun of that eye, once bright, but now,
Whose brilliancy fast is fading.
Ay ! o'er that brew, but of late so fair,
The demon of Gloom is stealing 5
Stern thought bath impressed his signet there,
His innermost work revealing.
It is not ume who hath dared assail,
With his all ‘effacing fingers,’
The sunken cheek, sv wan and pale,
(Though its hectic flush still lingers.)
Nor is it the with’ring touch of age
That his manly form hath wasted,
And blotted the hopes from life's broad page,
With which buoyant youth had graced it.
The spring-time of life is scarcely past,
Yet his step is slow and weary,
And his heart's best blood seems ebbing fast,
Aud his look is wild and dreary.
Batoh ! that eye bath its beauty lost,
And its brightness hath vanished away ;
And its dimness now is ever crossed
By phantoms in darkest array.
But that eye once shone in peerless hight,
With the fire of genius darting,
As the soul awoke in matchless might,
And the mind to life was starung.
Ay ' he was Genius’ most favored son,
When Youth's soft mantle hung o’er him,
When an endless thread of joy seemed spun,
And the world was bright before him
That deep working spirit—Gloom,hath brought
Such changes sad and appalling ;
And its minions Doubt and Fear have wrought
This direful work of their calling.
Then blame him not that he mourns and sighs
Nor charge with madness and folly ;
Nor rashly chide, and bid bim arise
From the depths of melancholy.
There is but One who can search the mind,
And fathom its deep recesses 5
Who can break the mystic pow'rs which bind
‘The soul in their sad caresses ;
Who knows wiiat may be that awful spell,
Which gloom o’er the heart oft flingeth ;
And ‘tis He alone, the charm can tell,
Release from that spell which bringeth.
LECTED TALE
From the Metropolitan Magazine.
THE BROKEN MINIATURE,
FOUNDED ON FACT,
Two young officers belonging to the same
regiment aspired to the hand of the. same
young lady. We will conceal their real names
under those of Albert and Horace. ‘Two
youths more noble never saw the untarnished
colors of their country wave over their heads,
or took more undaunted hearts into the field,
or purer forms, or more polished address, into
a drawing room,
Yet there was a marked difference in their
characters, and each wore his virtues so be-
comingly, and one of them at Jeast concealed
his vices so becomingly also, that the maiden
who saw them beth, was puzzled where to
give the preference 5 and stood, as it were,
between two flowers of very opposite colors
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO GENERAL IN TELLIGENC
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED AT THE OFFIVE, NO. 18, MIDDLE S' REET.
PORTLAND, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1839.
Horace, who was the superior officer, was more
commanding in bis figure than, but not so
beautiful in bis features as, Albert. Horace
s the more vivacious, but Albert spoke with
more eloquence upon all subjects. If Horace
made the more agreeable companion, Albert
made the better friend. Horace did not claim
the praise of being seutimental, nor Albert the
fame of being jovial.
Horace laughed the
most with less wit, and Albert was the most
witty with less laughter, Horace was the more
nobly born, yet Albert had the better fortune,
the mind that could acquire, and the circum-
spection that could preserve one.
Whom of the two did Matilda prefer? Yes
she had a secret, an undefined preference,
yet did her inclination walk so sisterly hand
in. hand with her duties, that her spotless
mind eould not divide them from each other.
She talked the more of Horace, yet thought
pirants had declared themselves.
