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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9248-0.txt b/9248-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b9bcf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/9248-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1413 @@ +Project Gutenberg’s Other Tales and Sketches, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Other Tales and Sketches + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9248] +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: December 15, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES + + + + +CONTENTS: + My Visit To Niagara + The Antique Ring + Graves And Goblins + + + +MY VISIT TO NIAGARA. + +Never did a pilgrim approach Niagara with deeper enthusiasm than mine. +I had lingered away from it, and wandered to other scenes, because my +treasury of anticipated enjoyments, comprising all the wonders of the +world, had nothing else so magnificent, and I was loath to exchange the +pleasures of hope for those of memory so soon. At length the day came. +The stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on the back seat, had +already left Lewiston, and in less than an hour would set us down in +Manchester. I began to listen for the roar of the cataract, and +trembled with a sensation like dread, as the moment drew nigh, when its +voice of ages must roll, for the first time, on my ear. The French +gentleman stretched himself from the window, and expressed loud +admiration, while, by a sudden impulse, I threw myself back and closed +my eyes. When the scene shut in, I was glad to think, that for me the +whole burst of Niagara was yet in futurity. We rolled on, and entered +the village of Manchester, bordering on the falls. + +I am quite ashamed of myself here. Not that I ran, like a madman to the +falls, and plunged into the thickest of the spray,--never stopping to +breathe, till breathing was impossible: not that I committed this, or +any other suitable extravagance. On the contrary, I alighted with +perfect decency and composure, gave my cloak to the black waiter, +pointed out my baggage, and inquired, not the nearest way to the +cataract, but about the dinner-hour. The interval was spent in +arranging my dress. Within the last fifteen minutes, my mind had grown +strangely benumbed, and my spirits apathetic, with a slight depression, +not decided enough to be termed sadness. My enthusiasm was in a +deathlike slumber. Without aspiring to immortality, as he did, I could +have imitated that English traveller, who turned back from the point +where he first heard the thunder of Niagara, after crossing the ocean to +behold it. Many a Western trader, by the by, has performed a similar +act of heroism with more heroic simplicity, deeming it no such wonderful +feat to dine at the hotel and resume his route to Buffalo or Lewiston, +while the cataract was roaring unseen. + +Such has often been my apathy, when objects, long sought, and earnestly +desired, were placed within my reach. After dinner--at which an +unwonted and perverse epicurism detained me longer than usual--I lighted +a cigar and paced the piazza, minutely attentive to the aspect and +business of a very ordinary village. Finally, with reluctant step, and +the feeling of an intruder, I walked towards Goat Island. At the +tollhouse, there were further excuses for delaying the inevitable +moment. My signature was required in a huge ledger, containing similar +records innumerable, many of which I read. The skin of a great +sturgeon, and other fishes, beasts, and reptiles; a collection of +minerals, such as lie in heaps near the falls; some Indian moccasins, +and other trifles, made of deer-skin and embroidered with beads; several +newspapers from Montreal, New York, and Boston;--all attracted me in +turn. Out of a number of twisted sticks, the manufacture of a Tuscarora +Indian, I selected one of curled maple, curiously convoluted, and +adorned with the carved images of a snake and a fish. Using this as my +pilgrim’s staff, I crossed the bridge. Above and below me were the +rapids, a river of impetuous snow, with here and there a dark rock amid +its whiteness, resisting all the physical fury, as any cold spirit did +the moral influences of the scene. On reaching Goat Island, which +separates the two great segments of the falls, I chose the right-hand +path, and followed it to the edge of the American cascade. There, while +the falling sheet was yet invisible, I saw the vapor that never +vanishes, and the Eternal Rainbow of Niagara. + +It was an afternoon of glorious sunshine, without a cloud, save those of +the cataracts. I gained an insulated rock, and beheld a broad sheet of +brilliant and unbroken foam, not shooting in a curved line from the top +of the precipice, but falling headlong down from height to depth. A +narrow stream diverged from the main branch, and hurried over the crag +by a channel of its own, leaving a little pine-clad island and a streak +of precipice, between itself and the larger sheet. Below arose the +mist, on which was painted a dazzling sun-bow with two concentric +shadows,--one, almost as perfect as the original brightness; and the +other, drawn faintly round the broken edge of the cloud. + +Still I had not half seen Niagara. Following the verge of the island, +the path led me to the Horseshoe, where the real, broad St. Lawrence, +rushing along on a level with its banks, pours its whole breadth over a +concave line of precipice, and thence pursues its course between lofty +crags towards Ontario. A sort of bridge, two or three feet wide, +stretches out along the edge of the descending sheet, and hangs upon the +rising mist, as if that were the foundation of the frail structure. +Here I stationed myself in the blast of wind, which the rushing river +bore along with it. The bridge was tremulous beneath me, and marked the +tremor of the solid earth. I looked along the whitening rapids, and +endeavored to distinguish a mass of water far above the falls, to follow +it to their verge, and go down with it, in fancy, to the abyss of clouds +and storm. Casting my eyes across the river, and every side, I took in +the whole scene at a glance, and tried to comprehend it in one vast +idea. After an hour thus spent, I left the bridge, and, by a staircase, +winding almost interminably round a post, descended to the base of the +precipice. From that point, my path lay over slippery stones, and among +great fragments of the cliff, to the edge of the cataract, where the +wind at once enveloped me in spray, and perhaps dashed the rainbow round +me. Were my long desires fulfilled? And had I seen Niagara? + +O that I had never heard of Niagara till I beheld it! Blessed were the +wanderers of old, who heard its deep roar, sounding through the woods, +as the summons to an unknown wonder, and approached its awful brink, in +all the freshness of native feeling. Had its own mysterious voice been +the first to warn me of its existence, then, indeed, I might have knelt +down and worshipped. But I had come thither, haunted with a vision of +foam and fury, and dizzy cliffs, and an ocean tumbling down out of the +sky,--a scene, in short, which nature had too much good taste and calm +simplicity to realize. My mind had struggled to adapt these false +conceptions to the reality, and finding the effort vain, a wretched +sense of disappointment weighed me down. I climbed the precipice, and +threw myself on the earth, feeling that I was unworthy to look at the +Great Falls, and careless about beholding them again. + +All that night, as there has been and will be, for ages past and to +come, a rushing sound was heard, as if a great tempest were sweeping +through the air. It mingled with my dreams, and made them full of storm +and whirlwind. Whenever I awoke, and heard this dread sound in the air, +and the windows rattling as with a mighty blast, I could not rest again, +till looking forth, I saw how bright the stars were, and that every leaf +in the garden was motionless. Never was a summer night more calm to the +eye, nor a gale of autumn louder to the ear. The rushing sound proceeds +from the rapids, and the rattling of the casements is but an effect of +the vibration of the whole house, shaken by the jar of the cataract. +The noise of the rapids draws the attention from the true voice of +Niagara, which is a dull, muffed thunder, resounding between the cliffs. +I spent a wakeful hour at midnight, in distinguishing its +reverberations, and rejoiced to find that my former awe and enthusiasm +were reviving. + +Gradually, and after much contemplation, I came to know, by my own +feelings, that Niagara is indeed a wonder of the world, and not the less +wonderful, because time and thought must be employed in comprehending +it. Casting aside all preconceived notions, and preparation to be +dire-struck or delighted, the beholder must stand beside it in the +simplicity of his heart, suffering the mighty scene to work its own +impression. Night after night, I dreamed of it, and was gladdened every +morning by the consciousness of a growing capacity to enjoy it. Yet I +will not pretend to the all-absorbing enthusiasm of some more fortunate +spectators, nor deny that very trifling causes would draw my eyes and +thoughts from the cataract. + +The last day that I was to spend at Niagara, before my departure for the +Far West, I sat upon the Table Rock. This celebrated station did not +now, as of old, project fifty feet beyond the line of the precipice, but +was shattered by the fall of an immense fragment, which lay distant on +the shore below. Still, on the utmost verge of the rock, with my feet +hanging over it, I felt as if suspended in the open air. Never before +had my mind been in such perfect unison with the scene. There were +intervals, when I was conscious of nothing but the great river, rolling +calmly into the abyss, rather descending than precipitating itself, and +acquiring tenfold majesty from its unhurried motion. It came like the +march of Destiny. It was not taken by surprise, but seemed to have +anticipated, in all its course through the broad lakes, that it must +pour their collected waters down this height. The perfect foam of the +river, after its descent, and the ever-varying shapes of mist, rising +up, to become clouds in the sky, would be the very picture of confusion, +were it merely transient, like the rage of a tempest. But when the +beholder has stood awhile, and perceives no lull in the storm, and +considers that the vapor and the foam are as everlasting as the rocks +which produce them, all this turmoil assumes a sort of calmness. It +soothes, while it awes the mind. + +Leaning over the cliff, I saw the guide conducting two adventurers +behind the falls. It was pleasant, from that high seat in the sunshine, +to observe them struggling against the eternal storm of the lower +regions, with heads bent down, now faltering, now pressing forward, and +finally swallowed up in their victory. After their disappearance, a +blast rushed out with an old hat, which it had swept from one of their +heads. The rock, to which they were directing their unseen course, is +marked, at a fearful distance on the exterior of the sheet, by a jet of +foam. The attempt to reach it appears both poetical and perilous to a +looker-on, but may be accomplished without much more difficulty or +hazard, than in stemming a violent northeaster. In a few moments, forth +came the children of the mist. Dripping and breathless, they crept +along the base of the cliff, ascended to the guide’s cottage, and +received, I presume, a certificate of their achievement, with three +verses of sublime poetry on the back. + +My contemplations were often interrupted by strangers, who came down +from Forsyth’s to take their first view of the falls. A short, ruddy, +middle-aged gentleman, fresh from Old England, peeped over the rock, and +evinced his approbation by a broad grin. His spouse, a very robust +lady, afforded a sweet example of maternal solicitude, being so intent +on the safety of her little boy that she did not even glance at Niagara. +As for the child, he gave himself wholly to the enjoyment of a stick of +candy. Another traveller, a native American, and no rare character +among us, produced a volume of Captain Hall’s tour, and labored +earnestly to adjust Niagara to the captain’s description, departing, at +last, without one new idea or sensation of his own. The next comer was +provided, not with a printed book, but with a blank sheet of foolscap, +from top to bottom of which, by means of an ever-pointed pencil, the +cataract was made to thunder. In a little talk, which we had together, +he awarded his approbation to the general view, but censured the +position of Goat Island, observing that it should have been thrown +farther to the right, so as to widen the American falls, and contract +those of the Horseshoe. Next appeared two traders of Michigan, who +declared, that, upon the whole, the sight was worth looking at, there +certainly was an immense water-power here; but that, after all, they +would go twice as far to see the noble stone-works of Lockport, where +the Grand Canal is locked down a descent of sixty feet. They were +succeeded by a young fellow, in a homespun cotton dress, with a staff in +his hand, and a pack over his shoulders. He advanced close to the edge +of the rock, where his attention, at first wavering among the different +components of the scene, finally became fixed in the angle of the Horse +shoe falls, which is, indeed, the central point of interest. His whole +soul seemed to go forth and be transported thither, till the staff +slipped from his relaxed grasp, and falling down--down--down--struck +upon the fragment of the Table Rock. + +In this manner I spent some hours, watching the varied impression, made +by the cataract, on those who disturbed me, and returning to unwearied +contemplation, when left alone. At length my time came to depart. +There is a grassy footpath, through the woods, along the summit of the +bank, to a point whence a causeway, hewn in the side of the precipice, +goes winding down to the Ferry, about half a mile below the Table Rock. +The sun was near setting, when I emerged from the shadow of the trees, +and began the descent. The indirectness of my downward road continually +changed the point of view, and showed me, in rich and repeated +succession, now, the whitening rapids and majestic leap of the main +river, which appeared more deeply massive as the light departed; now, +the lovelier picture, yet still sublime, of Goat Island, with its rocks +and grove, and the lesser falls, tumbling over the right bank of the St. +Lawrence, like a tributary stream; now, the long vista of the river, as +it eddied and whirled between the cliffs, to pass through Ontario toward +the sea, and everywhere to be wondered at, for this one unrivalled +scene. The golden sunshine tinged the sheet of the American cascade, +and painted on its heaving spray the broken semicircle of a rainbow, +heaven’s own beauty crowning earth’s sublimity. My steps were slow, and +I paused long at every turn of the descent, as one lingers and pauses, +who discerns a brighter and brightening excellence in what he must soon +behold no more. The solitude of the old wilderness now reigned over the +whole vicinity of the falls. My enjoyment became the more rapturous, +because no poet shared it, nor wretch devoid of poetry profaned it; but +the spot so famous through the world was all my own! + + + + + + +THE ANTIQUE RING. + +“Yes, indeed: the gem is as bright as a star, and curiously set,” said +Clara Pembertou, examining an antique ring, which her betrothed lover +had just presented to her, with a very pretty speech. “It needs only +one thing to make it perfect.” + +“And what is that?” asked Mr. Edward Caryl, secretly anxious for the +credit of his gift. “A modern setting, perhaps?” + +“O, no! That would destroy the charm at once,” replied Clara. “It +needs nothing but a story. I long to know how many times it has been +the pledge of faith between two lovers, and whether the vows, of which +it was the symbol, were always kept or often broken. Not that I should +be too scrupulous about facts. If you happen to be unacquainted with +its authentic history, so much the better. May it not have sparkled +upon a queen’s finger? Or who knows but it is the very ring which +Posthumus received from Imogen? In short, you must kindle your +imagination at the lustre of this diamond, and make a legend for it.” + +Now such a task--and doubtless Clara knew it--was the most acceptable +that could have been imposed on Edward Caryl. He was one of that +multitude of young gentlemen--limbs, or rather twigs of the law--whose +names appear in gilt letters on the front of Tudor’s Buildings, and +other places in the vicinity of the Court House, which seem to be the +haunt of the gentler as well as the severer Muses. Edward, in the +dearth of clients, was accustomed to employ his much leisure in +assisting the growth of American Literature, to which good cause he had +contributed not a few quires of the finest letter-paper, containing some +thought, some fancy, some depth of feeling, together with a young +writer’s abundance of conceits. Sonnets, stanzas of Tennysonian +sweetness, tales imbued with German mysticism, versions from Jean Paul, +criticisms of the old English poets, and essays smacking of Dialistic +philosophy, were among his multifarious productions. The editors of the +fashionable periodicals were familiar with his autograph, and inscribed +his name in those brilliant bead-rolls of ink-stained celebrity, which +illustrate the first page of their covers. Nor did fame withhold her +laurel. Hillard had included him among the lights of the New England +metropolis, in his Boston Book; Bryant had found room for some of his +stanzas, in the Selections from American Poetry; and Mr. Griswold, in +his recent assemblage of the sons and daughters of song, had introduced +Edward Caryl into the inner court of the temple, among his fourscore +choicest bards. There was a prospect, indeed, of his assuming a still +higher and more independent position. Interviews had been held with +Ticknor, and a correspondence with the Harpers, respecting a proposed +volume, chiefly to consist of Mr. Caryl’s fugitive pieces in the +Magazines, but to be accompanied with a poem of some length, never +before published. Not improbably, the public may yet be gratified with +this collection. + +Meanwhile, we sum up our sketch of Edward Caryl, by pronouncing him, +though somewhat of a carpet knight in literature, yet no unfavorable +specimen of a generation of rising writers, whose spirit is such that we +may reasonably expect creditable attempts from all, and good and +beautiful results from some. And, it will be observed, Edward was the +very man to write pretty legends, at a lady’s instance, for an +old-fashioned diamond ring. He took the jewel in his hand, and turned it +so as to catch its scintillating radiance, as if hoping, in accordance with +Clara’s suggestion, to light up his fancy with that starlike gleam. + +“Shall it be a ballad?--a tale in verse?” he inquired. “Enchanted +rings often glisten in old English poetry, I think something may be done +with the subject; but it is fitter for rhyme than prose.” + +“No, no,” said Miss Pemberton, “we will have no more rhyme than just +enough for a posy to the ring. You must tell the legend in simple +prose; and when it is finished, I will make a little party to hear it +read.” + +The young gentleman promised obedience; and going to his pillow, with +his head full of the familiar spirits that used to be worn in rings, +watches, and sword-hilts, he had the good fortune to possess himself of +an available idea in a dream. Connecting this with what he himself +chanced to know of the ring’s real history, his task was done. Clara +Pemberton invited a select few of her friends, all holding the stanchest +faith in Edward’s genius, and therefore the most genial auditors, if not +altogether the fairest critics, that a writer could possibly desire. +Blessed be woman for her faculty of admiration, and especially for her +tendency to admire with her heart, when man, at most, grants merely a +cold approval with his mind! + +Drawing his chair beneath the blaze of a solar lamp, Edward Caryl untied +a roll of glossy paper, and began as follows:-- + + +THE LEGEND + +After the death-warrant had been read to the Earl of Essex, and on the +evening before his appointed execution, the Countess of Shrewsbury paid +his lordship a visit, and found him, as it appeared, toying childishly +with a ring. The diamond, that enriched it, glittered like a little +star, but with a singular tinge of red. The gloomy prison-chamber in +the Tower, with its deep and narrow windows piercing the walls of stone, +was now all that the earl possessed of worldly prospect; so that there +was the less wonder that he should look steadfastly into the gem, and +moralize upon earth’s deceitful splendor, as men in darkness and ruin +seldom fail to do. But the shrewd observations of the countess,--an +artful and unprincipled woman,--the pretended friend of Essex, but who +had come to glut her revenge for a deed of scorn which he himself had +forgotten,--her keen eye detected a deeper interest attached to this +jewel. Even while expressing his gratitude for her remembrance of a +ruined favorite, and condemned criminal, the earl’s glance reverted to +the ring, as if all that remained of time and its affairs were collected +within that small golden circlet. + +“My dear lord,” observed the countess, “there is surely some matter of +great moment wherewith this ring is connected, since it, so absorbs your +mind. A token, it may be, of some fair lady’s love,--alas, poor lady, +once richest in possessing such a heart! Would you that the jewel be +returned to her?” + +“The queen! the queen! It was her Majesty’s own gift,” replied the +earl, still gazing into the depths of the gem. “She took it from her +finger, and told me, with a smile, that it was an heirloom from her +Tudor ancestors, and had once been the property of Merlin, the British +wizard, who gave it to the lady of his love. His art had made this +diamond the abiding-place of a spirit, which, though of fiendish nature, +was bound to work only good, so long as the ring was an unviolated +pledge of love and faith, both with the giver and receiver. But should +love prove false, and faith be broken, then the evil spirit would work +his own devilish will, until the ring were purified by becoming the +medium of some good and holy act, and again the pledge of faithful love. +The gem soon lost its virtue; for the wizard was murdered by the very +lady to whom he gave it.” + +“An idle legend!” said the countess. + +“It is so,” answered Essex, with a melancholy smile. “Yet the queen’s +favor, of which this ring was the symbol, has proved my ruin. When +death is nigh, men converse with dreams and shadows. I have been gazing +into the diamond, and fancying--but you will laugh at me--that I might +catch a glimpse of the evil spirit there. Do you observe this red +glow,--dusky, too, amid all the brightness? It is the token of his +presence; and even now, methinks, it grows redder and duskier, like an +angry sunset.” + +Nevertheless, the earl’s manner testified how slight was his credence in +the enchanted properties of the ring. But there is a kind of +playfulness that comes in moments of despair, when the reality of +misfortune, if entirely felt, would crush the soul at once. He now, for +a brief space, was lost in thought, while the countess contemplated him +with malignant satisfaction. + +“This ring,” he resumed, in another tone, “alone remains, of all that my +royal mistress’s favor lavished upon her servant. My fortune once shone +as brightly as the gem. And now, such a darkness has fallen around me, +methinks it would be no marvel if its gleam--the sole light of my +prison-house--were to be forthwith extinguished; inasmuch as my last +earthly hope depends upon it.” + +“How say you, my lord?” asked the Countess of Shrewsbury. “The stone +is bright; but there should be strange magic in it, if it can keep your +hopes alive, at this sad hour. Alas! these iron bars and ramparts of +the Tower are unlike to yield to such a spell.” + +Essex raised his head involuntarily; for there was something in the +countess’s tone that disturbed him, although he could not suspect that +an enemy had intruded upon the sacred privacy of a prisoner’s dungeon, +to exult over so dark a ruin of such once brilliant fortunes. He looked +her in the face, but saw nothing to awaken his distrust. It would have +required a keener eye than even Cecil’s to read the secret of a +countenance, which had been worn so long in the false light of a court, +that it was now little better than a mask, telling any story save the +true one. The condemned nobleman again bent over the ring, and +proceeded: + +“It once had power in it,--this bright gem,--the magic that appertains +to the talisman of a great queen’s favor. She bade me, if hereafter I +should fall into her disgrace,--how deep soever, and whatever might be +the crime,--to convey this jewel to her sight, and it should plead for +me. Doubtless, with her piercing judgment, she had even then detected +the rashness of my nature, and foreboded some such deed as has now +brought destruction upon my bead. And knowing, too, her own hereditary +rigor, she designed, it may be, that the memory of gentler and kindlier +hours should soften her heart in my behalf, when my need should be the +greatest. I have doubted,--I have distrusted,--yet who can tell, even +now, what happy influence this ring might have?” + +“You have delayed full long to show the ring, and plead her Majesty’s +gracious promise,” remarked the countess,--“your state being what it +is.” + +“True,” replied the earl: “but for my honor’s sake, I was loath to +entreat the queen’s mercy, while I might hope for life, at least, from +the justice of the laws. If, on a trial by my peers, I had been +acquitted of meditating violence against her sacred life, then would I +have fallen at her feet, and presenting the jewel, have prayed no other +favor than that my love and zeal should be put to the severest test. +But now--it were confessing too much--it were cringing too low--to beg +the miserable gift of life, on no other score than the tenderness which +her Majesty deems one to have forfeited!” + +“Yet it is your only hope,” said the countess. + +“And besides,” continued Essex, pursuing his own reflections, “of what +avail will be this token of womanly feeling, when, on the other hand, +are arrayed the all-prevailing motives of state policy, and the +artifices and intrigues of courtiers, to consummate my downfall? Will +Cecil or Raleigh suffer her heart to act for itself, even if the spirit +of her father were not in her? It is in vain to hope it.” + +But still Essex gazed at the ring with an absorbed attention, that +proved how much hope his sanguine temperament had concentrated here, +when there was none else for him in the wide world, save what lay in the +compass of that hoop of gold. The spark of brightness within the +diamond, which gleamed like an intenser than earthly fire, was the +memorial of his dazzling career. It had not paled with the waning +sunshine of his mistress’s favor; on the contrary, in spite of its +remarkable tinge of dusky red, he fancied that it never shone so +brightly. The glow of festal torches,--the blaze of perfumed +lamps,--bonfires that had been kindled for him, when he was the darling of +the people,--the splendor of the royal court, where he had been the +peculiar star,--all seemed to have collected their moral or material glory +into the gem, and to burn with a radiance caught from the future, as well +as gathered from the past. That radiance might break forth again. +Bursting from the diamond, into which it was now narrowed, it might been +first upon the gloomy walls of the Tower,--then wider, wider, wider,--till +all England, and the seas around her cliffs, should be gladdened +with the light. It was such an ecstasy as often ensues after long +depression, and has been supposed to precede the circumstances of +darkest fate that may befall mortal man. The earl pressed the ring to +his heart as if it were indeed a talisman, the habitation of a spirit, +as the queen had playfully assured him,--but a spirit of happier +influences than her legend spake of. + +“O, could I but make my way to her footstool!” cried he, waving his +hand aloft, while he paced the stone pavement of his prison-chamber with +an impetuous step. “I might kneel down, indeed, a ruined man, condemned +to the block, but how should I rise again? Once more the favorite of +Elizabeth!