Matilda’
He had his private and family reasons for
wishing Horace to be the favored lover; but,|
Sir Oliver,
as he “as by no means wished to lose to him-|
of aman of probity and of honor, he took al
delicate method of letting Albert understand |
his house, and all that belonged to, them, were
at his service. He excepted only his daugl-
ter. 3
When the,two soldiers called, as they were
in the habit of doing together, Sir Oliver bed
always some improvement to show Albert, |
him to try; and even in wet weather, there |
was never wanting amanuseript for him to)
decipher, so that he was sure to take bim out}
of the room, or out of the house and leave)
Horace alove with his daughter, uttering some
disparaging remark in a jocular tone, to the |
effect that Horace was fit only to dance at-
tendance upon the ladi Albert understood
all this, and submitted, He did not strive ta!
violate the rites of hospitality, to seduce the |
aficetions of the daughter, and outrage the)
feelings of the father, He was not one of those |
who would enter the temple of beauty, and |
under the pretence of worshipping at the |
shrine, to destroy it. |
A common-place lover might have done so, |
but Albert had no common-place mind, Bat
did he not suffer? O! that he suffered, aud
suffered acutely, his altered looks, his heroie|
siience, and at times his forced gaiety, too
plainly testified. He kept his flame in the in-
most recesses of his heart, like-a lamp in a
sepulchre, and which lighted up the ruin: of
his happiness alone.
To bis daughter Sir Oliver spoke more ex-
plicitly. Her affections had not been engag-
ed! and the slight preference that she began
to feel stealing into her heart for Albert had
its nature changed at once. When she found
that he could not approach her as a lover, she
found to spring up for him in her bosom a re-
gard as
sterly, and as ardent, as if the same
cradle had rocked them both. She felt, and
her father knew, that Albert was a character
that must be loved, if not as a husband, as a
brother. " :
The only point on which Matilda differed
cour
“Let us my dear father? she would entreat-
ingly say ‘be free, at least fur one year”? —|
Let
engagement: we are both young, mnyself ex-|laying
tren
longer probation upon her swain. Do but
ask
T
ough
of her sentiments, frightened him into a suspi-
cion
her
Affairs were at this crisis when Napoleon
retu
of war, from a thunder cloud, upon the pl
of France ; and all the warlike and the valor-
ous
breasts.
right hand, and the united force of Francejenough for,
the more of Albert, As yet, neither of the as-| pushed with him to battle. ;
a
father, soon put the matter to rest) Beiyium, » After many entreaties from her fa-
jther, Matilda at length con
j minature
expr
free.
blan
that every thing that he possessed, bis grounds, .
. . ture of
the posse:
stipulation, as an earnest of his happiness.
| He had the picture
ithe finest jewels, and constantly wore iton-hi
p
oops : Ty vith more freedom than the delicacy of his
some dog for him to admire, or some horse for) . . .
situation, with respect to Matilda, should hav
war
Albert made no complaint.
ved the merit of his rival eagerly, the more
,
ed
eagerly, as the rivalship w
scen
. . . . | ress stipulation, when it should be given to
self and to his daughter the valued friendship .
Horace, that they were still to hold themselves
E, ETC. —
RN —————
{PAYABLE LN ADVANCE
No; 42.
and perfumes, and yet each of equal beauty. | with her father, was, as to the degree of en-|now reading down slowly and silently the list
the dead and maimed.
« Can you,my dear girl,” he said tremulous-
ly “bear to hear very bad news?”
She could reply in no other way than by
her head upon her father’s shoulder,
sobbing out the alfost inaudable word “read,”
agement that ought to be given to Horaee. | of
us for that period,
and committed by no |
rely so. A’ peasant maiden would lay a
“Horace is mentioned as having been seen
early in the action badly wounded, and is
returned missing.” ’ ‘* Horrible!” exclaimed
the shuddering girl, and embraced her father
more closely.
« And our poor friend, Albert,is dangerous-
lywounded too” said the father.
Matilda made no reply, but as a mass of
rned from Elba, aud burst like the demon snow slips dowu from its supporting bank ~
silently, as pure, and almost as coli; Matil-
‘da fell from her father’s arms insensible upom
lhe floor. Sir Oliver was not. surprised, but
The returned hero lifted up bis red | much puzzled. He thought that she felt quite
her lover, but too much for her
Albert if Lam not in the right?”
he appeal that she made to Albert, which
yt to have assured her father of the purity
. . wo
ofa lurking affection having crept ito
bosom.
ains| as
arose and walled her in with their veteran
friend.