--England’s proudest noble!--with such prospects as ambition +never aimed at! Why have I tarried so long in this weary dungeon? The +ring has power to set me free! The palace wants me! Ho, jailer, unbar +the door!” + +But then occurred the recollection of the impossibility of obtaining an +interview with his fatally estranged mistress, and testing the influence +over her affections, which he still flattered himself with possessing. +Could he step beyond the limits of his prison, the world would be all +sunshine; but here was only gloom and death. + +“Alas!” said he, slowly and sadly, letting his head fall upon his hands. +“I die for the lack of one blessed word.” + +The Countess of Shrewsbury, herself forgotten amid the earl’s gorgeous +visions, had watched him with an aspect that could have betrayed nothing +to the most suspicious observer; unless that it was too calm for +humanity, while witnessing the flutterings, as it were, of a generous +heart in the death-agony. She now approached him. + +“My good lord,” she said, “what mean you to do?” + +“Nothing,--my deeds are done!” replied he, despondingly; “yet, had a +fallen favorite any friends, I would entreat one of them to lay this +ring at her Majesty’s feet; albeit with little hope, save that, +hereafter, it might remind her that poor Essex, once far too highly +favored, was at last too severely dealt with.” + +“I will be that friend,” said the countess. “There is no time to be +lost. Trust this precious ring with me. This very night the queen’s +eye shall rest upon it; nor shall the efficacy of my poor words be +wanting, to strengthen the impression which it will doubtless make.” + +The earl’s first impulse was to hold out the ring. But looking at the +countess, as she bent forward to receive it, he fancied that the red +glow of the gem tinged all her face, and gave it an ominous expression. +Many passages of past times recurred to his memory. A preternatural +insight, perchance caught from approaching death, threw its momentary +gleam, as from a meteor, all round his position. + +“Countess,” he said, “I know not wherefore I hesitate, being in a plight +so desperate, and having so little choice of friends. But have you +looked into your own heart? Can you perform this office with the +truth--the earnestness--time--zeal, even to tears, and agony of +spirit--wherewith the holy gift of human life should be pleaded for? Woe +be unto you, should you undertake this task, and deal towards me otherwise +than with utmost faith! For your own soul’s sake, and as you would have +peace at your death-hour, consider well in what spirit you receive this +ring!” + +The countess did not shrink. + +“My lord!--my good lord!” she exclaimed, “wrong not a woman’s heart by +these suspicious. You might choose another messenger; but who, save a +lady of her bedchamber, can obtain access to the queen at this untimely +hour? It is for your life,--for your life,--else I would not renew my +offer.” + +“Take the ring,” said the earl. + +“Believe that it shall be in the queen’s hands before the lapse of +another hour,” replied the countess, as she received this sacred trust +of life and death. “To-morrow morning look for the result of my +intercession.” + +She departed. Again the earl’s hopes rose high. Dreams visited his +slumber, not of the sable-decked scaffold in the Tower-yard, but of +canopies of state, obsequious courtiers, pomp, splendor, the smile of +the once more gracious queen, and a light beaming from the magic gem, +which illuminated his whole future. + +History records how foully the Countess of Shrewsbury betrayed the +trust, which Essex, in his utmost need, confided to her. She kept the +ring, and stood in the presence of Elizabeth, that night, without one +attempt to soften her stern hereditary temper in behalf of the former +favorite. The next day the earl’s noble head rolled upon the scaffold. +On her death-bed, tortured, at last, with a sense of the dreadful guilt +which she had taken upon her soul, the wicked countess sent for +Elizabeth, revealed the story of the ring, and besought forgiveness for +her treachery. But the queen, still obdurate, even while remorse for +past obduracy was tugging at her heart-strings, shook the dying woman in +her bed, as if struggling with death for the privilege of wreaking her +revenge and spite. The spirit of the countess passed away, to undergo +the justice, or receive the mercy, of a higher tribunal; and tradition +says, that the fatal ring was found upon her breast, where it had +imprinted a dark red circle, resembling the effect of the intensest +heat. The attendants, who prepared the body for burial, shuddered, +whispering one to another, that the ring must have derived its heat from +the glow of infernal fire. They left it on her breast, in the coffin, +and it went with that guilty woman to the tomb. + +Many years afterward, when the church, that contained the monuments of +the Shrewsbury family, was desecrated by Cromwell’s soldiers, they broke +open the ancestral vaults, and stole whatever was valuable from the +noble personages who reposed there. Merlin’s antique ring passed into +the possession of a stout sergeant of the Ironsides, who thus became +subject to the influences of the evil spirit that still kept his abode +within the gem’s enchanted depths. The sergeant was soon slain in +battle, thus transmitting the ring, though without any legal form of +testament, to a gay cavalier, who forthwith pawned it, and expended the +money in liquor, which speedily brought him to the grave. We next catch +the sparkle of the magic diamond at various epochs of the merry reign of +Charles the Second. But its sinister fortune still attended it. From +whatever hand this ring of portent came, and whatever finger it +encircled, ever it was the pledge of deceit between man and man, or man +and woman, of faithless vows, and unhallowed passion; and whether to +lords and ladies, or to village-maids,--for sometimes it found its way +so low,--still it brought nothing but sorrow and disgrace. No purifying +deed was done, to drive the fiend from his bright home in this little +star. Again, we hear of it at a later period, when Sir Robert Walpole +bestowed the ring, among far richer jewels, on the lady of a British +legislator, whose political honor he wished to undermine. Many a dismal +and unhappy tale might be wrought out of its other adventures. All this +while, its ominous tinge of dusky red had been deepening and darkening, +until, if laid upon white paper, it cast the mingled hue of night and +blood, strangely illuminated with scintillating light, in a circle round +about. But this peculiarity only made it the more valuable. + +Alas, the fatal ring! When shall its dark secret be discovered, and the +doom of ill, inherited from one possessor to another, be finally +revoked? + +The legend now crosses the Atlantic, and comes down to our own immediate +time. In a certain church of our city, not many evenings ago, there was +a contribution for a charitable object. A fervid preacher had poured +out his whole soul in a rich and tender discourse, which had at least +excited the tears, and perhaps the more effectual sympathy, of a +numerous audience. While the choristers sang sweetly, and the organ +poured forth its melodious thunder, the deacons passed up and down the +aisles, and along the galleries, presenting their mahogany boxes, in +which each person deposited whatever sum he deemed it safe to lend to +the Lord, in aid of human wretchedness. Charity became audible,--chink, +chink, chink,--as it fell, drop by drop, into the common receptacle. +There was a hum,--a stir,--the subdued bustle of people putting their +hands into their pockets; while, ever and anon, a vagrant coin fell upon +the floor, and rolled away, with long reverberation, into some +inscrutable corner. + +At length, all having been favored with an opportunity to be generous, +the two deacons placed their boxes on the communion-table, and thence, +at the conclusion of the services, removed them into the vestry. Here +these good old gentlemen sat down together, to reckon the accumulated +treasure. + +“Fie, fie, Brother Tilton,” said Deacon Trott, peeping into Deacon +Tilton’s box, “what a heap of copper you have picked up! Really, for an +old man, you must have had a heavy job to lug it along. Copper! +copper! copper! Do people expect to get admittance into heaven at the +price of a few coppers?” + +“Don’t wrong them, brother,” answered Deacon Tilton, a simple and kindly +old man. “Copper may do more for one person, than gold will for +another. In the galleries, where I present my box, we must not expect +such a harvest as you gather among the gentry in the broad aisle, and +all over the floor of the church. My people are chiefly poor mechanics +and laborers, sailors, seamstresses, and servant-maids, with a most +uncomfortable intermixture of roguish school-boys.” + +“Well, well,” said Deacon Trott; “but there is a great deal, Brother +Tilton, in the method of presenting a contribution-box. It is a knack +that comes by nature, or not at all.” + +They now proceeded to sum up the avails of the evening, beginning with +the receipts of Deacon Trott. In good sooth, that worthy personage had +reaped an abundant harvest, in which he prided himself no less, +apparently, than if every dollar had been contributed from his own +individual pocket. Had the good deacon been meditating a jaunt to +Texas, the treasures of the mahogany box might have sent him on his way +rejoicing. There were bank-notes, mostly, it is true, of the smallest +denominations in the giver’s pocket-book, yet making a goodly average +upon the whole. The most splendid contribution was a check for a +hundred dollars, bearing the name of a distinguished merchant, whose +liberality was duly celebrated in the newspapers of the next day. No +less than seven half-eagles, together with an English sovereign, +glittered amidst an indiscriminate heap of silver; the box being +polluted with nothing of the copper kind, except a single bright new +cent, wherewith a little boy had performed his first charitable act. + +“Very well! very well indeed!” said Deacon Trott, self-approvingly. +“A handsome evening’s work! And now, Brother Tilton, let’s see whether +you can match it.” Here was a sad contrast! They poured forth Deacon +Tilton’s treasure upon the table, and it really seemed as if the whole +copper coinage of the country, together with an amazing quantity of +shop-keeper’s tokens, and English and Irish half-pence, mostly of base +metal, had been congregated into the box. There was a very substantial +pencil-case, and the semblance of a shilling; but he latter proved to be +made of tin, and the former of German-silver. A gilded brass button was +doing duty as a gold coin, and a folded shopbill had assumed the +character of a bank-note. But Deacon Tilton’s feelings were much +revived by the aspect of another bank-note, new and crisp, adorned with +beautiful engravings, and stamped with the indubitable word, TWENTY, in +large black letters. Alas! it was a counterfeit. In short, the poor +old Deacon was no less unfortunate than those who trade with fairies, +and whose gains are sure to be transformed into dried leaves, pebbles, +and other valuables of that kind. + +“I believe the Evil One is in the box,” said he, with some vexation. + +“Well done, Deacon Tilton!” cried his Brother Trott, with a hearty +laugh. “You ought to have a statue in copper.” + +“Never mind, brother,” replied the good Deacon, recovering his temper. +“I’ll bestow ten dollars from my own pocket, and may heaven’s blessing +go along with it. But look! what do you call this?” + +Under the copper mountain, which it had cost them so much toil to +remove, lay an antique ring! It was enriched with a diamond, which, so +soon as it caught the light, began to twinkle and glimmer, emitting the +whitest and purest lustre that could possibly be conceived.--It was as +brilliant as if some magician had condensed the brightest star in heaven +into a compass fit to be set in a ring, for a lady’s delicate finger. + +“How is this?” said Deacon Trott, examining it carefully, in the +expectation of finding it as worthless as the rest of his colleague’s +treasure. “Why, upon my word, this seems to be a real diamond, and of +the purest water. Whence could it have come?” + +“Really, I cannot tell,” quoth Deacon Tilton, “for my spectacles were so +misty that all faces looked alike. But now I remember, there was a +flash of light came from the box, at one moment; but it seemed a dusky +red, instead of a pure white, like the sparkle of this gem. Well; the +ring will make up for the copper; but I wish the giver had thrown its +history into the box along with it.” + +It has been our good luck to recover a portion of that history. After +transmitting misfortune from one possessor to another, ever since the +days of British Merlin, the identical ring which Queen Elizabeth gave to +the Earl of Essex was finally thrown into the contribution-box of a New +England church. The two deacons deposited it in the glass case of a +fashionable jeweller, of whom it was purchased by the humble rehearser +of this legend, in the hope that it may be allowed to sparkle on a fair +lady’s finger. Purified from the foul fiend, so long its inhabitant, by +a deed of unostentatious charity, and now made the symbol of faithful +and devoted love, the gentle bosom of its new possessor need fear no +sorrow from its influence. + +Very pretty!--Beautiful!--How original!--How sweetly written!--What +nature!--What imagination!--What power!--What pathos!--What exquisite +humor!”--were the exclamations of Edward Caryl’s kind and generous +auditors, at the conclusion of the legend. + +“It is a pretty tale,” said Miss Pemberton, who, conscious that her +praise was to that of all others as a diamond to a pebble, was therefore +the less liberal in awarding it. “It is really a pretty tale, and very +proper for any of the Annuals. But, Edward, your moral does not satisfy +me. What thought did you embody in the ring?” + +“O Clara, this is too bad!” replied Edward, with a half-reproachful +smile. “You know that I can never separate the idea from the symbol in +which it manifests itself. However, we may suppose the Gem to be the +human heart, and the Evil Spirit to be Falsehood, which, in one guise or +another, is the fiend that causes all the sorrow and trouble in the +world. I beseech you to let this suffice.” + +“It shall,” said Clara, kindly. “And, believe me, whatever the world +may say of the story, I prize it far above the diamond which enkindled +your imagination.” + + + + + + +GRAVES AND GOBLINS. + +Now talk we of graves and goblins! Fit themes,--start not! gentle +reader,--fit for a ghost like me. Yes; though an earth-clogged fancy is +laboring with these conceptions, and an earthly hand will write them +down, for mortal eyes to read, still their essence flows from as airy a +ghost as ever basked in the pale starlight, at twelve o’clock. Judge +them not by the gross and heavy form in which they now appear. They may +be gross, indeed, with the earthly pollution contracted from the brain, +through which they pass; and heavy with the burden of mortal language, +that crushes all the finer intelligences of the soul. This is no fault +of mine. But should aught of ethereal spirit be perceptible, yet +scarcely so, glimmering along the dull train of words,--should a faint +perfume breathe from the mass of clay,--then, gentle reader, thank the +ghost, who thus embodies himself for your sake! Will you believe me, if +I say that all true and noble thoughts, and elevated imaginations, are +but partly the offspring of the intellect which seems to produce them? +Sprites, that were poets once, and are now all poetry, hover round the +dreaming bard, and become his inspiration; buried statesmen lend their +wisdom, gathered on earth and mellowed in the grave, to the historian; +and when the preacher rises nearest to the level of his mighty subject, +it is because the prophets of old days have communed with him. Who has +not been conscious of mysteries within his mind, mysteries of truth and +reality, which will not wear the chains of language? Mortal, then the +dead were with you! And thus shall the earth-dulled soul, whom I +inspire, be conscious of a misty brightness among his thoughts, and +strive to make it gleam upon the page,--but all in vain. Poor author! +How will he despise what he can grasp, for the sake of the dim glory +that eludes him! + +So talk we of graves and goblins. But, what have ghosts to do with +graves? Mortal man, wearing the dust which shall require a sepulchre, +might deem it more a home and resting-place than a spirit can, whose +earthly clod has returned to earth. Thus philosophers have reasoned. +Yet wiser they who adhere to the ancient sentiment, that a phantom +haunts and hallows the marble tomb or grassy hillock where its material +form was laid. Till purified from each stain of clay; till the passions +of the living world are all forgotten; till it have less brotherhood +with the wayfarers of earth, than with spirits that never wore +mortality,--the ghost must linger round the grave. O, it is a long and +dreary watch to some of us! + +Even in early childhood, I had selected a sweet spot, of shade and +glimmering sunshine, for my grave. It was no burial-ground, but a +secluded nook of virgin earth, where I used to sit, whole summer +afternoons, dreaming about life and death. My fancy ripened +prematurely, and taught me secrets which I could not otherwise have +known. I pictured the coming years,--they never came to me, indeed; but +I pictured them like life, and made this spot the scene of all that +should be brightest, in youth, manhood, and old age. There, in a little +while, it would be time for me to breathe the bashful and burning vows +of first-love; thither, after gathering fame abroad, I would return to +enjoy the loud plaudit of the world, a vast but unobtrusive sound, like +the booming of a distant sea; and thither, at the far-off close of life, +an aged man would come, to dream, as the boy was dreaming, and be as +happy in the past as lie was in futurity. Finally, when all should be +finished, in that spot so hallowed, in that soil so impregnated with the +most precious of my bliss, there was to be my grave. Methought it would +be the sweetest grave that ever a mortal frame reposed in, or an +ethereal spirit haunted. There, too, in future times, drawn thither by +the spell which I had breathed around the place, boyhood would sport and +dream, and youth would love, and manhood would enjoy, and age would +dream again, and my ghost would watch but never frighten them. Alas, +the vanity of mortal projects, even when they centre in the grave! I +died in my first youth, before I had been a lover; at a distance, also, +from the grave which fancy had dug for me; and they buried me in the +thronged cemetery of a town, where my marble slab stands unnoticed amid +a hundred others. And there are coffins on each side of mine! + +“Alas, poor ghost!” will the reader say. Yet I am a happy ghost enough, +and disposed to be contented with my grave, if the sexton will but let +it be my own, and bring no other dead man to dispute my title. Earth +has left few stains upon me, and it will be but a short time that I need +haunt the place. It is good to die in early youth. Had I lived out +threescore years and ten, or half of them, my spirit would have been so +earth-incrusted, that centuries might not have purified it for a better +home than the dark precincts of the grave. Meantime, there is good +choice of company amongst us. From twilight till near sunrise, we are +gliding to and fro, some in the graveyard, others miles away; and would +we speak with any friend, we do but knock against his tombstone, and +pronounce the name engraved on it: in an instant, there the shadow +stands! + +Some are ghosts of considerable antiquity. There is an old man, +hereabout; he never had a tombstone, and is often puzzled to distinguish +his own grave; but hereabouts he haunts, and long is doomed to haunt. +He was a miser in his lifetime, and buried a strong box of ill-gotten +gold, almost fresh from the mint, in the coinage of William and Mary. +Scarcely was it safe, when the sexton buried the old man and his secret +with him. I could point out the place where the treasure lies; it was +at the bottom of the miser’s garden; but a paved thoroughfare now passes +beside the spot, and the cornerstone of a market-house presses right +down upon it. Had the workmen dug six inches deeper, they would have +found the hoard. Now thither must this poor old miser go, whether in +starlight, moonshine, or pitch darkness, and brood above his worthless +treasure, recalling all the petty crimes by which he gained it. Not a +coin must he fail to reckon in his memory, nor forget a pennyworth of +the sin that made up the sum, though his agony is such as if the pieces +of gold, red-hot, were stamped into his naked soul. Often, while he is +in torment there, he hears the steps of living men, who love the dross +of earth as well as he did. May they never groan over their miserable +wealth like him! Night after night, for above a hundred years, hath he +done this penance, and still must he do it, till the iron box be brought +to light, and each separate coin be cleansed by grateful tears of a +widow or an orphan. My spirit sighs for his long vigil at the corner of +the market-house! + +There are ghosts whom I tremble to meet, and cannot think of without a +shudder. One has the guilt of blood upon him. The soul which he thrust +untimely forth has long since been summoned from our gloomy graveyard, +and dwells among the stars of heaven, too far and too high for even the +recollection of mortal anguish to ascend thither. Not so the murderer’s +ghost! It is his doom to spend all the hours of darkness in the spot +which he stained with innocent blood, and to feel the hot stream--hot as +when it first gushed upon his hand--incorporating itself with his +spiritual substance. Thus his horrible crime is ever fresh within him. +Two other wretches are condemned to walk arm in arm. They were guilty +lovers in their lives, and still, in death, must wear the guise of love, +though hatred and loathing have become their very nature and existence. +The pollution of their mutual sin remains with them, and makes their +souls sick continually. O, that I might forget all the dark shadows +which haunt about these graves! This passing thought of them has left a +stain, and will weigh me down among dust and sorrow, beyond the time +that my own transgressions would have kept me here. There is one shade +among us, whose high nature it is good to meditate upon. He lived a +patriot, and is a patriot still. Posterity has forgotten him. The +simple slab, of red freestone, that bore his name, was broken long ago, +and is now covered by the gradual accumulation of the soil. A tuft of +thistles is his only monument. This upright spirit came to his grave, +after a lengthened life, with so little stain of earth, that he might, +almost immediately, have trodden the pathway of the sky. But his strong +love of country chained him down, to share its vicissitudes of weal or +woe. With such deep yearning in his soul, he was unfit for heaven. +That noblest virtue has the effect of sin, and keeps his pure and lofty +spirit in a penance, which may not terminate till America be again a +wilderness. Not that there is no joy for the dead patriot. Can he fail +to experience it, while be contemplates the mighty and increasing power +of the land, which be protected in its infancy? No; there is much to +gladden him. But sometimes I dread to meet him, as he returns from the +bedchambers of rulers and politicians, after diving into their secret +motives, and searching out their aims. He looks round him with a stern +and awful sadness, and vanishes into his neglected grave. Let nothing +sordid or selfish defile your deeds or thoughts, ye great men of the +day, lest ye grieve the noble dead. + +Few ghosts take such an endearing interest as this, even in their own +private affairs. It made me rather sad, at first, to find how soon the +flame of love expires amid the chill damps of the tomb; so much the +sooner, the more fiercely it may have burned. Forget your dead +mistress, youth! She has already forgotten you. Maiden, cease to weep +for your buried lover! He will know nothing of your tears, nor value +them if he did. Yet it were blasphemy to say that true love is other +than immortal. It is an earthly passion, of which I speak, mingled with +little that is spiritual, and must therefore perish with the perishing +clay. When souls have loved, there is no falsehood or forgetfulness. +Maternal affection, too, is strong as adamant. There are mothers here, +among us, who might have been in heaven fifty years ago, if they could +forbear to cherish earthly joy and sorrow, reflected from the bosoms of +their children. Husbands and wives have a comfortable gift of oblivion, +especially when secure of the faith of their living halves. Jealousy, +it is true, will play the devil with a ghost, driving him to the bedside +of secondary wedlock, there to scowl, unseen, and gibber inaudible +remonstrances. Dead wives, however jealous in their lifetime, seldom +feel this posthumous torment so acutely. + +Many, many things, that appear most important while we walk the busy +street, lose all their interest the moment we are borne into the quiet +graveyard which borders it. For my own part, my spirit had not become +so mixed up with earthly existence, as to be now held in an unnatural +combination, or tortured much with retrospective cares. I still love my +parents and a younger sister, who remain among the living, and often +grieve me by their patient sorrow for the dead. Each separate tear of +theirs is an added weight upon my soul, and lengthens my stay among the +graves. As to other matters, it exceedingly rejoices me, that my +summons came before I had time to write a projected poem, which was +highly imaginative in conception, and could not have failed to give me a +triumphant rank in the choir of our native bards. Nothing is so much to +be deprecated as posthumous renown. It keeps the immortal spirit from +the proper bliss of his celestial state, and causes him to feed upon the +impure breath of mortal man, till sometimes he forgets that there are +starry realms above him. Few poets--infatuated that they are!--soar +upward while the least whisper of their name is heard on earth. On +Sabbath evenings, my sisters sit by the fireside, between our father and +mother, and repeat some hymns of mine, which they have often heard from +my own lips, ere the tremulous voice left them forever. Little do they +think, those dear ones, that the dead stands listening in the glimmer of +the firelight, and is almost gifted with a visible shape by the fond +intensity of their remembrance. + +Now shall the reader know a grief of the poor ghost that speaks to him; +a grief, but not a helpless one. Since I have dwelt among the graves, +they bore the corpse of a young maiden hither, and laid her in the old +ancestral vault, which is hollowed in the side of a grassy bank. It has +a door of stone, with rusty iron hinges, and above it, a rude sculpture +of the family arms, and inscriptions of all their names who have been +buried there, including sire and son, mother and daughter, of an ancient +colonial race. All of her lineage had gone before, and when the young +maiden followed, the portal was closed forever. The night after her +burial, when the other ghosts were flitting about their graves, forth +came the pale virgin’s shadow, with the rest, but knew not whither to +go, nor whom to haunt, so lonesome had she been on earth. She stood by +the ancient sepulchre, looking upward to the bright stars, as if she +would, even then, begin her flight. Her sadness made me sad. That +night and the next, I stood near her, in the moonshine, but dared not +speak, because she seemed purer than all the ghosts, and fitter to +converse with angels than with men. But the third bright eve, still +gazing upward to the glory of the heavens, she sighed, and said, “When +will my mother come for me?” Her low, sweet voice emboldened me to +speak, and she was kind and gentle, though so pure, and answered me +again. From that time, always at the ghostly hour, I sought the old +tomb of her fathers, and either found her standing by the door, or +knocked, and she appeared. Blessed creature, that she was; her chaste +spirit hallowed mine, and imparted such a celestial buoyancy, that I +longed to grasp her hand, and fly,--upward, aloft, aloft! I thought, +too, that she only lingered here, till my earthlier soul should be +purified for heaven. One night, when the stars threw down the light +that shadows love, I stole forth to the accustomed spot, and knocked, +with my airy fingers, at her door. She answered not. Again I knocked, +and breathed her name. Where was she? At once, the truth fell on my +miserable spirit, and crushed it to the earth, among dead men’s bones +and mouldering dust, groaning in cold and desolate agony. Her penance +was over! She had taken her trackless flight, and had found a home in +the purest radiance of the upper stars, leaving me to knock at the stone +portal of the darksome sepulchre. But I know--I know, that angels +hurried her away, or surely she would have whispered ere she fled! + +She is gone! How could the grave imprison that unspotted one! But her +pure, ethereal spirit will not quite forget me, nor soar too high in +bliss, till I ascend to join her. Soon, soon be that hour! I am weary +of the earth-damps; they burden me; they choke me! Already, I can float +in the moonshine; the faint starlight will almost bear up my footsteps; +the perfume of flowers, which grosser spirits love, is now too earthly a +luxury for me. Grave! Grave! thou art not my home. I must flit a +little longer in thy night gloom, and then be gone,--far from the dust +of the living and the dead,--far from the corruption that is around me, +but no more within! + +A few times, I have visited the chamber of one who walks, obscure and +lonely, on his mortal pilgrimage. He will leave not many living +friends, when he goes to join the dead, where his thoughts often stray, +and he might better be. I steal into his sleep, and play my part among +the figures of his dreams. I glide through the moonlight of his waking +fancy, and whisper conceptions, which, with a strange thrill of fear, he +writes down as his own. I stand beside him now, at midnight, telling +these dreamy truths with a voice so dream-like, that he mistakes them +for fictions of a brain too prone to such. Yet he glances behind him +and shivers, while the lamp burns pale. Farewell, dreamer,--waking or +sleeping! Your brightest dreams are fled; your mind grows too hard and +cold for a spiritual guest to enter; you are earthly, too, and have all +the sins of earth. The ghost will visit you no more. + +But where is the maiden, holy and pure, though wearing a form of clay, +that would have me bend over her pillow at midnight, and leave a +blessing there? With a silent invocation, let her summon me. Shrink +not, maiden, when I come! In life, I was a high-souled youth, +meditative, yet seldom sad, full of chaste fancies, and stainless from +all grosser sin. And now, ill death, I bring no loathsome smell of the +grave, nor ghostly terrors,--but gentle, and soothing, and sweetly +pensive influences. Perhaps, just fluttering for the skies, my visit +may hallow the wellsprings of thy thought, and make thee heavenly here +on earth. Then shall pure dreams and holy meditations bless thy life; +nor thy sainted spirit linger round the grave, but seek the upper stars, +and meet me there! + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s Other Tales and Sketches, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 9248-0.txt or 9248-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/4/9248/ + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Other Tales and Sketches + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9248] +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: December 15, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger and Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h4> + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES<br /> + </h4> + <h4> + TALES AND SKETCHES<br /> + </h4> + <h3> + By Nathaniel Hawthorne<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p class="noindent"> + CONTENTS:<br /> <a href="#niagara">My Visit To Niagara</a><br /> <a + href="#ring">The Antique Ring</a><br /> <a href="#graves">Graves And + Goblins</a><br /> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> <a name="niagara"></a> + </p> + <h3> + MY VISIT TO NIAGARA. + </h3> + <p> + Never did a pilgrim approach Niagara with deeper enthusiasm than mine. I + had lingered away from it, and wandered to other scenes, because my + treasury of anticipated enjoyments, comprising all the wonders of the + world, had nothing else so magnificent, and I was loath to exchange the + pleasures of hope for those of memory so soon. At length the day came. The + stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on the back seat, had already + left Lewiston, and in less than an hour would set us down in Manchester. I + began to listen for the roar of the cataract, and trembled with a + sensation like dread, as the moment drew nigh, when its voice of ages must + roll, for the first time, on my ear. The French gentleman stretched + himself from the window, and expressed loud admiration, while, by a sudden + impulse, I threw myself back and closed my eyes. When the scene shut in, I + was glad to think, that for me the whole burst of Niagara was yet in + futurity. We rolled on, and entered the village of Manchester, bordering + on the falls. + </p> + <p> + I am quite ashamed of myself here. Not that I ran, like a madman to the + falls, and plunged into the thickest of the spray,—never stopping to + breathe, till breathing was impossible: not that I committed this, or any + other suitable extravagance. On the contrary, I alighted with perfect + decency and composure, gave my cloak to the black waiter, pointed out my + baggage, and inquired, not the nearest way to the cataract, but about the + dinner-hour. The interval was spent in arranging my dress. Within the last + fifteen minutes, my mind had grown strangely benumbed, and my spirits + apathetic, with a slight depression, not decided enough to be termed + sadness. My enthusiasm was in a deathlike slumber. Without aspiring to + immortality, as he did, I could have imitated that English traveller, who + turned back from the point where he first heard the thunder of Niagara, + after crossing the ocean to behold it. Many a Western trader, by the by, + has performed a similar act of heroism with more heroic simplicity, + deeming it no such wonderful feat to dine at the hotel and resume his + route to Buffalo or Lewiston, while the cataract was roaring unseen. + </p> + <p> + Such has often been my apathy, when objects, long sought, and earnestly + desired, were placed within my reach. After dinner—at which an + unwonted and perverse epicurism detained me longer than usual—I + lighted a cigar and paced the piazza, minutely attentive to the aspect and + business of a very ordinary village. Finally, with reluctant step, and the + feeling of an intruder, I walked towards Goat Island. At the tollhouse, + there were further excuses for delaying the inevitable moment. My + signature was required in a huge ledger, containing similar records + innumerable, many of which I read. The skin of a great sturgeon, and other + fishes, beasts, and reptiles; a collection of minerals, such as lie in + heaps near the falls; some Indian moccasins, and other trifles, made of + deer-skin and embroidered with beads; several newspapers from Montreal, + New York, and Boston;—all attracted me in turn. Out of a number of + twisted sticks, the manufacture of a Tuscarora Indian, I selected one of + curled maple, curiously convoluted, and adorned with the carved images of + a snake and a fish. Using this as my pilgrim’s staff, I crossed the + bridge. Above and below me were the rapids, a river of impetuous snow, + with here and there a dark rock amid its whiteness, resisting all the + physical fury, as any cold spirit did the moral influences of the scene. + On reaching Goat Island, which separates the two great segments of the + falls, I chose the right-hand path, and followed it to the edge of the + American cascade. There, while the falling sheet was yet invisible, I saw + the vapor that never vanishes, and the Eternal Rainbow of Niagara. + </p> + <p> + It was an afternoon of glorious sunshine, without a cloud, save those of + the cataracts. I gained an insulated rock, and beheld a broad sheet of + brilliant and unbroken foam, not shooting in a curved line from the top of + the precipice, but falling headlong down from height to depth. A narrow + stream diverged from the main branch, and hurried over the crag by a + channel of its own, leaving a little pine-clad island and a streak of + precipice, between itself and the larger sheet. Below arose the mist, on + which was painted a dazzling sun-bow with two concentric shadows,—one, + almost as perfect as the original brightness; and the other, drawn faintly + round the broken edge of the cloud. + </p> + <p> + Still I had not half seen Niagara. Following the verge of the island, the + path led me to the Horseshoe, where the real, broad St. Lawrence, rushing + along on a level with its banks, pours its whole breadth over a concave + line of precipice, and thence pursues its course between lofty crags + towards Ontario. A sort of bridge, two or three feet wide, stretches out + along the edge of the descending sheet, and hangs upon the rising mist, as + if that were the foundation of the frail structure. Here I stationed + myself in the blast of wind, which the rushing river bore along with it. + The bridge was tremulous beneath me, and marked the tremor of the solid + earth. I looked along the whitening rapids, and endeavored to distinguish + a mass of water far above the falls, to follow it to their verge, and go + down with it, in fancy, to the abyss of clouds and storm. Casting my eyes + across the river, and every side, I took in the whole scene at a glance, + and tried to comprehend it in one vast idea. After an hour thus spent, I + left the bridge, and, by a staircase, winding almost interminably round a + post, descended to the base of the precipice. From that point, my path lay + over slippery stones, and among great fragments of the cliff, to the edge + of the cataract, where the wind at once enveloped me in spray, and perhaps + dashed the rainbow round me. Were my long desires fulfilled? And had I + seen Niagara? + </p> + <p> + O that I had never heard of Niagara till I beheld it! Blessed were the + wanderers of old, who heard its deep roar, sounding through the woods, as + the summons to an unknown wonder, and approached its awful brink, in all + the freshness of native feeling. Had its own mysterious voice been the + first to warn me of its existence, then, indeed, I might have knelt down + and worshipped. But I had come thither, haunted with a vision of foam and + fury, and dizzy cliffs, and an ocean tumbling down out of the sky,—a + scene, in short, which nature had too much good taste and calm simplicity + to realize. My mind had struggled to adapt these false conceptions to the + reality, and finding the effort vain, a wretched sense of disappointment + weighed me down. I climbed the precipice, and threw myself on the earth, + feeling that I was unworthy to look at the Great Falls, and careless about + beholding them again. + </p> + <p> + All that night, as there has been and will be, for ages past and to come, + a rushing sound was heard, as if a great tempest were sweeping through the + air. It mingled with my dreams, and made them full of storm and whirlwind. + Whenever I awoke, and heard this dread sound in the air, and the windows + rattling as with a mighty blast, I could not rest again, till looking + forth, I saw how bright the stars were, and that every leaf in the garden + was motionless. Never was a summer night more calm to the eye, nor a gale + of autumn louder to the ear. The rushing sound proceeds from the rapids, + and the rattling of the casements is but an effect of the vibration of the + whole house, shaken by the jar of the cataract. The noise of the rapids + draws the attention from the true voice of Niagara, which is a dull, + muffed thunder, resounding between the cliffs. I spent a wakeful hour at + midnight, in distinguishing its reverberations, and rejoiced to find that + my former awe and enthusiasm were reviving. + </p> + <p> + Gradually, and after much contemplation, I came to know, by my own + feelings, that Niagara is indeed a wonder of the world, and not the less + wonderful, because time and thought must be employed in comprehending it. + Casting aside all preconceived notions, and preparation to be dire-struck + or delighted, the beholder must stand beside it in the simplicity of his + heart, suffering the mighty scene to work its own impression. Night after + night, I dreamed of it, and was gladdened every morning by the + consciousness of a growing capacity to enjoy it. Yet I will not pretend to + the all-absorbing enthusiasm of some more fortunate spectators, nor deny + that very trifling causes would draw my eyes and thoughts from the + cataract. + </p> + <p> + The last day that I was to spend at Niagara, before my departure for the + Far West, I sat upon the Table Rock. This celebrated station did not now, + as of old, project fifty feet beyond the line of the precipice, but was + shattered by the fall of an immense fragment, which lay distant on the + shore below. Still, on the utmost verge of the rock, with my feet hanging + over it, I felt as if suspended in the open air. Never before had my mind + been in such perfect unison with the scene. There were intervals, when I + was conscious of nothing but the great river, rolling calmly into the + abyss, rather descending than precipitating itself, and acquiring tenfold + majesty from its unhurried motion. It came like the march of Destiny. It + was not taken by surprise, but seemed to have anticipated, in all its + course through the broad lakes, that it must pour their collected waters + down this height. The perfect foam of the river, after its descent, and + the ever-varying shapes of mist, rising up, to become clouds in the sky, + would be the very picture of confusion, were it merely transient, like the + rage of a tempest. But when the beholder has stood awhile, and perceives + no lull in the storm, and considers that the vapor and the foam are as + everlasting as the rocks which produce them, all this turmoil assumes a + sort of calmness. It soothes, while it awes the mind. + </p> + <p> + Leaning over the cliff, I saw the guide conducting two adventurers behind + the falls. It was pleasant, from that high seat in the sunshine, to + observe them struggling against the eternal storm of the lower regions, + with heads bent down, now faltering, now pressing forward, and finally + swallowed up in their victory. After their disappearance, a blast rushed + out with an old hat, which it had swept from one of their heads. The rock, + to which they were directing their unseen course, is marked, at a fearful + distance on the exterior of the sheet, by a jet of foam. The attempt to + reach it appears both poetical and perilous to a looker-on, but may be + accomplished without much more difficulty or hazard, than in stemming a + violent northeaster. In a few moments, forth came the children of the + mist. Dripping and breathless, they crept along the base of the cliff, + ascended to the guide’s cottage, and received, I presume, a certificate of + their achievement, with three verses of sublime poetry on the back. + </p> + <p> + My contemplations were often interrupted by strangers, who came down from + Forsyth’s to take their first view of the falls. A short, ruddy, + middle-aged gentleman, fresh from Old England, peeped over the rock, and + evinced his approbation by a broad grin. His spouse, a very robust lady, + afforded a sweet example of maternal solicitude, being so intent on the + safety of her little boy that she did not even glance at Niagara. As for + the child, he gave himself wholly to the enjoyment of a stick of candy. + Another traveller, a native American, and no rare character among us, + produced a volume of Captain Hall’s tour, and labored earnestly to adjust + Niagara to the captain’s description, departing, at last, without one new + idea or sensation of his own. The next comer was provided, not with a + printed book, but with a blank sheet of foolscap, from top to bottom of + which, by means of an ever-pointed pencil, the cataract was made to + thunder. In a little talk, which we had together, he awarded his + approbation to the general view, but censured the position of Goat Island, + observing that it should have been thrown farther to the right, so as to + widen the American falls, and contract those of the Horseshoe. Next + appeared two traders of Michigan, who declared, that, upon the whole, the + sight was worth looking at, there certainly was an immense water-power + here; but that, after all, they would go twice as far to see the noble + stone-works of Lockport, where the Grand Canal is locked down a descent of + sixty feet. They were succeeded by a young fellow, in a homespun cotton + dress, with a staff in his hand, and a pack over his shoulders. He + advanced close to the edge of the rock, where his attention, at first + wavering among the different components of the scene, finally became fixed + in the angle of the Horse shoe falls, which is, indeed, the central point + of interest. His whole soul seemed to go forth and be transported thither, + till the staff slipped from his relaxed grasp, and falling down—down—down—struck + upon the fragment of the Table Rock. + </p> + <p> + In this manner I spent some hours, watching the varied impression, made by + the cataract, on those who disturbed me, and returning to unwearied + contemplation, when left alone. At length my time came to depart. There is + a grassy footpath, through the woods, along the summit of the bank, to a + point whence a causeway, hewn in the side of the precipice, goes winding + down to the Ferry, about half a mile below the Table Rock. The sun was + near setting, when I emerged from the shadow of the trees, and began the + descent. The indirectness of my downward road continually changed the + point of view, and showed me, in rich and repeated succession, now, the + whitening rapids and majestic leap of the main river, which appeared more + deeply massive as the light departed; now, the lovelier picture, yet still + sublime, of Goat Island, with its rocks and grove, and the lesser falls, + tumbling over the right bank of the St. Lawrence, like a tributary stream; + now, the long vista of the river, as it eddied and whirled between the + cliffs, to pass through Ontario toward the sea, and everywhere to be + wondered at, for this one unrivalled scene. The golden sunshine tinged the + sheet of the American cascade, and painted on its heaving spray the broken + semicircle of a rainbow, heaven’s own beauty crowning earth’s sublimity. + My steps were slow, and I paused long at every turn of the descent, as one + lingers and pauses, who discerns a brighter and brightening excellence in + what he must soon behold no more. The solitude of the old wilderness now + reigned over the whole vicinity of the falls. My enjoyment became the more + rapturous, because no poet shared it, nor wretch devoid of poetry profaned + it; but the spot so famous through the world was all my own! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> <a name="ring"></a> + </p> + <h3> + THE ANTIQUE RING. + </h3> + <p> + “Yes, indeed: the gem is as bright as a star, and curiously set,” said + Clara Pembertou, examining an antique ring, which her betrothed lover had + just presented to her, with a very pretty speech. “It needs only one thing + to make it perfect.” + </p> + <p> + “And what is that?” asked Mr. Edward Caryl, secretly anxious for the + credit of his gift. “A modern setting, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “O, no! That would destroy the charm at once,” replied Clara. “It needs + nothing but a story. I long to know how many times it has been the pledge + of faith between two lovers, and whether the vows, of which it was the + symbol, were always kept or often broken. Not that I should be too + scrupulous about facts. If you happen to be unacquainted with its + authentic history, so much the better. May it not have sparkled upon a + queen’s finger? Or who knows but it is the very ring which Posthumus + received from Imogen? In short, you must kindle your imagination at the + lustre of this diamond, and make a legend for it.” + </p> + <p> + Now such a task—and doubtless Clara knew it—was the most + acceptable that could have been imposed on Edward Caryl. He was one of + that multitude of young gentlemen—limbs, or rather twigs of the law—whose + names appear in gilt letters on the front of Tudor’s Buildings, and other + places in the vicinity of the Court House, which seem to be the haunt of + the gentler as well as the severer Muses. Edward, in the dearth of + clients, was accustomed to employ his much leisure in assisting the growth + of American Literature, to which good cause he had contributed not a few + quires of the finest letter-paper, containing some thought, some fancy, + some depth of feeling, together with a young writer’s abundance of + conceits. Sonnets, stanzas of Tennysonian sweetness, tales imbued with + German mysticism, versions from Jean Paul, criticisms of the old English + poets, and essays smacking of Dialistic philosophy, were among his + multifarious productions. The editors of the fashionable periodicals were + familiar with his autograph, and inscribed his name in those brilliant + bead-rolls of ink-stained celebrity, which illustrate the first page of + their covers. Nor did fame withhold her laurel. Hillard had included him + among the lights of the New England metropolis, in his Boston Book; Bryant + had found room for some of his stanzas, in the Selections from American + Poetry; and Mr. Griswold, in his recent assemblage of the sons and + daughters of song, had introduced Edward Caryl into the inner court of the + temple, among his fourscore choicest bards. There was a prospect, indeed, + of his assuming a still higher and more independent position. Interviews + had been held with Ticknor, and a correspondence with the Harpers, + respecting a proposed volume, chiefly to consist of Mr. Caryl’s fugitive + pieces in the Magazines, but to be accompanied with a poem of some length, + never before published. Not improbably, the public may yet be gratified + with this collection. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, we sum up our sketch of Edward Caryl, by pronouncing him, + though somewhat of a carpet knight in literature, yet no unfavorable + specimen of a generation of rising writers, whose spirit is such that we + may reasonably expect creditable attempts from all, and good and beautiful + results from some. And, it will be observed, Edward was the very man to + write pretty legends, at a lady’s instance, for an old-fashioned diamond + ring. He took the jewel in his hand, and turned it so as to catch its + scintillating radiance, as if hoping, in accordance with Clara’s + suggestion, to light up his fancy with that starlike gleam. + </p> + <p> + “Shall it be a ballad?—a tale in verse?” he inquired. “Enchanted + rings often glisten in old English poetry, I think something may be done + with the subject; but it is fitter for rhyme than prose.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” said Miss Pemberton, “we will have no more rhyme than just + enough for a posy to the ring. You must tell the legend in simple prose; + and when it is finished, I will make a little party to hear it read.” + </p> + <p> + The young gentleman promised obedience; and going to his pillow, with his + head full of the familiar spirits that used to be worn in rings, watches, + and sword-hilts, he had the good fortune to possess himself of an + available idea in a dream. Connecting this with what he himself chanced to + know of the ring’s real history, his task was done. Clara Pemberton + invited a select few of her friends, all holding the stanchest faith in + Edward’s genius, and therefore the most genial auditors, if not altogether + the fairest critics, that a writer could possibly desire. Blessed be woman + for her faculty of admiration, and especially for her tendency to admire + with her heart, when man, at most, grants merely a cold approval with his + mind! + </p> + <p> + Drawing his chair beneath the blaze of a solar lamp, Edward Caryl untied a + roll of glossy paper, and began as follows:— + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <h4> + THE LEGEND + </h4> + <p> + After the death-warrant had been read to the Earl of Essex, and on the + evening before his appointed execution, the Countess of Shrewsbury paid + his lordship a visit, and found him, as it appeared, toying childishly + with a ring. The diamond, that enriched it, glittered like a little star, + but with a singular tinge of red. The gloomy prison-chamber in the Tower, + with its deep and narrow windows piercing the walls of stone, was now all + that the earl possessed of worldly prospect; so that there was the less + wonder that he should look steadfastly into the gem, and moralize upon + earth’s deceitful splendor, as men in darkness and ruin seldom fail to do. + But the shrewd observations of the countess,—an artful and + unprincipled woman,—the pretended friend of Essex, but who had come + to glut her revenge for a deed of scorn which he himself had forgotten,—her + keen eye detected a deeper interest attached to this jewel. Even while + expressing his gratitude for her remembrance of a ruined favorite, and + condemned criminal, the earl’s glance reverted to the ring, as if all that + remained of time and its affairs were collected within that small golden + circlet. + </p> + <p> + “My dear lord,” observed the countess, “there is surely some matter of + great moment wherewith this ring is connected, since it, so absorbs your + mind. A token, it may be, of some fair lady’s love,—alas, poor lady, + once richest in possessing such a heart! Would you that the jewel be + returned to her?” + </p> + <p> + “The queen! the queen! It was her Majesty’s own gift,” replied the earl, + still gazing into the depths of the gem. “She took it from her finger, and + told me, with a smile, that it was an heirloom from her Tudor ancestors, + and had once been the property of Merlin, the British wizard, who gave it + to the lady of his love. His art had made this diamond the abiding-place + of a spirit, which, though of fiendish nature, was bound to work only + good, so long as the ring was an unviolated pledge of love and faith, both + with the giver and receiver. But should love prove false, and faith be + broken, then the evil spirit would work his own devilish will, until the + ring were purified by becoming the medium of some good and holy act, and + again the pledge of faithful love. The gem soon lost its virtue; for the + wizard was murdered by the very lady to whom he gave it.” + </p> + <p> + “An idle legend!” said the countess. + </p> + <p> + “It is so,” answered Essex, with a melancholy smile. “Yet the queen’s + favor, of which this ring was the symbol, has proved my ruin. When death + is nigh, men converse with dreams and shadows. I have been gazing into the + diamond, and fancying—but you will laugh at me—that I might + catch a glimpse of the evil spirit there. Do you observe this red glow,—dusky, + too, amid all the brightness? It is the token of his presence; and even + now, methinks, it grows redder and duskier, like an angry sunset.” + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the earl’s manner testified how slight was his credence in + the enchanted properties of the ring. But there is a kind of playfulness + that comes in moments of despair, when the reality of misfortune, if + entirely felt, would crush the soul at once. He now, for a brief space, + was lost in thought, while the countess contemplated him with malignant + satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + “This ring,” he resumed, in another tone, “alone remains, of all that my + royal mistress’s favor lavished upon her servant. My fortune once shone as + brightly as the gem. And now, such a darkness has fallen around me, + methinks it would be no marvel if its gleam—the sole light of my + prison-house—were to be forthwith extinguished; inasmuch as my last + earthly hope depends upon it.” + </p> + <p> + “How say you, my lord?” asked the Countess of Shrewsbury. “The stone is + bright; but there should be strange magic in it, if it can keep your hopes + alive, at this sad hour. Alas! these iron bars and ramparts of the Tower + are unlike to yield to such a spell.” + </p> + <p> + Essex raised his head involuntarily; for there was something in the + countess’s tone that disturbed him, although he could not suspect that an + enemy had intruded upon the sacred privacy of a prisoner’s dungeon, to + exult over so dark a ruin of such once brilliant fortunes. He looked her + in the face, but saw nothing to awaken his distrust. It would have + required a keener eye than even Cecil’s to read the secret of a + countenance, which had been worn so long in the false light of a court, + that it was now little better than a mask, telling any story save the true + one. The condemned nobleman again bent over the ring, and proceeded: + </p> + <p> + “It once had power in it,—this bright gem,—the magic that + appertains to the talisman of a great queen’s favor. She bade me, if + hereafter I should fall into her disgrace,—how deep soever, and + whatever might be the crime,—to convey this jewel to her sight, and + it should plead for me. Doubtless, with her piercing judgment, she had + even then detected the rashness of my nature, and foreboded some such deed + as has now brought destruction upon my bead. And knowing, too, her own + hereditary rigor, she designed, it may be, that the memory of gentler and + kindlier hours should soften her heart in my behalf, when my need should + be the greatest. I have doubted,—I have distrusted,—yet who + can tell, even now, what happy influence this ring might have?” + </p> + <p> + “You have delayed full long to show the ring, and plead her Majesty’s + gracious promise,” remarked the countess,—“your state being what it + is.” + </p> + <p> + “True,” replied the earl: “but for my honor’s sake, I was loath to entreat + the queen’s mercy, while I might hope for life, at least, from the justice + of the laws. If, on a trial by my peers, I had been acquitted of + meditating violence against her sacred life, then would I have fallen at + her feet, and presenting the jewel, have prayed no other favor than that + my love and zeal should be put to the severest test. But now—it were + confessing too much—it were cringing too low—to beg the + miserable gift of life, on no other score than the tenderness which her + Majesty deems one to have forfeited!” + </p> + <p> + “Yet it is your only hope,” said the countess. + </p> + <p> + “And besides,” continued Essex, pursuing his own reflections, “of what + avail will be this token of womanly feeling, when, on the other hand, are + arrayed the all-prevailing motives of state policy, and the artifices and + intrigues of courtiers, to consummate my downfall? Will Cecil or Raleigh + suffer her heart to act for itself, even if the spirit of her father were + not in her? It is in vain to hope it.” + </p> + <p> + But still Essex gazed at the ring with an absorbed attention, that proved + how much hope his sanguine temperament had concentrated here, when there + was none else for him in the wide world, save what lay in the compass of + that hoop of gold. The spark of brightness within the diamond, which + gleamed like an intenser than earthly fire, was the memorial of his + dazzling career. It had not paled with the waning sunshine of his + mistress’s favor; on the contrary, in spite of its remarkable tinge of + dusky red, he fancied that it never shone so brightly. The glow of festal + torches,—the blaze of perfumed lamps,—bonfires that had been + kindled for him, when he was the darling of the people,—the splendor + of the royal court, where he had been the peculiar star,—all seemed + to have collected their moral or material glory into the gem, and to burn + with a radiance caught from the future, as well as gathered from the past. + That radiance might break forth again. Bursting from the diamond, into + which it was now narrowed, it might been first upon the gloomy walls of + the Tower,—then wider, wider, wider,—till all England, and the + seas around her cliffs, should be gladdened with the light. It was such an + ecstasy as often ensues after long depression, and has been supposed to + precede the circumstances of darkest fate that may befall mortal man. The + earl pressed the ring to his heart as if it were indeed a talisman, the + habitation of a spirit, as the queen had playfully assured him,—but + a spirit of happier influences than her legend spake of. + </p> + <p> + “O, could I but make my way to her footstool!” cried he, waving his hand + aloft, while he paced the stone pavement of his prison-chamber with an + impetuous step. “I might kneel down, indeed, a ruined man, condemned to + the block, but how should I rise again? Once more the favorite of + Elizabeth!—England’s proudest noble!—with such prospects as + ambition never aimed at! Why have I tarried so long in this weary dungeon? + The ring has power to set me free! The palace wants me! Ho, jailer, unbar + the door!” + </p> + <p> + But then occurred the recollection of the impossibility of obtaining an + interview with his fatally estranged mistress, and testing the influence + over her affections, which he still flattered himself with possessing. + Could he step beyond the limits of his prison, the world would be all + sunshine; but here was only gloom and death. + </p> + <p> + “Alas!” said he, slowly and sadly, letting his head fall upon his hands. + “I die for the lack of one blessed word.” + </p> + <p> + The Countess of Shrewsbury, herself forgotten amid the earl’s gorgeous + visions, had watched him with an aspect that could have betrayed nothing + to the most suspicious observer; unless that it was too calm for humanity, + while witnessing the flutterings, as it were, of a generous heart in the + death-agony. She now approached him. + </p> + <p> + “My good lord,” she said, “what mean you to do?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing,—my deeds are done!” replied he, despondingly; “yet, had a + fallen favorite any friends, I would entreat one of them to lay this ring + at her Majesty’s feet; albeit with little hope, save that, hereafter, it + might remind her that poor Essex, once far too highly favored, was at last + too severely dealt with.” + </p> + <p> + “I will be that friend,” said the countess. “There is no time to be lost. + Trust this precious ring with me. This very night the queen’s eye shall + rest upon it; nor shall the efficacy of my poor words be wanting, to + strengthen the impression which it will doubtless make.” + </p> + <p> + The earl’s first impulse was to hold out the ring. But looking at the + countess, as she bent forward to receive it, he fancied that the red glow + of the gem tinged all her face, and gave it an ominous expression. Many + passages of past times recurred to his memory. A preternatural insight, + perchance caught from approaching death, threw its momentary gleam, as + from a meteor, all round his position. + </p> + <p> + “Countess,” he said, “I know not wherefore I hesitate, being in a plight + so desperate, and having so little choice of friends. But have you looked + into your own heart? Can you perform this office with the truth—the + earnestness—time—zeal, even to tears, and agony of spirit—wherewith + the holy gift of human life should be pleaded for? Woe be unto you, should + you undertake this task, and deal towards me otherwise than with utmost + faith! For your own soul’s sake, and as you would have peace at your + death-hour, consider well in what spirit you receive this ring!” + </p> + <p> + The countess did not shrink. + </p> + <p> + “My lord!—my good lord!” she exclaimed, “wrong not a woman’s heart + by these suspicious. You might choose another messenger; but who, save a + lady of her bedchamber, can obtain access to the queen at this untimely + hour? It is for your life,—for your life,—else I would not + renew my offer.” + </p> + <p> + “Take the ring,” said the earl. + </p> + <p> + “Believe that it shall be in the queen’s hands before the lapse of another + hour,” replied the countess, as she received this sacred trust of life and + death. “To-morrow morning look for the result of my intercession.” + </p> + <p> + She departed. Again the earl’s hopes rose high. Dreams visited his + slumber, not of the sable-decked scaffold in the Tower-yard, but of + canopies of state, obsequious courtiers, pomp, splendor, the smile of the + once more gracious queen, and a light beaming from the magic gem, which + illuminated his whole future. + </p> + <p> + History records how foully the Countess of Shrewsbury betrayed the trust, + which Essex, in his utmost need, confided to her. She kept the ring, and + stood in the presence of Elizabeth, that night, without one attempt to + soften her stern hereditary temper in behalf of the former favorite. The + next day the earl’s noble head rolled upon the scaffold. On her death-bed, + tortured, at last, with a sense of the dreadful guilt which she had taken + upon her soul, the wicked countess sent for Elizabeth, revealed the story + of the ring, and besought forgiveness for her treachery. But the queen, + still obdurate, even while remorse for past obduracy was tugging at her + heart-strings, shook the dying woman in her bed, as if struggling with + death for the privilege of wreaking her revenge and spite. The spirit of + the countess passed away, to undergo the justice, or receive the mercy, of + a higher tribunal; and tradition says, that the fatal ring was found upon + her breast, where it had imprinted a dark red circle, resembling the + effect of the intensest heat. The attendants, who prepared the body for + burial, shuddered, whispering one to another, that the ring must have + derived its heat from the glow of infernal fire. They left it on her + breast, in the coffin, and it went with that guilty woman to the tomb. + </p> + <p> + Many years afterward, when the church, that contained the monuments of the + Shrewsbury family, was desecrated by Cromwell’s soldiers, they broke open + the ancestral vaults, and stole whatever was valuable from the noble + personages who reposed there. Merlin’s antique ring passed into the + possession of a stout sergeant of the Ironsides, who thus became subject + to the influences of the evil spirit that still kept his abode within the + gem’s enchanted depths. The sergeant was soon slain in battle, thus + transmitting the ring, though without any legal form of testament, to a + gay cavalier, who forthwith pawned it, and expended the money in liquor, + which speedily brought him to the grave. We next catch the sparkle of the + magic diamond at various epochs of the merry reign of Charles the Second. + But its sinister fortune still attended it. From whatever hand this ring + of portent came, and whatever finger it encircled, ever it was the pledge + of deceit between man and man, or man and woman, of faithless vows, and + unhallowed passion; and whether to lords and ladies, or to village-maids,—for + sometimes it found its way so low,—still it brought nothing but + sorrow and disgrace. No purifying deed was done, to drive the fiend from + his bright home in this little star. Again, we hear of it at a later + period, when Sir Robert Walpole bestowed the ring, among far richer + jewels, on the lady of a British legislator, whose political honor he + wished to undermine. Many a dismal and unhappy tale might be wrought out + of its other adventures. All this while, its ominous tinge of dusky red + had been deepening and darkening, until, if laid upon white paper, it cast + the mingled hue of night and blood, strangely illuminated with + scintillating light, in a circle round about. But this peculiarity only + made it the more valuable. + </p> + <p> + Alas, the fatal ring! When shall its dark secret be discovered, and the + doom of ill, inherited from one possessor to another, be finally revoked? + </p> + <p> + The legend now crosses the Atlantic, and comes down to our own immediate + time. In a certain church of our city, not many evenings ago, there was a + contribution for a charitable object. A fervid preacher had poured out his + whole soul in a rich and tender discourse, which had at least excited the + tears, and perhaps the more effectual sympathy, of a numerous audience. + While the choristers sang sweetly, and the organ poured forth its + melodious thunder, the deacons passed up and down the aisles, and along + the galleries, presenting their mahogany boxes, in which each person + deposited whatever sum he deemed it safe to lend to the Lord, in aid of + human wretchedness. Charity became audible,—chink, chink, chink,—as + it fell, drop by drop, into the common receptacle. There was a hum,—a + stir,—the subdued bustle of people putting their hands into their + pockets; while, ever and anon, a vagrant coin fell upon the floor, and + rolled away, with long reverberation, into some inscrutable corner. + </p> + <p> + At length, all having been favored with an opportunity to be generous, the + two deacons placed their boxes on the communion-table, and thence, at the + conclusion of the services, removed them into the vestry. Here these good + old gentlemen sat down together, to reckon the accumulated treasure. + </p> + <p> + “Fie, fie, Brother Tilton,” said Deacon Trott, peeping into Deacon + Tilton’s box, “what a heap of copper you have picked up! Really, for an + old man, you must have had a heavy job to lug it along. Copper! copper! + copper! Do people expect to get admittance into heaven at the price of a + few coppers?” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t wrong them, brother,” answered Deacon Tilton, a simple and kindly + old man. “Copper may do more for one person, than gold will for another. + In the galleries, where I present my box, we must not expect such a + harvest as you gather among the gentry in the broad aisle, and all over + the floor of the church. My people are chiefly poor mechanics and + laborers, sailors, seamstresses, and servant-maids, with a most + uncomfortable intermixture of roguish school-boys.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, well,” said Deacon Trott; “but there is a great deal, Brother + Tilton, in the method of presenting a contribution-box. It is a knack that + comes by nature, or not at all.” + </p> + <p> + They now proceeded to sum up the avails of the evening, beginning with the + receipts of Deacon Trott. In good sooth, that worthy personage had reaped + an abundant harvest, in which he prided himself no less, apparently, than + if every dollar had been contributed from his own individual pocket. Had + the good deacon been meditating a jaunt to Texas, the treasures of the + mahogany box might have sent him on his way rejoicing. There were + bank-notes, mostly, it is true, of the smallest denominations in the + giver’s pocket-book, yet making a goodly average upon the whole. The most + splendid contribution was a check for a hundred dollars, bearing the name + of a distinguished merchant, whose liberality was duly celebrated in the + newspapers of the next day. No less than seven half-eagles, together with + an English sovereign, glittered amidst an indiscriminate heap of silver; + the box being polluted with nothing of the copper kind, except a single + bright new cent, wherewith a little boy had performed his first charitable + act. + </p> + <p> + “Very well! very well indeed!” said Deacon Trott, self-approvingly. “A + handsome evening’s work! And now, Brother Tilton, let’s see whether you + can match it.” Here was a sad contrast! They poured forth Deacon Tilton’s + treasure upon the table, and it really seemed as if the whole copper + coinage of the country, together with an amazing quantity of shop-keeper’s + tokens, and English and Irish half-pence, mostly of base metal, had been + congregated into the box. There was a very substantial pencil-case, and + the semblance of a shilling; but he latter proved to be made of tin, and + the former of German-silver. A gilded brass button was doing duty as a + gold coin, and a folded shopbill had assumed the character of a bank-note. + But Deacon Tilton’s feelings were much revived by the aspect of another + bank-note, new and crisp, adorned with beautiful engravings, and stamped + with the indubitable word, TWENTY, in large black letters. Alas! it was a + counterfeit. In short, the poor old Deacon was no less unfortunate than + those who trade with fairies, and whose gains are sure to be transformed + into dried leaves, pebbles, and other valuables of that kind. + </p> + <p> + “I believe the Evil One is in the box,” said he, with some vexation. + </p> + <p> + “Well done, Deacon Tilton!” cried his Brother Trott, with a hearty laugh. + “You ought to have a statue in copper.” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind, brother,” replied the good Deacon, recovering his temper. + “I’ll bestow ten dollars from my own pocket, and may heaven’s blessing go + along with it. But look! what do you call this?” + </p> + <p> + Under the copper mountain, which it had cost them so much toil to remove, + lay an antique ring! It was enriched with a diamond, which, so soon as it + caught the light, began to twinkle and glimmer, emitting the whitest and + purest lustre that could possibly be conceived.—It was as brilliant + as if some magician had condensed the brightest star in heaven into a + compass fit to be set in a ring, for a lady’s delicate finger. + </p> + <p> + “How is this?” said Deacon Trott, examining it carefully, in the + expectation of finding it as worthless as the rest of his colleague’s + treasure. “Why, upon my word, this seems to be a real diamond, and of the + purest water. Whence could it have come?” + </p> + <p> + “Really, I cannot tell,” quoth Deacon Tilton, “for my spectacles were so + misty that all faces looked alike. But now I remember, there was a flash + of light came from the box, at one moment; but it seemed a dusky red, + instead of a pure white, like the sparkle of this gem. Well; the ring will + make up for the copper; but I wish the giver had thrown its history into + the box along with it.” + </p> + <p> + It has been our good luck to recover a portion of that history. After + transmitting misfortune from one possessor to another, ever since the days + of British Merlin, the identical ring which Queen Elizabeth gave to the + Earl of Essex was finally thrown into the contribution-box of a New + England church. The two deacons deposited it in the glass case of a + fashionable jeweller, of whom it was purchased by the humble rehearser of + this legend, in the hope that it may be allowed to sparkle on a fair + lady’s finger. Purified from the foul fiend, so long its inhabitant, by a + deed of unostentatious charity, and now made the symbol of faithful and + devoted love, the gentle bosom of its new possessor need fear no sorrow + from its influence. + </p> + <p> + Very pretty!—Beautiful!—How original!—How sweetly + written!—What nature!—What imagination!—What power!—What + pathos!—What exquisite humor!”—were the exclamations of Edward + Caryl’s kind and generous auditors, at the conclusion of the legend. + </p> + <p> + “It is a pretty tale,” said Miss Pemberton, who, conscious that her praise + was to that of all others as a diamond to a pebble, was therefore the less + liberal in awarding it. “It is really a pretty tale, and very proper for + any of the Annuals. But, Edward, your moral does not satisfy me. What + thought did you embody in the ring?” + </p> + <p> + “O Clara, this is too bad!” replied Edward, with a half-reproachful smile. + “You know that I can never separate the idea from the symbol in which it + manifests itself. However, we may suppose the Gem to be the human heart, + and the Evil Spirit to be Falsehood, which, in one guise or another, is + the fiend that causes all the sorrow and trouble in the world. I beseech + you to let this suffice.” + </p> + <p> + “It shall,” said Clara, kindly. “And, believe me, whatever the world may + say of the story, I prize it far above the diamond which enkindled your + imagination.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> <a name="graves"></a> + </p> + <h3> + GRAVES AND GOBLINS. + </h3> + <p> + Now talk we of graves and goblins! Fit themes,—start not! gentle + reader,—fit for a ghost like me. Yes; though an earth-clogged fancy + is laboring with these conceptions, and an earthly hand will write them + down, for mortal eyes to read, still their essence flows from as airy a + ghost as ever basked in the pale starlight, at twelve o’clock. Judge them + not by the gross and heavy form in which they now appear. They may be + gross, indeed, with the earthly pollution contracted from the brain, + through which they pass; and heavy with the burden of mortal language, + that crushes all the finer intelligences of the soul. This is no fault of + mine. But should aught of ethereal spirit be perceptible, yet scarcely so, + glimmering along the dull train of words,—should a faint perfume + breathe from the mass of clay,—then, gentle reader, thank the ghost, + who thus embodies himself for your sake! Will you believe me, if I say + that all true and noble thoughts, and elevated imaginations, are but + partly the offspring of the intellect which seems to produce them? + Sprites, that were poets once, and are now all poetry, hover round the + dreaming bard, and become his inspiration; buried statesmen lend their + wisdom, gathered on earth and mellowed in the grave, to the historian; and + when the preacher rises nearest to the level of his mighty subject, it is + because the prophets of old days have communed with him. Who has not been + conscious of mysteries within his mind, mysteries of truth and reality, + which will not wear the chains of language? Mortal, then the dead were + with you! And thus shall the earth-dulled soul, whom I inspire, be + conscious of a misty brightness among his thoughts, and strive to make it + gleam upon the page,—but all in vain. Poor author! How will he + despise what he can grasp, for the sake of the dim glory that eludes him! + </p> + <p> + So talk we of graves and goblins. But, what have ghosts to do with graves? + Mortal man, wearing the dust which shall require a sepulchre, might deem + it more a home and resting-place than a spirit can, whose earthly clod has + returned to earth. Thus philosophers have reasoned. Yet wiser they who + adhere to the ancient sentiment, that a phantom haunts and hallows the + marble tomb or grassy hillock where its material form was laid. Till + purified from each stain of clay; till the passions of the living world + are all forgotten; till it have less brotherhood with the wayfarers of + earth, than with spirits that never wore mortality,—the ghost must + linger round the grave. O, it is a long and dreary watch to some of us! + </p> + <p> + Even in early childhood, I had selected a sweet spot, of shade and + glimmering sunshine, for my grave. It was no burial-ground, but a secluded + nook of virgin earth, where I used to sit, whole summer afternoons, + dreaming about life and death. My fancy ripened prematurely, and taught me + secrets which I could not otherwise have known. I pictured the coming + years,—they never came to me, indeed; but I pictured them like life, + and made this spot the scene of all that should be brightest, in youth, + manhood, and old age. There, in a little while, it would be time for me to + breathe the bashful and burning vows of first-love; thither, after + gathering fame abroad, I would return to enjoy the loud plaudit of the + world, a vast but unobtrusive sound, like the booming of a distant sea; + and thither, at the far-off close of life, an aged man would come, to + dream, as the boy was dreaming, and be as happy in the past as lie was in + futurity. Finally, when all should be finished, in that spot so hallowed, + in that soil so impregnated with the most precious of my bliss, there was + to be my grave. Methought it would be the sweetest grave that ever a + mortal frame reposed in, or an ethereal spirit haunted. There, too, in + future times, drawn thither by the spell which I had breathed around the + place, boyhood would sport and dream, and youth would love, and manhood + would enjoy, and age would dream again, and my ghost would watch but never + frighten them. Alas, the vanity of mortal projects, even when they centre + in the grave! I died in my first youth, before I had been a lover; at a + distance, also, from the grave which fancy had dug for me; and they buried + me in the thronged cemetery of a town, where my marble slab stands + unnoticed amid a hundred others. And there are coffins on each side of + mine! + </p> + <p> + “Alas, poor ghost!” will the reader say. Yet I am a happy ghost enough, + and disposed to be contented with my grave, if the sexton will but let it + be my own, and bring no other dead man to dispute my title. Earth has left + few stains upon me, and it will be but a short time that I need haunt the + place. It is good to die in early youth. Had I lived out threescore years + and ten, or half of them, my spirit would have been so earth-incrusted, + that centuries might not have purified it for a better home than the dark + precincts of the grave. Meantime, there is good choice of company amongst + us. From twilight till near sunrise, we are gliding to and fro, some in + the graveyard, others miles away; and would we speak with any friend, we + do but knock against his tombstone, and pronounce the name engraved on it: + in an instant, there the shadow stands! + </p> + <p> + Some are ghosts of considerable antiquity. There is an old man, hereabout; + he never had a tombstone, and is often puzzled to distinguish his own + grave; but hereabouts he haunts, and long is doomed to haunt. He was a + miser in his lifetime, and buried a strong box of ill-gotten gold, almost + fresh from the mint, in the coinage of William and Mary. Scarcely was it + safe, when the sexton buried the old man and his secret with him. I could + point out the place where the treasure lies; it was at the bottom of the + miser’s garden; but a paved thoroughfare now passes beside the spot, and + the cornerstone of a market-house presses right down upon it. Had the + workmen dug six inches deeper, they would have found the hoard. Now + thither must this poor old miser go, whether in starlight, moonshine, or + pitch darkness, and brood above his worthless treasure, recalling all the + petty crimes by which he gained it. Not a coin must he fail to reckon in + his memory, nor forget a pennyworth of the sin that made up the sum, + though his agony is such as if the pieces of gold, red-hot, were stamped + into his naked soul. Often, while he is in torment there, he hears the + steps of living men, who love the dross of earth as well as he did. May + they never groan over their miserable wealth like him! Night after night, + for above a hundred years, hath he done this penance, and still must he do + it, till the iron box be brought to light, and each separate coin be + cleansed by grateful tears of a widow or an orphan. My spirit sighs for + his long vigil at the corner of the market-house! + </p> + <p> + There are ghosts whom I tremble to meet, and cannot think of without a + shudder. One has the guilt of blood upon him. The soul which he thrust + untimely forth has long since been summoned from our gloomy graveyard, and + dwells among the stars of heaven, too far and too high for even the + recollection of mortal anguish to ascend thither. Not so the murderer’s + ghost! It is his doom to spend all the hours of darkness in the spot which + he stained with innocent blood, and to feel the hot stream—hot as + when it first gushed upon his hand—incorporating itself with his + spiritual substance. Thus his horrible crime is ever fresh within him. Two + other wretches are condemned to walk arm in arm. They were guilty lovers + in their lives, and still, in death, must wear the guise of love, though + hatred and loathing have become their very nature and existence. The + pollution of their mutual sin remains with them, and makes their souls + sick continually. O, that I might forget all the dark shadows which haunt + about these graves! This passing thought of them has left a stain, and + will weigh me down among dust and sorrow, beyond the time that my own + transgressions would have kept me here. There is one shade among us, whose + high nature it is good to meditate upon. He lived a patriot, and is a + patriot still. Posterity has forgotten him. The simple slab, of red + freestone, that bore his name, was broken long ago, and is now covered by + the gradual accumulation of the soil. A tuft of thistles is his only + monument. This upright spirit came to his grave, after a lengthened life, + with so little stain of earth, that he might, almost immediately, have + trodden the pathway of the sky. But his strong love of country chained him + down, to share its vicissitudes of weal or woe. With such deep yearning in + his soul, he was unfit for heaven. That noblest virtue has the effect of + sin, and keeps his pure and lofty spirit in a penance, which may not + terminate till America be again a wilderness. Not that there is no joy for + the dead patriot. Can he fail to experience it, while be contemplates the + mighty and increasing power of the land, which be protected in its + infancy? No; there is much to gladden him. But sometimes I dread to meet + him, as he returns from the bedchambers of rulers and politicians, after + diving into their secret motives, and searching out their aims. He looks + round him with a stern and awful sadness, and vanishes into his neglected + grave. Let nothing sordid or selfish defile your deeds or thoughts, ye + great men of the day, lest ye grieve the noble dead. + </p> + <p> + Few ghosts take such an endearing interest as this, even in their own + private affairs. It made me rather sad, at first, to find how soon the + flame of love expires amid the chill damps of the tomb; so much the + sooner, the more fiercely it may have burned. Forget your dead mistress, + youth! She has already forgotten you. Maiden, cease to weep for your + buried lover! He will know nothing of your tears, nor value them if he + did. Yet it were blasphemy to say that true love is other than immortal. + It is an earthly passion, of which I speak, mingled with little that is + spiritual, and must therefore perish with the perishing clay. When souls + have loved, there is no falsehood or forgetfulness. Maternal affection, + too, is strong as adamant. There are mothers here, among us, who might + have been in heaven fifty years ago, if they could forbear to cherish + earthly joy and sorrow, reflected from the bosoms of their children. + Husbands and wives have a comfortable gift of oblivion, especially when + secure of the faith of their living halves. Jealousy, it is true, will + play the devil with a ghost, driving him to the bedside of secondary + wedlock, there to scowl, unseen, and gibber inaudible remonstrances. Dead + wives, however jealous in their lifetime, seldom feel this posthumous + torment so acutely. + </p> + <p> + Many, many things, that appear most important while we walk the busy + street, lose all their interest the moment we are borne into the quiet + graveyard which borders it. For my own part, my spirit had not become so + mixed up with earthly existence, as to be now held in an unnatural + combination, or tortured much with retrospective cares. I still love my + parents and a younger sister, who remain among the living, and often + grieve me by their patient sorrow for the dead. Each separate tear of + theirs is an added weight upon my soul, and lengthens my stay among the + graves. As to other matters, it exceedingly rejoices me, that my summons + came before I had time to write a projected poem, which was highly + imaginative in conception, and could not have failed to give me a + triumphant rank in the choir of our native bards. Nothing is so much to be + deprecated as posthumous renown. It keeps the immortal spirit from the + proper bliss of his celestial state, and causes him to feed upon the + impure breath of mortal man, till sometimes he forgets that there are + starry realms above him. Few poets—infatuated that they are!—soar + upward while the least whisper of their name is heard on earth. On Sabbath + evenings, my sisters sit by the fireside, between our father and mother, + and repeat some hymns of mine, which they have often heard from my own + lips, ere the tremulous voice left them forever. Little do they think, + those dear ones, that the dead stands listening in the glimmer of the + firelight, and is almost gifted with a visible shape by the fond intensity + of their remembrance. + </p> + <p> + Now shall the reader know a grief of the poor ghost that speaks to him; a + grief, but not a helpless one. Since I have dwelt among the graves, they + bore the corpse of a young maiden hither, and laid her in the old + ancestral vault, which is hollowed in the side of a grassy bank. It has a + door of stone, with rusty iron hinges, and above it, a rude sculpture of + the family arms, and inscriptions of all their names who have been buried + there, including sire and son, mother and daughter, of an ancient colonial + race. All of her lineage had gone before, and when the young maiden + followed, the portal was closed forever. The night after her burial, when + the other ghosts were flitting about their graves, forth came the pale + virgin’s shadow, with the rest, but knew not whither to go, nor whom to + haunt, so lonesome had she been on earth. She stood by the ancient + sepulchre, looking upward to the bright stars, as if she would, even then, + begin her flight. Her sadness made me sad. That night and the next, I + stood near her, in the moonshine, but dared not speak, because she seemed + purer than all the ghosts, and fitter to converse with angels than with + men. But the third bright eve, still gazing upward to the glory of the + heavens, she sighed, and said, “When will my mother come for me?” Her low, + sweet voice emboldened me to speak, and she was kind and gentle, though so + pure, and answered me again. From that time, always at the ghostly hour, I + sought the old tomb of her fathers, and either found her standing by the + door, or knocked, and she appeared. Blessed creature, that she was; her + chaste spirit hallowed mine, and imparted such a celestial buoyancy, that + I longed to grasp her hand, and fly,—upward, aloft, aloft! I + thought, too, that she only lingered here, till my earthlier soul should + be purified for heaven. One night, when the stars threw down the light + that shadows love, I stole forth to the accustomed spot, and knocked, with + my airy fingers, at her door. She answered not. Again I knocked, and + breathed her name. Where was she? At once, the truth fell on my miserable + spirit, and crushed it to the earth, among dead men’s bones and mouldering + dust, groaning in cold and desolate agony. Her penance was over! She had + taken her trackless flight, and had found a home in the purest radiance of + the upper stars, leaving me to knock at the stone portal of the darksome + sepulchre. But I know—I know, that angels hurried her away, or + surely she would have whispered ere she fled! + </p> + <p> + She is gone! How could the grave imprison that unspotted one! But her + pure, ethereal spirit will not quite forget me, nor soar too high in + bliss, till I ascend to join her. Soon, soon be that hour! I am weary of + the earth-damps; they burden me; they choke me! Already, I can float in + the moonshine; the faint starlight will almost bear up my footsteps; the + perfume of flowers, which grosser spirits love, is now too earthly a + luxury for me. Grave! Grave! thou art not my home. I must flit a little + longer in thy night gloom, and then be gone,—far from the dust of + the living and the dead,—far from the corruption that is around me, + but no more within! + </p> + <p> + A few times, I have visited the chamber of one who walks, obscure and + lonely, on his mortal pilgrimage. He will leave not many living friends, + when he goes to join the dead, where his thoughts often stray, and he + might better be. I steal into his sleep, and play my part among the + figures of his dreams. I glide through the moonlight of his waking fancy, + and whisper conceptions, which, with a strange thrill of fear, he writes + down as his own. I stand beside him now, at midnight, telling these dreamy + truths with a voice so dream-like, that he mistakes them for fictions of a + brain too prone to such. Yet he glances behind him and shivers, while the + lamp burns pale. Farewell, dreamer,—waking or sleeping! Your + brightest dreams are fled; your mind grows too hard and cold for a + spiritual guest to enter; you are earthly, too, and have all the sins of + earth. The ghost will visit you no more. + </p> + <p> + But where is the maiden, holy and pure, though wearing a form of clay, + that would have me bend over her pillow at midnight, and leave a blessing + there? With a silent invocation, let her summon me. Shrink not, maiden, + when I come! In life, I was a high-souled youth, meditative, yet seldom + sad, full of chaste fancies, and stainless from all grosser sin. And now, + ill death, I bring no loathsome smell of the grave, nor ghostly terrors,—but + gentle, and soothing, and sweetly pensive influences. Perhaps, just + fluttering for the skies, my visit may hallow the wellsprings of thy + thought, and make thee heavenly here on earth. Then shall pure dreams and + holy meditations bless thy life; nor thy sainted spirit linger round the + grave, but seek the upper stars, and meet me there! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s Other Tales and Sketches, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 9248-h.htm or 9248-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/4/9248/ + +Produced by David Widger and Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Other Tales and Sketches + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #9248] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: February 8, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES + + + + +CONTENTS: + My Visit To Niagara + The Antique Ring + Graves And Goblins + + + +MY VISIT TO NIAGARA. + +Never did a pilgrim approach Niagara with deeper enthusiasm than mine. +I had lingered away from it, and wandered to other scenes, because my +treasury of anticipated enjoyments, comprising all the wonders of the +world, had nothing else so magnificent, and I was loath to exchange the +pleasures of hope for those of memory so soon. At length the day came. +The stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on the back seat, had +already left Lewiston, and in less than an hour would set us down in +Manchester. I began to listen for the roar of the cataract, and +trembled with a sensation like dread, as the moment drew nigh, when its +voice of ages must roll, for the first time, on my ear. The French +gentleman stretched himself from the window, and expressed loud +admiration, while, by a sudden impulse, I threw myself back and closed +my eyes. When the scene shut in, I was glad to think, that for me the +whole burst of Niagara was yet in futurity. We rolled on, and entered +the village of Manchester, bordering on the falls. + +I am quite ashamed of myself here. Not that I ran, like a madman to the +falls, and plunged into the thickest of the spray,--never stopping to +breathe, till breathing was impossible: not that I committed this, or +any other suitable extravagance. On the contrary, I alighted with +perfect decency and composure, gave my cloak to the black waiter, +pointed out my baggage, and inquired, not the nearest way to the +cataract, but about the dinner-hour. The interval was spent in +arranging my dress. Within the last fifteen minutes, my mind had grown +strangely benumbed, and my spirits apathetic, with a slight depression, +not decided enough to be termed sadness. My enthusiasm was in a +deathlike slumber. Without aspiring to immortality, as he did, I could +have imitated that English traveller, who turned back from the point +where he first heard the thunder of Niagara, after crossing the ocean to +behold it. Many a Western trader, by the by, has performed a similar +act of heroism with more heroic simplicity, deeming it no such wonderful +feat to dine at the hotel and resume his route to Buffalo or Lewiston, +while the cataract was roaring unseen. + +Such has often been my apathy, when objects, long sought, and earnestly +desired, were placed within my reach. After dinner--at which an +unwonted and perverse epicurism detained me longer than usual--I lighted +a cigar and paced the piazza, minutely attentive to the aspect and +business of a very ordinary village. Finally, with reluctant step, and +the feeling of an intruder, I walked towards Goat Island. At the +tollhouse, there were further excuses for delaying the inevitable +moment. My signature was required in a huge ledger, containing similar +records innumerable, many of which I read. The skin of a great +sturgeon, and other fishes, beasts, and reptiles; a collection of +minerals, such as lie in heaps near the falls; some Indian moccasins, +and other trifles, made of deer-skin and embroidered with beads; several +newspapers from Montreal, New York, and Boston;--all attracted me in +turn. Out of a number of twisted sticks, the manufacture of a Tuscarora +Indian, I selected one of curled maple, curiously convoluted, and +adorned with the carved images of a snake and a fish. Using this as my +pilgrim's staff, I crossed the bridge. Above and below me were the +rapids, a river of impetuous snow, with here and there a dark rock amid +its whiteness, resisting all the physical fury, as any cold spirit did +the moral influences of the scene. On reaching Goat Island, which +separates the two great segments of the falls, I chose the right-hand +path, and followed it to the edge of the American cascade. There, while +the falling sheet was yet invisible, I saw the vapor that never +vanishes, and the Eternal Rainbow of Niagara. + +It was an afternoon of glorious sunshine, without a cloud, save those of +the cataracts. I gained an insulated rock, and beheld a broad sheet of +brilliant and unbroken foam, not shooting in a curved line from the top +of the precipice, but falling headlong down from height to depth. A +narrow stream diverged from the main branch, and hurried over the crag +by a channel of its own, leaving a little pine-clad island and a streak +of precipice, between itself and the larger sheet. Below arose the +mist, on which was painted a dazzling sun-bow with two concentric +shadows,--one, almost as perfect as the original brightness; and the +other, drawn faintly round the broken edge of the cloud. + +Still I had not half seen Niagara. Following the verge of the island, +the path led me to the Horseshoe, where the real, broad St. Lawrence, +rushing along on a level with its banks, pours its whole breadth over a +concave line of precipice, and thence pursues its course between lofty +crags towards Ontario. A sort of bridge, two or three feet wide, +stretches out along the edge of the descending sheet, and hangs upon the +rising mist, as if that were the foundation of the frail structure. +Here I stationed myself in the blast of wind, which the rushing river +bore along with it. The bridge was tremulous beneath me, and marked the +tremor of the solid earth. I looked along the whitening rapids, and +endeavored to distinguish a mass of water far above the falls, to follow +it to their verge, and go down with it, in fancy, to the abyss of clouds +and storm. Casting my eyes across the river, and every side, I took in +the whole scene at a glance, and tried to comprehend it in one vast +idea. After an hour thus spent, I left the bridge, and, by a staircase, +winding almost interminably round a post, descended to the base of the +precipice. From that point, my path lay over slippery stones, and among +great fragments of the cliff, to the edge of the cataract, where the +wind at once enveloped me in spray, and perhaps dashed the rainbow round +me. Were my long desires fulfilled? And had I seen Niagara? + +O that I had never heard of Niagara till I beheld it! Blessed were the +wanderers of old, who heard its deep roar, sounding through the woods, +as the summons to an unknown wonder, and approached its awful brink, in +all the freshness of native feeling. Had its own mysterious voice been +the first to warn me of its existence, then, indeed, I might have knelt +down and worshipped. But I had come thither, haunted with a vision of +foam and fury, and dizzy cliffs, and an ocean tumbling down out of the +sky,--a scene, in short, which nature had too much good taste and calm +simplicity to realize. My mind had struggled to adapt these false +conceptions to the reality, and finding the effort vain, a wretched +sense of disappointment weighed me down. I climbed the precipice, and +threw myself on the earth, feeling that I was unworthy to look at the +Great Falls, and careless about beholding them again. + +All that night, as there has been and will be, for ages past and to +come, a rushing sound was heard, as if a great tempest were sweeping +through the air. It mingled with my dreams, and made them full of storm +and whirlwind. Whenever I awoke, and heard this dread sound in the air, +and the windows rattling as with a mighty blast, I could not rest again, +till looking forth, I saw how bright the stars were, and that every leaf +in the garden was motionless. Never was a summer night more calm to the +eye, nor a gale of autumn louder to the ear. The rushing sound proceeds +from the rapids, and the rattling of the casements is but an effect of +the vibration of the whole house, shaken by the jar of the cataract. +The noise of the rapids draws the attention from the true voice of +Niagara, which is a dull, muffed thunder, resounding between the cliffs. +I spent a wakeful hour at midnight, in distinguishing its +reverberations, and rejoiced to find that my former awe and enthusiasm +were reviving. + +Gradually, and after much contemplation, I came to know, by my own +feelings, that Niagara is indeed a wonder of the world, and not the less +wonderful, because time and thought must be employed in comprehending +it. Casting aside all preconceived notions, and preparation to be +dire-struck or delighted, the beholder must stand beside it in the +simplicity of his heart, suffering the mighty scene to work its own +impression. Night after night, I dreamed of it, and was gladdened every +morning by the consciousness of a growing capacity to enjoy it. Yet I +will not pretend to the all-absorbing enthusiasm of some more fortunate +spectators, nor deny that very trifling causes would draw my eyes and +thoughts from the cataract. + +The last day that I was to spend at Niagara, before my departure for the +Far West, I sat upon the Table Rock. This celebrated station did not +now, as of old, project fifty feet beyond the line of the precipice, but +was shattered by the fall of an immense fragment, which lay distant on +the shore below. Still, on the utmost verge of the rock, with my feet +hanging over it, I felt as if suspended in the open air. Never before +had my mind been in such perfect unison with the scene. There were +intervals, when I was conscious of nothing but the great river, rolling +calmly into the abyss, rather descending than precipitating itself, and +acquiring tenfold majesty from its unhurried motion. It came like the +march of Destiny. It was not taken by surprise, but seemed to have +anticipated, in all its course through the broad lakes, that it must +pour their collected waters down this height. The perfect foam of the +river, after its descent, and the ever-varying shapes of mist, rising +up, to become clouds in the sky, would be the very picture of confusion, +were it merely transient, like the rage of a tempest. But when the +beholder has stood awhile, and perceives no lull in the storm, and +considers that the vapor and the foam are as everlasting as the rocks +which produce them, all this turmoil assumes a sort of calmness. It +soothes, while it awes the mind. + +Leaning over the cliff, I saw the guide conducting two adventurers +behind the falls. It was pleasant, from that high seat in the sunshine, +to observe them struggling against the eternal storm of the lower +regions, with heads bent down, now faltering, now pressing forward, and +finally swallowed up in their victory. After their disappearance, a +blast rushed out with an old hat, which it had swept from one of their +heads. The rock, to which they were directing their unseen course, is +marked, at a fearful distance on the exterior of the sheet, by a jet of +foam. The attempt to reach it appears both poetical and perilous to a +looker-on, but may be accomplished without much more difficulty or +hazard, than in stemming a violent northeaster. In a few moments, forth +came the children of the mist. Dripping and breathless, they crept +along the base of the cliff, ascended to the guide's cottage, and +received, I presume, a certificate of their achievement, with three +verses of sublime poetry on the back. + +My contemplations were often interrupted by strangers, who came down +from Forsyth's to take their first view of the falls. A short, ruddy, +middle-aged gentleman, fresh from Old England, peeped over the rock, and +evinced his approbation by a broad grin. His spouse, a very robust +lady, afforded a sweet example of maternal solicitude, being so intent +on the safety of her little boy that she did not even glance at Niagara. +As for the child, he gave himself wholly to the enjoyment of a stick of +candy. Another traveller, a native American, and no rare character +among us, produced a volume of Captain Hall's tour, and labored +earnestly to adjust Niagara to the captain's description, departing, at +last, without one new idea or sensation of his own. The next comer was +provided, not with a printed book, but with a blank sheet of foolscap, +from top to bottom of which, by means of an ever-pointed pencil, the +cataract was made to thunder. In a little talk, which we had together, +he awarded his approbation to the general view, but censured the +position of Goat Island, observing that it should have been thrown +farther to the right, so as to widen the American falls, and contract +those of the Horseshoe. Next appeared two traders of Michigan, who +declared, that, upon the whole, the sight was worth looking at, there +certainly was an immense water-power here; but that, after all, they +would go twice as far to see the noble stone-works of Lockport, where +the Grand Canal is locked down a descent of sixty feet. They were +succeeded by a young fellow, in a homespun cotton dress, with a staff in +his hand, and a pack over his shoulders. He advanced close to the edge +of the rock, where his attention, at first wavering among the different +components of the scene, finally became fixed in the angle of the Horse +shoe falls, which is, indeed, the central point of interest. His whole +soul seemed to go forth and be transported thither, till the staff +slipped from his relaxed grasp, and falling down--down--down--struck +upon the fragment of the Table Rock. + +In this manner I spent some hours, watching the varied impression, made +by the cataract, on those who disturbed me, and returning to unwearied +contemplation, when left alone. At length my time came to depart. +There is a grassy footpath, through the woods, along the summit of the +bank, to a point whence a causeway, hewn in the side of the precipice, +goes winding down to the Ferry, about half a mile below the Table Rock. +The sun was near setting, when I emerged from the shadow of the trees, +and began the descent. The indirectness of my downward road continually +changed the point of view, and showed me, in rich and repeated +succession, now, the whitening rapids and majestic leap of the main +river, which appeared more deeply massive as the light departed; now, +the lovelier picture, yet still sublime, of Goat Island, with its rocks +and grove, and the lesser falls, tumbling over the right bank of the St. +Lawrence, like a tributary stream; now, the long vista of the river, as +it eddied and whirled between the cliffs, to pass through Ontario toward +the sea, and everywhere to be wondered at, for this one unrivalled +scene. The golden sunshine tinged the sheet of the American cascade, +and painted on its heaving spray the broken semicircle of a rainbow, +heaven's own beauty crowning earth's sublimity. My steps were slow, and +I paused long at every turn of the descent, as one lingers and pauses, +who discerns a brighter and brightening excellence in what he must soon +behold no more. The solitude of the old wilderness now reigned over the +whole vicinity of the falls. My enjoyment became the more rapturous, +because no poet shared it, nor wretch devoid of poetry profaned it; but +the spot so famous through the world was all my own! + + + + + + +THE ANTIQUE RING. + +"Yes, indeed: the gem is as bright as a star, and curiously set," said +Clara Pembertou, examining an antique ring, which her betrothed lover +had just presented to her, with a very pretty speech. "It needs only +one thing to make it perfect." + +"And what is that?" asked Mr. Edward Caryl, secretly anxious for the +credit of his gift. "A modern setting, perhaps?" + +"O, no! That would destroy the charm at once," replied Clara. "It +needs nothing but a story. I long to know how many times it has been +the pledge of faith between two lovers, and whether the vows, of which +it was the symbol, were always kept or often broken. Not that I should +be too scrupulous about facts. If you happen to be unacquainted with +its authentic history, so much the better. May it not have sparkled +upon a queen's finger? Or who knows but it is the very ring which +Posthumus received from Imogen? In short, you must kindle your +imagination at the lustre of this diamond, and make a legend for it." + +Now such a task--and doubtless Clara knew it--was the most acceptable +that could have been imposed on Edward Caryl. He was one of that +multitude of young gentlemen--limbs, or rather twigs of the law--whose +names appear in gilt letters on the front of Tudor's Buildings, and +other places in the vicinity of the Court House, which seem to be the +haunt of the gentler as well as the severer Muses. Edward, in the +dearth of clients, was accustomed to employ his much leisure in +assisting the growth of American Literature, to which good cause he had +contributed not a few quires of the finest letter-paper, containing some +thought, some fancy, some depth of feeling, together with a young +writer's abundance of conceits. Sonnets, stanzas of Tennysonian +sweetness, tales imbued with German mysticism, versions from Jean Paul, +criticisms of the old English poets, and essays smacking of Dialistic +philosophy, were among his multifarious productions. The editors of the +fashionable periodicals were familiar with his autograph, and inscribed +his name in those brilliant bead-rolls of ink-stained celebrity, which +illustrate the first page of their covers. Nor did fame withhold her +laurel. Hillard had included him among the lights of the New England +metropolis, in his Boston Book; Bryant had found room for some of his +stanzas, in the Selections from American Poetry; and Mr. Griswold, in +his recent assemblage of the sons and daughters of song, had introduced +Edward Caryl into the inner court of the temple, among his fourscore +choicest bards. There was a prospect, indeed, of his assuming a still +higher and more independent position. Interviews had been held with +Ticknor, and a correspondence with the Harpers, respecting a proposed +volume, chiefly to consist of Mr. Caryl's fugitive pieces in the +Magazines, but to be accompanied with a poem of some length, never +before published. Not improbably, the public may yet be gratified with +this collection. + +Meanwhile, we sum up our sketch of Edward Caryl, by pronouncing him, +though somewhat of a carpet knight in literature, yet no unfavorable +specimen of a generation of rising writers, whose spirit is such that we +may reasonably expect creditable attempts from all, and good and +beautiful results from some. And, it will be observed, Edward was the +very man to write pretty legends, at a lady's instance, for an +old-fashioned diamond ring. He took the jewel in his hand, and turned it +so as to catch its scintillating radiance, as if hoping, in accordance with +Clara's suggestion, to light up his fancy with that starlike gleam. + +"Shall it be a ballad?--a tale in verse?" he inquired. "Enchanted +rings often glisten in old English poetry, I think something may be done +with the subject; but it is fitter for rhyme than prose." + +"No, no," said Miss Pemberton, "we will have no more rhyme than just +enough for a posy to the ring. You must tell the legend in simple +prose; and when it is finished, I will make a little party to hear it +read." + +The young gentleman promised obedience; and going to his pillow, with +his head full of the familiar spirits that used to be worn in rings, +watches, and sword-hilts, he had the good fortune to possess himself of +an available idea in a dream. Connecting this with what he himself +chanced to know of the ring's real history, his task was done. Clara +Pemberton invited a select few of her friends, all holding the stanchest +faith in Edward's genius, and therefore the most genial auditors, if not +altogether the fairest critics, that a writer could possibly desire. +Blessed be woman for her faculty of admiration, and especially for her +tendency to admire with her heart, when man, at most, grants merely a +cold approval with his mind! + +Drawing his chair beneath the blaze of a solar lamp, Edward Caryl untied +a roll of glossy paper, and began as follows:-- + + +THE LEGEND + +After the death-warrant had been read to the Earl of Essex, and on the +evening before his appointed execution, the Countess of Shrewsbury paid +his lordship a visit, and found him, as it appeared, toying childishly +with a ring. The diamond, that enriched it, glittered like a little +star, but with a singular tinge of red. The gloomy prison-chamber in +the Tower, with its deep and narrow windows piercing the walls of stone, +was now all that the earl possessed of worldly prospect; so that there +was the less wonder that he should look steadfastly into the gem, and +moralize upon earth's deceitful splendor, as men in darkness and ruin +seldom fail to do. But the shrewd observations of the countess,--an +artful and unprincipled woman,--the pretended friend of Essex, but who +had come to glut her revenge for a deed of scorn which he himself had +forgotten,--her keen eye detected a deeper interest attached to this +jewel. Even while expressing his gratitude for her remembrance of a +ruined favorite, and condemned criminal, the earl's glance reverted to +the ring, as if all that remained of time and its affairs were collected +within that small golden circlet. + +"My dear lord," observed the countess, "there is surely some matter of +great moment wherewith this ring is connected, since it, so absorbs your +mind. A token, it may be, of some fair lady's love,--alas, poor lady, +once richest in possessing such a heart! Would you that the jewel be +returned to her?" + +"The queen! the queen! It was her Majesty's own gift," replied the +earl, still gazing into the depths of the gem. "She took it from her +finger, and told me, with a smile, that it was an heirloom from her +Tudor ancestors, and had once been the property of Merlin, the British +wizard, who gave it to the lady of his love. His art had made this +diamond the abiding-place of a spirit, which, though of fiendish nature, +was bound to work only good, so long as the ring was an unviolated +pledge of love and faith, both with the giver and receiver. But should +love prove false, and faith be broken, then the evil spirit would work +his own devilish will, until the ring were purified by becoming the +medium of some good and holy act, and again the pledge of faithful love. +The gem soon lost its virtue; for the wizard was murdered by the very +lady to whom he gave it." + +"An idle legend!" said the countess. + +"It is so," answered Essex, with a melancholy smile. "Yet the queen's +favor, of which this ring was the symbol, has proved my ruin. When +death is nigh, men converse with dreams and shadows. I have been gazing +into the diamond, and fancying--but you will laugh at me--that I might +catch a glimpse of the evil spirit there. Do you observe this red +glow,--dusky, too, amid all the brightness? It is the token of his +presence; and even now, methinks, it grows redder and duskier, like an +angry sunset." + +Nevertheless, the earl's manner testified how slight was his credence in +the enchanted properties of the ring. But there is a kind of +playfulness that comes in moments of despair, when the reality of +misfortune, if entirely felt, would crush the soul at once. He now, for +a brief space, was lost in thought, while the countess contemplated him +with malignant satisfaction. + +"This ring," he resumed, in another tone, "alone remains, of all that my +royal mistress's favor lavished upon her servant. My fortune once shone +as brightly as the gem. And now, such a darkness has fallen around me, +methinks it would be no marvel if its gleam--the sole light of my +prison-house--were to be forthwith extinguished; inasmuch as my last +earthly hope depends upon it." + +"How say you, my lord?" asked the Countess of Shrewsbury. "The stone +is bright; but there should be strange magic in it, if it can keep your +hopes alive, at this sad hour. Alas! these iron bars and ramparts of +the Tower are unlike to yield to such a spell." + +Essex raised his head involuntarily; for there was something in the +countess's tone that disturbed him, although he could not suspect that +an enemy had intruded upon the sacred privacy of a prisoner's dungeon, +to exult over so dark a ruin of such once brilliant fortunes. He looked +her in the face, but saw nothing to awaken his distrust. It would have +required a keener eye than even Cecil's to read the secret of a +countenance, which had been worn so long in the false light of a court, +that it was now little better than a mask, telling any story save the +true one. The condemned nobleman again bent over the ring, and +proceeded: + +"It once had power in it,--this bright gem,--the magic that appertains +to the talisman of a great queen's favor. She bade me, if hereafter I +should fall into her disgrace,--how deep soever, and whatever might be +the crime,--to convey this jewel to her sight, and it should plead for +me. Doubtless, with her piercing judgment, she had even then detected +the rashness of my nature, and foreboded some such deed as has now +brought destruction upon my bead. And knowing, too, her own hereditary +rigor, she designed, it may be, that the memory of gentler and kindlier +hours should soften her heart in my behalf, when my need should be the +greatest. I have doubted,--I have distrusted,--yet who can tell, even +now, what happy influence this ring might have?" + +"You have delayed full long to show the ring, and plead her Majesty's +gracious promise," remarked the countess,--"your state being what it +is." + +"True," replied the earl: "but for my honor's sake, I was loath to +entreat the queen's mercy, while I might hope for life, at least, from +the justice of the laws. If, on a trial by my peers, I had been +acquitted of meditating violence against her sacred life, then would I +have fallen at her feet, and presenting the jewel, have prayed no other +favor than that my love and zeal should be put to the severest test. +But now--it were confessing too much--it were cringing too low--to beg +the miserable gift of life, on no other score than the tenderness which +her Majesty deems one to have forfeited!" + +"Yet it is your only hope," said the countess. + +"And besides," continued Essex, pursuing his own reflections, "of what +avail will be this token of womanly feeling, when, on the other hand, +are arrayed the all-prevailing motives of state policy, and the +artifices and intrigues of courtiers, to consummate my downfall? Will +Cecil or Raleigh suffer her heart to act for itself, even if the spirit +of her father were not in her? It is in vain to hope it." + +But still Essex gazed at the ring with an absorbed attention, that +proved how much hope his sanguine temperament had concentrated here, +when there was none else for him in the wide world, save what lay in the +compass of that hoop of gold. The spark of brightness within the +diamond, which gleamed like an intenser than earthly fire, was the +memorial of his dazzling career. It had not paled with the waning +sunshine of his mistress's favor; on the contrary, in spite of its +remarkable tinge of dusky red, he fancied that it never shone so +brightly. The glow of festal torches,--the blaze of perfumed +lamps,--bonfires that had been kindled for him, when he was the darling of +the people,--the splendor of the royal court, where he had been the +peculiar star,--all seemed to have collected their moral or material glory +into the gem, and to burn with a radiance caught from the future, as well +as gathered from the past. That radiance might break forth again. +Bursting from the diamond, into which it was now narrowed, it might been +first upon the gloomy walls of the Tower,--then wider, wider, wider,--till +all England, and the seas around her cliffs, should be gladdened +with the light. It was such an ecstasy as often ensues after long +depression, and has been supposed to precede the circumstances of +darkest fate that may befall mortal man. The earl pressed the ring to +his heart as if it were indeed a talisman, the habitation of a spirit, +as the queen had playfully assured him,--but a spirit of happier +influences than her legend spake of. + +"O, could I but make my way to her footstool!" cried he, waving his +hand aloft, while he paced the stone pavement of his prison-chamber with +an impetuous step. "I might kneel down, indeed, a ruined man, condemned +to the block, but how should I rise again? Once more the favorite of +Elizabeth!--England's proudest noble!