A few days after a Belgian officer was in+
troduced by a mutual friend, and was asked
to dine by Sir Oliver. As be had been pre+
sent atthe battle, Matilda would not permit
he régiment of our rivals was ordéred to
vented to sit for her
|
to an eminent artist; but upon the
father’s table.
Immediately she entered the room the offi-
cer started, and took every opportunity of ga~
The minature was finished, the resem-
ellent, and the exultation and rap-
Horace complete. He looked upon
ssion of it, notwithstanding Matilda’s self unobserved. At last he did so, so incaus
tiously, and in a manner so particular, that
set: most ostentatiously, in when the servants had withdrawn, Sir Oliver
y his|asked him if he had ever seen his daughter be-
for “9
‘
ce
e.
in and his enemies say, that he showed it
‘
: uredly not, but most assuredly her res
e|semblance,” said he, and he iminediately pro+
duced the minature that Herace had obtained
from his mistress.
The first impre:
Ss
ranted,
He acknowl- .
sion of both father and
ty, (daughter was, that Horace was no more, and
assuspected, ‘The \
- that the token had been intrusted to the hands
The action at Qua-| | 0 ,
| of the officer, by the dying lover ; but he quick-
e must pow change.
her griefto prevent her meeting him at her .
tre Bras has taken place. ‘The principal body |
of the British troops are at Brussels, and the}
news of the rapid advance of the French is|
lly undeceived them, by informing them that he
was lying desperately, but not dangerously
brought to Wellington 5 and the forces are, be-|
fore
is H
wounded ata farm house on the gpntinent, and
that in fact he had suffered sever amputation,
“Then in the name of all that ix honbrable
how came you by the miniature?” exclaimed
break of day moving forward. | But where
orace? ‘The column of troops to which he
belongs is on the line of march, but Albert, | 2°
. Olivers : . i
and not he, is at its head. The enemy are in Sir Olivers ‘0, he had Jost « to a notorious
sight. Glory’s sunbright face gleams in the
sharper, at a gaming house at Brussels on the
eve of the battle, which sharper offered it te
front, whilst dishonor and infamy scowl! in
the rear. The orders to charge are given, | me, as he said he supposed the gentleman from
7 : ars arge are ¢
and
about to join, the, foaming, jaded, breathless
cour
a last effort, and seems to have but enough
strer
A fa
leader.
T
the shout —the groan, and the volleying thun-
der of artillery, mingle in oue deafening roar.
The
—the whirlwind has p:
Albe
away from their wounds, and is drunk up by
the t
Bi
Waterloo, Matilda and Sir Oliver were alone
is| Whom he won it would never come to repay
the large sum of money for which it was left 1
pledge. Though [ had no personal knowledge
of Colotel Horace, vet, as I admired the
painting,
at the very moment that the battle
ser of Horace, strains forward as if with
, and saw that the jewels were worth
e than the rascal asked for them, pure
ed it, really with the hope of returning it
to its first proprietor, ifhe should feel any val-
ue for it, either as a family picture, or as some
pledge of affection ; but have not yet had aw
opportunity of meeting with him,”
What an insult! thought Sir Oliver. —
What an escape!” exclaimed Matilda whew
the officer had finished his relation, “ [nee
not svy that Sir Oliver immediately repurchas-
ed the picture, and that he bad no further
thoughts of marrying bis daughter to a game-
ster,
rider into bis station.
vgth to wheel with b
int huzza from the troop welcomed thei
mor
On, ye brave, on!
he edges of the battle join. ‘The scream—
smoke clears away — the ‘charge is over
Horace and
rtare both down, anid the blood wells
hirsty soil.
ita few days after the eventful battle of
in the drawing room, Sir Oliver had read to) «Talking of minatures,” resumed the offi-
his daughter, who was sitting 10 breathless |cer “a very extraordinary occurrence bas just
agitation, the details of the battle, and wasltaken places A minaquie bas uctually saved
zing upon her intently, when he thought hime:
g