--with such prospects as ambition +never aimed at! Why have I tarried so long in this weary dungeon? The +ring has power to set me free! The palace wants me! Ho, jailer, unbar +the door!" + +But then occurred the recollection of the impossibility of obtaining an +interview with his fatally estranged mistress, and testing the influence +over her affections, which he still flattered himself with possessing. +Could he step beyond the limits of his prison, the world would be all +sunshine; but here was only gloom and death. + +"Alas!" said he, slowly and sadly, letting his head fall upon his hands. +"I die for the lack of one blessed word." + +The Countess of Shrewsbury, herself forgotten amid the earl's gorgeous +visions, had watched him with an aspect that could have betrayed nothing +to the most suspicious observer; unless that it was too calm for +humanity, while witnessing the flutterings, as it were, of a generous +heart in the death-agony. She now approached him. + +"My good lord," she said, "what mean you to do?" + +"Nothing,--my deeds are done!" replied he, despondingly; "yet, had a +fallen favorite any friends, I would entreat one of them to lay this +ring at her Majesty's feet; albeit with little hope, save that, +hereafter, it might remind her that poor Essex, once far too highly +favored, was at last too severely dealt with." + +"I will be that friend," said the countess. "There is no time to be +lost. Trust this precious ring with me. This very night the queen's +eye shall rest upon it; nor shall the efficacy of my poor words be +wanting, to strengthen the impression which it will doubtless make." + +The earl's first impulse was to hold out the ring. But looking at the +countess, as she bent forward to receive it, he fancied that the red +glow of the gem tinged all her face, and gave it an ominous expression. +Many passages of past times recurred to his memory. A preternatural +insight, perchance caught from approaching death, threw its momentary +gleam, as from a meteor, all round his position. + +"Countess," he said, "I know not wherefore I hesitate, being in a plight +so desperate, and having so little choice of friends. But have you +looked into your own heart? Can you perform this office with the +truth--the earnestness--time--zeal, even to tears, and agony of +spirit--wherewith the holy gift of human life should be pleaded for? Woe +be unto you, should you undertake this task, and deal towards me otherwise +than with utmost faith! For your own soul's sake, and as you would have +peace at your death-hour, consider well in what spirit you receive this +ring!" + +The countess did not shrink. + +"My lord!--my good lord!" she exclaimed, "wrong not a woman's heart by +these suspicious. You might choose another messenger; but who, save a +lady of her bedchamber, can obtain access to the queen at this untimely +hour? It is for your life,--for your life,--else I would not renew my +offer." + +"Take the ring," said the earl. + +"Believe that it shall be in the queen's hands before the lapse of +another hour," replied the countess, as she received this sacred trust +of life and death. "To-morrow morning look for the result of my +intercession." + +She departed. Again the earl's hopes rose high. Dreams visited his +slumber, not of the sable-decked scaffold in the Tower-yard, but of +canopies of state, obsequious courtiers, pomp, splendor, the smile of +the once more gracious queen, and a light beaming from the magic gem, +which illuminated his whole future. + +History records how foully the Countess of Shrewsbury betrayed the +trust, which Essex, in his utmost need, confided to her. She kept the +ring, and stood in the presence of Elizabeth, that night, without one +attempt to soften her stern hereditary temper in behalf of the former +favorite. The next day the earl's noble head rolled upon the scaffold. +On her death-bed, tortured, at last, with a sense of the dreadful guilt +which she had taken upon her soul, the wicked countess sent for +Elizabeth, revealed the story of the ring, and besought forgiveness for +her treachery. But the queen, still obdurate, even while remorse for +past obduracy was tugging at her heart-strings, shook the dying woman in +her bed, as if struggling with death for the privilege of wreaking her +revenge and spite. The spirit of the countess passed away, to undergo +the justice, or receive the mercy, of a higher tribunal; and tradition +says, that the fatal ring was found upon her breast, where it had +imprinted a dark red circle, resembling the effect of the intensest +heat. The attendants, who prepared the body for burial, shuddered, +whispering one to another, that the ring must have derived its heat from +the glow of infernal fire. They left it on her breast, in the coffin, +and it went with that guilty woman to the tomb. + +Many years afterward, when the church, that contained the monuments of +the Shrewsbury family, was desecrated by Cromwell's soldiers, they broke +open the ancestral vaults, and stole whatever was valuable from the +noble personages who reposed there. Merlin's antique ring passed into +the possession of a stout sergeant of the Ironsides, who thus became +subject to the influences of the evil spirit that still kept his abode +within the gem's enchanted depths. The sergeant was soon slain in +battle, thus transmitting the ring, though without any legal form of +testament, to a gay cavalier, who forthwith pawned it, and expended the +money in liquor, which speedily brought him to the grave. We next catch +the sparkle of the magic diamond at various epochs of the merry reign of +Charles the Second. But its sinister fortune still attended it. From +whatever hand this ring of portent came, and whatever finger it +encircled, ever it was the pledge of deceit between man and man, or man +and woman, of faithless vows, and unhallowed passion; and whether to +lords and ladies, or to village-maids,--for sometimes it found its way +so low,--still it brought nothing but sorrow and disgrace. No purifying +deed was done, to drive the fiend from his bright home in this little +star. Again, we hear of it at a later period, when Sir Robert Walpole +bestowed the ring, among far richer jewels, on the lady of a British +legislator, whose political honor he wished to undermine. Many a dismal +and unhappy tale might be wrought out of its other adventures. All this +while, its ominous tinge of dusky red had been deepening and darkening, +until, if laid upon white paper, it cast the mingled hue of night and +blood, strangely illuminated with scintillating light, in a circle round +about. But this peculiarity only made it the more valuable. + +Alas, the fatal ring! When shall its dark secret be discovered, and the +doom of ill, inherited from one possessor to another, be finally +revoked? + +The legend now crosses the Atlantic, and comes down to our own immediate +time. In a certain church of our city, not many evenings ago, there was +a contribution for a charitable object. A fervid preacher had poured +out his whole soul in a rich and tender discourse, which had at least +excited the tears, and perhaps the more effectual sympathy, of a +numerous audience. While the choristers sang sweetly, and the organ +poured forth its melodious thunder, the deacons passed up and down the +aisles, and along the galleries, presenting their mahogany boxes, in +which each person deposited whatever sum he deemed it safe to lend to +the Lord, in aid of human wretchedness. Charity became audible,--chink, +chink, chink,--as it fell, drop by drop, into the common receptacle. +There was a hum,--a stir,--the subdued bustle of people putting their +hands into their pockets; while, ever and anon, a vagrant coin fell upon +the floor, and rolled away, with long reverberation, into some +inscrutable corner. + +At length, all having been favored with an opportunity to be generous, +the two deacons placed their boxes on the communion-table, and thence, +at the conclusion of the services, removed them into the vestry. Here +these good old gentlemen sat down together, to reckon the accumulated +treasure. + +"Fie, fie, Brother Tilton," said Deacon Trott, peeping into Deacon +Tilton's box, "what a heap of copper you have picked up! Really, for an +old man, you must have had a heavy job to lug it along. Copper! +copper! copper! Do people expect to get admittance into heaven at the +price of a few coppers?" + +"Don't wrong them, brother," answered Deacon Tilton, a simple and kindly +old man. "Copper may do more for one person, than gold will for +another. In the galleries, where I present my box, we must not expect +such a harvest as you gather among the gentry in the broad aisle, and +all over the floor of the church. My people are chiefly poor mechanics +and laborers, sailors, seamstresses, and servant-maids, with a most +uncomfortable intermixture of roguish school-boys." + +"Well, well," said Deacon Trott; "but there is a great deal, Brother +Tilton, in the method of presenting a contribution-box. It is a knack +that comes by nature, or not at all." + +They now proceeded to sum up the avails of the evening, beginning with +the receipts of Deacon Trott. In good sooth, that worthy personage had +reaped an abundant harvest, in which he prided himself no less, +apparently, than if every dollar had been contributed from his own +individual pocket. Had the good deacon been meditating a jaunt to +Texas, the treasures of the mahogany box might have sent him on his way +rejoicing. There were bank-notes, mostly, it is true, of the smallest +denominations in the giver's pocket-book, yet making a goodly average +upon the whole. The most splendid contribution was a check for a +hundred dollars, bearing the name of a distinguished merchant, whose +liberality was duly celebrated in the newspapers of the next day. No +less than seven half-eagles, together with an English sovereign, +glittered amidst an indiscriminate heap of silver; the box being +polluted with nothing of the copper kind, except a single bright new +cent, wherewith a little boy had performed his first charitable act. + +"Very well! very well indeed!" said Deacon Trott, self-approvingly. +"A handsome evening's work! And now, Brother Tilton, let's see whether +you can match it." Here was a sad contrast! They poured forth Deacon +Tilton's treasure upon the table, and it really seemed as if the whole +copper coinage of the country, together with an amazing quantity of +shop-keeper's tokens, and English and Irish half-pence, mostly of base +metal, had been congregated into the box. There was a very substantial +pencil-case, and the semblance of a shilling; but he latter proved to be +made of tin, and the former of German-silver. A gilded brass button was +doing duty as a gold coin, and a folded shopbill had assumed the +character of a bank-note. But Deacon Tilton's feelings were much +revived by the aspect of another bank-note, new and crisp, adorned with +beautiful engravings, and stamped with the indubitable word, TWENTY, in +large black letters. Alas! it was a counterfeit. In short, the poor +old Deacon was no less unfortunate than those who trade with fairies, +and whose gains are sure to be transformed into dried leaves, pebbles, +and other valuables of that kind. + +"I believe the Evil One is in the box," said he, with some vexation. + +"Well done, Deacon Tilton!" cried his Brother Trott, with a hearty +laugh. "You ought to have a statue in copper." + +"Never mind, brother," replied the good Deacon, recovering his temper. +"I'll bestow ten dollars from my own pocket, and may heaven's blessing +go along with it. But look! what do you call this?" + +Under the copper mountain, which it had cost them so much toil to +remove, lay an antique ring! It was enriched with a diamond, which, so +soon as it caught the light, began to twinkle and glimmer, emitting the +whitest and purest lustre that could possibly be conceived.--It was as +brilliant as if some magician had condensed the brightest star in heaven +into a compass fit to be set in a ring, for a lady's delicate finger. + +"How is this?" said Deacon Trott, examining it carefully, in the +expectation of finding it as worthless as the rest of his colleague's +treasure. "Why, upon my word, this seems to be a real diamond, and of +the purest water. Whence could it have come?" + +"Really, I cannot tell," quoth Deacon Tilton, "for my spectacles were so +misty that all faces looked alike. But now I remember, there was a +flash of light came from the box, at one moment; but it seemed a dusky +red, instead of a pure white, like the sparkle of this gem. Well; the +ring will make up for the copper; but I wish the giver had thrown its +history into the box along with it." + +It has been our good luck to recover a portion of that history. After +transmitting misfortune from one possessor to another, ever since the +days of British Merlin, the identical ring which Queen Elizabeth gave to +the Earl of Essex was finally thrown into the contribution-box of a New +England church. The two deacons deposited it in the glass case of a +fashionable jeweller, of whom it was purchased by the humble rehearser +of this legend, in the hope that it may be allowed to sparkle on a fair +lady's finger. Purified from the foul fiend, so long its inhabitant, by +a deed of unostentatious charity, and now made the symbol of faithful +and devoted love, the gentle bosom of its new possessor need fear no +sorrow from its influence. + +Very pretty!--Beautiful!--How original!--How sweetly written!--What +nature!--What imagination!--What power!--What pathos!--What exquisite +humor!"--were the exclamations of Edward Caryl's kind and generous +auditors, at the conclusion of the legend. + +"It is a pretty tale," said Miss Pemberton, who, conscious that her +praise was to that of all others as a diamond to a pebble, was therefore +the less liberal in awarding it. "It is really a pretty tale, and very +proper for any of the Annuals. But, Edward, your moral does not satisfy +me. What thought did you embody in the ring?" + +"O Clara, this is too bad!" replied Edward, with a half-reproachful +smile. "You know that I can never separate the idea from the symbol in +which it manifests itself. However, we may suppose the Gem to be the +human heart, and the Evil Spirit to be Falsehood, which, in one guise or +another, is the fiend that causes all the sorrow and trouble in the +world. I beseech you to let this suffice." + +"It shall," said Clara, kindly. "And, believe me, whatever the world +may say of the story, I prize it far above the diamond which enkindled +your imagination." + + + + + + +GRAVES AND GOBLINS. + +Now talk we of graves and goblins! Fit themes,--start not! gentle +reader,--fit for a ghost like me. Yes; though an earth-clogged fancy is +laboring with these conceptions, and an earthly hand will write them +down, for mortal eyes to read, still their essence flows from as airy a +ghost as ever basked in the pale starlight, at twelve o'clock. Judge +them not by the gross and heavy form in which they now appear. They may +be gross, indeed, with the earthly pollution contracted from the brain, +through which they pass; and heavy with the burden of mortal language, +that crushes all the finer intelligences of the soul. This is no fault +of mine. But should aught of ethereal spirit be perceptible, yet +scarcely so, glimmering along the dull train of words,--should a faint +perfume breathe from the mass of clay,--then, gentle reader, thank the +ghost, who thus embodies himself for your sake! Will you believe me, if +I say that all true and noble thoughts, and elevated imaginations, are +but partly the offspring of the intellect which seems to produce them? +Sprites, that were poets once, and are now all poetry, hover round the +dreaming bard, and become his inspiration; buried statesmen lend their +wisdom, gathered on earth and mellowed in the grave, to the historian; +and when the preacher rises nearest to the level of his mighty subject, +it is because the prophets of old days have communed with him. Who has +not been conscious of mysteries within his mind, mysteries of truth and +reality, which will not wear the chains of language? Mortal, then the +dead were with you! And thus shall the earth-dulled soul, whom I +inspire, be conscious of a misty brightness among his thoughts, and +strive to make it gleam upon the page,--but all in vain. Poor author! +How will he despise what he can grasp, for the sake of the dim glory +that eludes him! + +So talk we of graves and goblins. But, what have ghosts to do with +graves? Mortal man, wearing the dust which shall require a sepulchre, +might deem it more a home and resting-place than a spirit can, whose +earthly clod has returned to earth. Thus philosophers have reasoned. +Yet wiser they who adhere to the ancient sentiment, that a phantom +haunts and hallows the marble tomb or grassy hillock where its material +form was laid. Till purified from each stain of clay; till the passions +of the living world are all forgotten; till it have less brotherhood +with the wayfarers of earth, than with spirits that never wore +mortality,--the ghost must linger round the grave. O, it is a long and +dreary watch to some of us! + +Even in early childhood, I had selected a sweet spot, of shade and +glimmering sunshine, for my grave. It was no burial-ground, but a +secluded nook of virgin earth, where I used to sit, whole summer +afternoons, dreaming about life and death. My fancy ripened +prematurely, and taught me secrets which I could not otherwise have +known. I pictured the coming years,--they never came to me, indeed; but +I pictured them like life, and made this spot the scene of all that +should be brightest, in youth, manhood, and old age. There, in a little +while, it would be time for me to breathe the bashful and burning vows +of first-love; thither, after gathering fame abroad, I would return to +enjoy the loud plaudit of the world, a vast but unobtrusive sound, like +the booming of a distant sea; and thither, at the far-off close of life, +an aged man would come, to dream, as the boy was dreaming, and be as +happy in the past as lie was in futurity. Finally, when all should be +finished, in that spot so hallowed, in that soil so impregnated with the +most precious of my bliss, there was to be my grave. Methought it would +be the sweetest grave that ever a mortal frame reposed in, or an +ethereal spirit haunted. There, too, in future times, drawn thither by +the spell which I had breathed around the place, boyhood would sport and +dream, and youth would love, and manhood would enjoy, and age would +dream again, and my ghost would watch but never frighten them. Alas, +the vanity of mortal projects, even when they centre in the grave! I +died in my first youth, before I had been a lover; at a distance, also, +from the grave which fancy had dug for me; and they buried me in the +thronged cemetery of a town, where my marble slab stands unnoticed amid +a hundred others. And there are coffins on each side of mine! + +"Alas, poor ghost!" will the reader say. Yet I am a happy ghost enough, +and disposed to be contented with my grave, if the sexton will but let +it be my own, and bring no other dead man to dispute my title. Earth +has left few stains upon me, and it will be but a short time that I need +haunt the place. It is good to die in early youth. Had I lived out +threescore years and ten, or half of them, my spirit would have been so +earth-incrusted, that centuries might not have purified it for a better +home than the dark precincts of the grave. Meantime, there is good +choice of company amongst us. From twilight till near sunrise, we are +gliding to and fro, some in the graveyard, others miles away; and would +we speak with any friend, we do but knock against his tombstone, and +pronounce the name engraved on it: in an instant, there the shadow +stands! + +Some are ghosts of considerable antiquity. There is an old man, +hereabout; he never had a tombstone, and is often puzzled to distinguish +his own grave; but hereabouts he haunts, and long is doomed to haunt. +He was a miser in his lifetime, and buried a strong box of ill-gotten +gold, almost fresh from the mint, in the coinage of William and Mary. +Scarcely was it safe, when the sexton buried the old man and his secret +with him. I could point out the place where the treasure lies; it was +at the bottom of the miser's garden; but a paved thoroughfare now passes +beside the spot, and the cornerstone of a market-house presses right +down upon it. Had the workmen dug six inches deeper, they would have +found the hoard. Now thither must this poor old miser go, whether in +starlight, moonshine, or pitch darkness, and brood above his worthless +treasure, recalling all the petty crimes by which he gained it. Not a +coin must he fail to reckon in his memory, nor forget a pennyworth of +the sin that made up the sum, though his agony is such as if the pieces +of gold, red-hot, were stamped into his naked soul. Often, while he is +in torment there, he hears the steps of living men, who love the dross +of earth as well as he did. May they never groan over their miserable +wealth like him! Night after night, for above a hundred years, hath he +done this penance, and still must he do it, till the iron box be brought +to light, and each separate coin be cleansed by grateful tears of a +widow or an orphan. My spirit sighs for his long vigil at the corner of +the market-house! + +There are ghosts whom I tremble to meet, and cannot think of without a +shudder. One has the guilt of blood upon him. The soul which he thrust +untimely forth has long since been summoned from our gloomy graveyard, +and dwells among the stars of heaven, too far and too high for even the +recollection of mortal anguish to ascend thither. Not so the murderer's +ghost! It is his doom to spend all the hours of darkness in the spot +which he stained with innocent blood, and to feel the hot stream--hot as +when it first gushed upon his hand--incorporating itself with his +spiritual substance. Thus his horrible crime is ever fresh within him. +Two other wretches are condemned to walk arm in arm. They were guilty +lovers in their lives, and still, in death, must wear the guise of love, +though hatred and loathing have become their very nature and existence. +The pollution of their mutual sin remains with them, and makes their +souls sick continually. O, that I might forget all the dark shadows +which haunt about these graves! This passing thought of them has left a +stain, and will weigh me down among dust and sorrow, beyond the time +that my own transgressions would have kept me here. There is one shade +among us, whose high nature it is good to meditate upon. He lived a +patriot, and is a patriot still. Posterity has forgotten him. The +simple slab, of red freestone, that bore his name, was broken long ago, +and is now covered by the gradual accumulation of the soil. A tuft of +thistles is his only monument. This upright spirit came to his grave, +after a lengthened life, with so little stain of earth, that he might, +almost immediately, have trodden the pathway of the sky. But his strong +love of country chained him down, to share its vicissitudes of weal or +woe. With such deep yearning in his soul, he was unfit for heaven. +That noblest virtue has the effect of sin, and keeps his pure and lofty +spirit in a penance, which may not terminate till America be again a +wilderness. Not that there is no joy for the dead patriot. Can he fail +to experience it, while be contemplates the mighty and increasing power +of the land, which be protected in its infancy? No; there is much to +gladden him. But sometimes I dread to meet him, as he returns from the +bedchambers of rulers and politicians, after diving into their secret +motives, and searching out their aims. He looks round him with a stern +and awful sadness, and vanishes into his neglected grave. Let nothing +sordid or selfish defile your deeds or thoughts, ye great men of the +day, lest ye grieve the noble dead. + +Few ghosts take such an endearing interest as this, even in their own +private affairs. It made me rather sad, at first, to find how soon the +flame of love expires amid the chill damps of the tomb; so much the +sooner, the more fiercely it may have burned. Forget your dead +mistress, youth! She has already forgotten you. Maiden, cease to weep +for your buried lover! He will know nothing of your tears, nor value +them if he did. Yet it were blasphemy to say that true love is other +than immortal. It is an earthly passion, of which I speak, mingled with +little that is spiritual, and must therefore perish with the perishing +clay. When souls have loved, there is no falsehood or forgetfulness. +Maternal affection, too, is strong as adamant. There are mothers here, +among us, who might have been in heaven fifty years ago, if they could +forbear to cherish earthly joy and sorrow, reflected from the bosoms of +their children. Husbands and wives have a comfortable gift of oblivion, +especially when secure of the faith of their living halves. Jealousy, +it is true, will play the devil with a ghost, driving him to the bedside +of secondary wedlock, there to scowl, unseen, and gibber inaudible +remonstrances. Dead wives, however jealous in their lifetime, seldom +feel this posthumous torment so acutely. + +Many, many things, that appear most important while we walk the busy +street, lose all their interest the moment we are borne into the quiet +graveyard which borders it. For my own part, my spirit had not become +so mixed up with earthly existence, as to be now held in an unnatural +combination, or tortured much with retrospective cares. I still love my +parents and a younger sister, who remain among the living, and often +grieve me by their patient sorrow for the dead. Each separate tear of +theirs is an added weight upon my soul, and lengthens my stay among the +graves. As to other matters, it exceedingly rejoices me, that my +summons came before I had time to write a projected poem, which was +highly imaginative in conception, and could not have failed to give me a +triumphant rank in the choir of our native bards. Nothing is so much to +be deprecated as posthumous renown. It keeps the immortal spirit from +the proper bliss of his celestial state, and causes him to feed upon the +impure breath of mortal man, till sometimes he forgets that there are +starry realms above him. Few poets--infatuated that they are!--soar +upward while the least whisper of their name is heard on earth. On +Sabbath evenings, my sisters sit by the fireside, between our father and +mother, and repeat some hymns of mine, which they have often heard from +my own lips, ere the tremulous voice left them forever. Little do they +think, those dear ones, that the dead stands listening in the glimmer of +the firelight, and is almost gifted with a visible shape by the fond +intensity of their remembrance. + +Now shall the reader know a grief of the poor ghost that speaks to him; +a grief, but not a helpless one. Since I have dwelt among the graves, +they bore the corpse of a young maiden hither, and laid her in the old +ancestral vault, which is hollowed in the side of a grassy bank. It has +a door of stone, with rusty iron hinges, and above it, a rude sculpture +of the family arms, and inscriptions of all their names who have been +buried there, including sire and son, mother and daughter, of an ancient +colonial race. All of her lineage had gone before, and when the young +maiden followed, the portal was closed forever. The night after her +burial, when the other ghosts were flitting about their graves, forth +came the pale virgin's shadow, with the rest, but knew not whither to +go, nor whom to haunt, so lonesome had she been on earth. She stood by +the ancient sepulchre, looking upward to the bright stars, as if she +would, even then, begin her flight. Her sadness made me sad. That +night and the next, I stood near her, in the moonshine, but dared not +speak, because she seemed purer than all the ghosts, and fitter to +converse with angels than with men. But the third bright eve, still +gazing upward to the glory of the heavens, she sighed, and said, "When +will my mother come for me?" Her low, sweet voice emboldened me to +speak, and she was kind and gentle, though so pure, and answered me +again. From that time, always at the ghostly hour, I sought the old +tomb of her fathers, and either found her standing by the door, or +knocked, and she appeared. Blessed creature, that she was; her chaste +spirit hallowed mine, and imparted such a celestial buoyancy, that I +longed to grasp her hand, and fly,--upward, aloft, aloft! I thought, +too, that she only lingered here, till my earthlier soul should be +purified for heaven. One night, when the stars threw down the light +that shadows love, I stole forth to the accustomed spot, and knocked, +with my airy fingers, at her door. She answered not. Again I knocked, +and breathed her name. Where was she? At once, the truth fell on my +miserable spirit, and crushed it to the earth, among dead men's bones +and mouldering dust, groaning in cold and desolate agony. Her penance +was over! She had taken her trackless flight, and had found a home in +the purest radiance of the upper stars, leaving me to knock at the stone +portal of the darksome sepulchre. But I know--I know, that angels +hurried her away, or surely she would have whispered ere she fled! + +She is gone! How could the grave imprison that unspotted one! But her +pure, ethereal spirit will not quite forget me, nor soar too high in +bliss, till I ascend to join her. Soon, soon be that hour! I am weary +of the earth-damps; they burden me; they choke me! Already, I can float +in the moonshine; the faint starlight will almost bear up my footsteps; +the perfume of flowers, which grosser spirits love, is now too earthly a +luxury for me. Grave! Grave! thou art not my home. I must flit a +little longer in thy night gloom, and then be gone,--far from the dust +of the living and the dead,--far from the corruption that is around me, +but no more within! + +A few times, I have visited the chamber of one who walks, obscure and +lonely, on his mortal pilgrimage. He will leave not many living +friends, when he goes to join the dead, where his thoughts often stray, +and he might better be. I steal into his sleep, and play my part among +the figures of his dreams. I glide through the moonlight of his waking +fancy, and whisper conceptions, which, with a strange thrill of fear, he +writes down as his own. I stand beside him now, at midnight, telling +these dreamy truths with a voice so dream-like, that he mistakes them +for fictions of a brain too prone to such. Yet he glances behind him +and shivers, while the lamp burns pale. Farewell, dreamer,--waking or +sleeping! Your brightest dreams are fled; your mind grows too hard and +cold for a spiritual guest to enter; you are earthly, too, and have all +the sins of earth. The ghost will visit you no more. + +But where is the maiden, holy and pure, though wearing a form of clay, +that would have me bend over her pillow at midnight, and leave a +blessing there? With a silent invocation, let her summon me. Shrink +not, maiden, when I come! In life, I was a high-souled youth, +meditative, yet seldom sad, full of chaste fancies, and stainless from +all grosser sin. And now, ill death, I bring no loathsome smell of the +grave, nor ghostly terrors,--but gentle, and soothing, and sweetly +pensive influences. Perhaps, just fluttering for the skies, my visit +may hallow the wellsprings of thy thought, and make thee heavenly here +on earth. Then shall pure dreams and holy meditations bless thy life; +nor thy sainted spirit linger round the grave, but seek the upper stars, +and meet me there! + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Other Tales and Sketches, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 9248.txt or 9248.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/4/9248/ + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: Other Tales and Sketches + (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9248] +[This file was first posted on September 25, 2003] +[Last updated on February 6, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES + + + + +CONTENTS: + My Visit To Niagara + The Antique Ring + Graves And Goblins + + + +MY VISIT TO NIAGARA. + +Never did a pilgrim approach Niagara with deeper enthusiasm than mine. +I had lingered away from it, and wandered to other scenes, because my +treasury of anticipated enjoyments, comprising all the wonders of the +world, had nothing else so magnificent, and I was loath to exchange the +pleasures of hope for those of memory so soon. At length the day came. +The stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on the back seat, had +already left Lewiston, and in less than an hour would set us down in +Manchester. I began to listen for the roar of the cataract, and +trembled with a sensation like dread, as the moment drew nigh, when its +voice of ages must roll, for the first time, on my ear. The French +gentleman stretched himself from the window, and expressed loud +admiration, while, by a sudden impulse, I threw myself back and closed +my eyes. When the scene shut in, I was glad to think, that for me the +whole burst of Niagara was yet in futurity. We rolled on, and entered +the village of Manchester, bordering on the falls. + +I am quite ashamed of myself here. Not that I ran, like a madman to the +falls, and plunged into the thickest of the spray,--never stopping to +breathe, till breathing was impossible: not that I committed this, or +any other suitable extravagance. On the contrary, I alighted with +perfect decency and composure, gave my cloak to the black waiter, +pointed out my baggage, and inquired, not the nearest way to the +cataract, but about the dinner-hour. The interval was spent in +arranging my dress. Within the last fifteen minutes, my mind had grown +strangely benumbed, and my spirits apathetic, with a slight depression, +not decided enough to be termed sadness. My enthusiasm was in a +deathlike slumber. Without aspiring to immortality, as he did, I could +have imitated that English traveller, who turned back from the point +where he first heard the thunder of Niagara, after crossing the ocean to +behold it. Many a Western trader, by the by, has performed a similar +act of heroism with more heroic simplicity, deeming it no such wonderful +feat to dine at the hotel and resume his route to Buffalo or Lewiston, +while the cataract was roaring unseen. + +Such has often been my apathy, when objects, long sought, and earnestly +desired, were placed within my reach. After dinner--at which an +unwonted and perverse epicurism detained me longer than usual--I lighted +a cigar and paced the piazza, minutely attentive to the aspect and +business of a very ordinary village. Finally, with reluctant step, and +the feeling of an intruder, I walked towards Goat Island. At the +tollhouse, there were further excuses for delaying the inevitable +moment. My signature was required in a huge ledger, containing similar +records innumerable, many of which I read. The skin of a great +sturgeon, and other fishes, beasts, and reptiles; a collection of +minerals, such as lie in heaps near the falls; some Indian moccasins, +and other trifles, made of deer-skin and embroidered with beads; several +newspapers from Montreal, New York, and Boston;--all attracted me in +turn. Out of a number of twisted sticks, the manufacture of a Tuscarora +Indian, I selected one of curled maple, curiously convoluted, and +adorned with the carved images of a snake and a fish. Using this as my +pilgrim's staff, I crossed the bridge. Above and below me were the +rapids, a river of impetuous snow, with here and there a dark rock amid +its whiteness, resisting all the physical fury, as any cold spirit did +the moral influences of the scene. On reaching Goat Island, which +separates the two great segments of the falls, I chose the right-hand +path, and followed it to the edge of the American cascade. There, while +the falling sheet was yet invisible, I saw the vapor that never +vanishes, and the Eternal Rainbow of Niagara. + +It was an afternoon of glorious sunshine, without a cloud, save those of +the cataracts. I gained an insulated rock, and beheld a broad sheet of +brilliant and unbroken foam, not shooting in a curved line from the top +of the precipice, but falling headlong down from height to depth. A +narrow stream diverged from the main branch, and hurried over the crag +by a channel of its own, leaving a little pine-clad island and a streak +of precipice, between itself and the larger sheet. Below arose the +mist, on which was painted a dazzling sun-bow with two concentric +shadows,--one, almost as perfect as the original brightness; and the +other, drawn faintly round the broken edge of the cloud. + +Still I had not half seen Niagara. Following the verge of the island, +the path led me to the Horseshoe, where the real, broad St. Lawrence, +rushing along on a level with its banks, pours its whole breadth over a +concave line of precipice, and thence pursues its course between lofty +crags towards Ontario. A sort of bridge, two or three feet wide, +stretches out along the edge of the descending sheet, and hangs upon the +rising mist, as if that were the foundation of the frail structure. +Here I stationed myself in the blast of wind, which the rushing river +bore along with it. The bridge was tremulous beneath me, and marked the +tremor of the solid earth. I looked along the whitening rapids, and +endeavored to distinguish a mass of water far above the falls, to follow +it to their verge, and go down with it, in fancy, to the abyss of clouds +and storm. Casting my eyes across the river, and every side, I took in +the whole scene at a glance, and tried to comprehend it in one vast +idea. After an hour thus spent, I left the bridge, and, by a staircase, +winding almost interminably round a post, descended to the base of the +precipice. From that point, my path lay over slippery stones, and among +great fragments of the cliff, to the edge of the cataract, where the +wind at once enveloped me in spray, and perhaps dashed the rainbow round +me. Were my long desires fulfilled? And had I seen Niagara? + +O that I had never heard of Niagara till I beheld it! Blessed were the +wanderers of old, who heard its deep roar, sounding through the woods, +as the summons to an unknown wonder, and approached its awful brink, in +all the freshness of native feeling. Had its own mysterious voice been +the first to warn me of its existence, then, indeed, I might have knelt +down and worshipped. But I had come thither, haunted with a vision of +foam and fury, and dizzy cliffs, and an ocean tumbling down out of the +sky,--a scene, in short, which nature had too much good taste and calm +simplicity to realize. My mind had struggled to adapt these false +conceptions to the reality, and finding the effort vain, a wretched +sense of disappointment weighed me down. I climbed the precipice, and +threw myself on the earth, feeling that I was unworthy to look at the +Great Falls, and careless about beholding them again. + +All that night, as there has been and will be, for ages past and to +come, a rushing sound was heard, as if a great tempest were sweeping +through the air. It mingled with my dreams, and made them full of storm +and whirlwind. Whenever I awoke, and heard this dread sound in the air, +and the windows rattling as with a mighty blast, I could not rest again, +till looking forth, I saw how bright the stars were, and that every leaf +in the garden was motionless. Never was a summer night more calm to the +eye, nor a gale of autumn louder to the ear. The rushing sound proceeds +from the rapids, and the rattling of the casements is but an effect of +the vibration of the whole house, shaken by the jar of the cataract. +The noise of the rapids draws the attention from the true voice of +Niagara, which is a dull, muffed thunder, resounding between the cliffs. +I spent a wakeful hour at midnight, in distinguishing its +reverberations, and rejoiced to find that my former awe and enthusiasm +were reviving. + +Gradually, and after much contemplation, I came to know, by my own +feelings, that Niagara is indeed a wonder of the world, and not the less +wonderful, because time and thought must be employed in comprehending +it. Casting aside all preconceived notions, and preparation to be dire- +struck or delighted, the beholder must stand beside it in the simplicity +of his heart, suffering the mighty scene to work its own impression. +Night after night, I dreamed of it, and was gladdened every morning by +the consciousness of a growing capacity to enjoy it. Yet I will not +pretend to the all-absorbing enthusiasm of some more fortunate +spectators, nor deny that very trifling causes would draw my eyes and +thoughts from the cataract. + +The last day that I was to spend at Niagara, before my departure for the +Far West, I sat upon the Table Rock. This celebrated station did not +now, as of old, project fifty feet beyond the line of the precipice, but +was shattered by the fall of an immense fragment, which lay distant on +the shore below. Still, on the utmost verge of the rock, with my feet +hanging over it, I felt as if suspended in the open air. Never before +had my mind been in such perfect unison with the scene. There were +intervals, when I was conscious of nothing but the great river, rolling +calmly into the abyss, rather descending than precipitating itself, and +acquiring tenfold majesty from its unhurried motion. It came like the +march of Destiny. It was not taken by surprise, but seemed to have +anticipated, in all its course through the broad lakes, that it must +pour their collected waters down this height. The perfect foam of the +river, after its descent, and the ever-varying shapes of mist, rising +up, to become clouds in the sky, would be the very picture of confusion, +were it merely transient, like the rage of a tempest. But when the +beholder has stood awhile, and perceives no lull in the storm, and +considers that the vapor and the foam are as everlasting as the rocks +which produce them, all this turmoil assumes a sort of calmness. It +soothes, while it awes the mind. + +Leaning over the cliff, I saw the guide conducting two adventurers +behind the falls. It was pleasant, from that high seat in the sunshine, +to observe them struggling against the eternal storm of the lower +regions, with heads bent down, now faltering, now pressing forward, and +finally swallowed up in their victory. After their disappearance, a +blast rushed out with an old hat, which it had swept from one of their +heads. The rock, to which they were directing their unseen course, is +marked, at a fearful distance on the exterior of the sheet, by a jet of +foam. The attempt to reach it appears both poetical and perilous to a +looker-on, but may be accomplished without much more difficulty or +hazard, than in stemming a violent northeaster. In a few moments, forth +came the children of the mist. Dripping and breathless, they crept +along the base of the cliff, ascended to the guide's cottage, and +received, I presume, a certificate of their achievement, with three +verses of sublime poetry on the back. + +My contemplations were often interrupted by strangers, who came down +from Forsyth's to take their first view of the falls. A short, ruddy, +middle-aged gentleman, fresh from Old England, peeped over the rock, and +evinced his approbation by a broad grin. His spouse, a very robust +lady, afforded a sweet example of maternal solicitude, being so intent +on the safety of her little boy that she did not even glance at Niagara. +As for the child, he gave himself wholly to the enjoyment of a stick of +candy. Another traveller, a native American, and no rare character +among us, produced a volume of Captain Hall's tour, and labored +earnestly to adjust Niagara to the captain's description, departing, at +last, without one new idea or sensation of his own. The next comer was +provided, not with a printed book, but with a blank sheet of foolscap, +from top to bottom of which, by means of an ever-pointed pencil, the +cataract was made to thunder. In a little talk, which we had together, +he awarded his approbation to the general view, but censured the +position of Goat Island, observing that it should have been thrown +farther to the right, so as to widen the American falls, and contract +those of the Horseshoe. Next appeared two traders of Michigan, who +declared, that, upon the whole, the sight was worth looking at, there +certainly was an immense water-power here; but that, after all, they +would go twice as far to see the noble stone-works of Lockport, where +the Grand Canal is locked down a descent of sixty feet. They were +succeeded by a young fellow, in a homespun cotton dress, with a staff in +his hand, and a pack over his shoulders. He advanced close to the edge +of the rock, where his attention, at first wavering among the different +components of the scene, finally became fixed in the angle of the Horse +shoe falls, which is, indeed, the central point of interest. His whole +soul seemed to go forth and be transported thither, till the staff +slipped from his relaxed grasp, and falling down--down--down--struck +upon the fragment of the Table Rock. + +In this manner I spent some hours, watching the varied impression, made +by the cataract, on those who disturbed me, and returning to unwearied +contemplation, when left alone. At length my time came to depart. +There is a grassy footpath, through the woods, along the summit of the +bank, to a point whence a causeway, hewn in the side of the precipice, +goes winding down to the Ferry, about half a mile below the Table Rock. +The sun was near setting, when I emerged from the shadow of the trees, +and began the descent. The indirectness of my downward road continually +changed the point of view, and showed me, in rich and repeated +succession, now, the whitening rapids and majestic leap of the main +river, which appeared more deeply massive as the light departed; now, +the lovelier picture, yet still sublime, of Goat Island, with its rocks +and grove, and the lesser falls, tumbling over the right bank of the St. +Lawrence, like a tributary stream; now, the long vista of the river, as +it eddied and whirled between the cliffs, to pass through Ontario toward +the sea, and everywhere to be wondered at, for this one unrivalled +scene. The golden sunshine tinged the sheet of the American cascade, +and painted on its heaving spray the broken semicircle of a rainbow, +heaven's own beauty crowning earth's sublimity. My steps were slow, and +I paused long at every turn of the descent, as one lingers and pauses, +who discerns a brighter and brightening excellence in what he must soon +behold no more. The solitude of the old wilderness now reigned over the +whole vicinity of the falls. My enjoyment became the more rapturous, +because no poet shared it, nor wretch devoid of poetry profaned it; but +the spot so famous through the world was all my own! + + + + + + +THE ANTIQUE RING. + +"Yes, indeed: the gem is as bright as a star, and curiously set," said +Clara Pembertou, examining an antique ring, which her betrothed lover +had just presented to her, with a very pretty speech. "It needs only +one thing to make it perfect." + +"And what is that?" asked Mr. Edward Caryl, secretly anxious for the +credit of his gift. "A modern setting, perhaps?" + +"O, no! That would destroy the charm at once," replied Clara. "It +needs nothing but a story. I long to know how many times it has been +the pledge of faith between two lovers, and whether the vows, of which +it was the symbol, were always kept or often broken. Not that I should +be too scrupulous about facts. If you happen to be unacquainted with +its authentic history, so much the better. May it not have sparkled +upon a queen's finger? Or who knows but it is the very ring which +Posthumus received from Imogen? In short, you must kindle your +imagination at the lustre of this diamond, and make a legend for it." + +Now such a task--and doubtless Clara knew it--was the most acceptable +that could have been imposed on Edward Caryl. He was one of that +multitude of young gentlemen--limbs, or rather twigs of the law--whose +names appear in gilt letters on the front of Tudor's Buildings, and +other places in the vicinity of the Court House, which seem to be the +haunt of the gentler as well as the severer Muses. Edward, in the +dearth of clients, was accustomed to employ his much leisure in +assisting the growth of American Literature, to which good cause he had +contributed not a few quires of the finest letter-paper, containing some +thought, some fancy, some depth of feeling, together with a young +writer's abundance of conceits. Sonnets, stanzas of Tennysonian +sweetness, tales imbued with German mysticism, versions from Jean Paul, +criticisms of the old English poets, and essays smacking of Dialistic +philosophy, were among his multifarious productions. The editors of the +fashionable periodicals were familiar with his autograph, and inscribed +his name in those brilliant bead-rolls of ink-stained celebrity, which +illustrate the first page of their covers. Nor did fame withhold her +laurel. Hillard had included him among the lights of the New England +metropolis, in his Boston Book; Bryant had found room for some of his +stanzas, in the Selections from American Poetry; and Mr. Griswold, in +his recent assemblage of the sons and daughters of song, had introduced +Edward Caryl into the inner court of the temple, among his fourscore +choicest bards. There was a prospect, indeed, of his assuming a still +higher and more independent position. Interviews had been held with +Ticknor, and a correspondence with the Harpers, respecting a proposed +volume, chiefly to consist of Mr. Caryl's fugitive pieces in the +Magazines, but to be accompanied with a poem of some length, never +before published. Not improbably, the public may yet be gratified with +this collection. + +Meanwhile, we sum up our sketch of Edward Caryl, by pronouncing him, +though somewhat of a carpet knight in literature, yet no unfavorable +specimen of a generation of rising writers, whose spirit is such that we +may reasonably expect creditable attempts from all, and good and +beautiful results from some. And, it will be observed, Edward was the +very man to write pretty legends, at a lady's instance, for an old- +fashioned diamond ring. He took the jewel in his hand, and turned it so +as to catch its scintillating radiance, as if hoping, in accordance with +Clara's suggestion, to light up his fancy with that starlike gleam. + +"Shall it be a ballad?--a tale in verse?" he inquired. "Enchanted +rings often glisten in old English poetry, I think something may be done +with the subject; but it is fitter for rhyme than prose." + +"No, no," said Miss Pemberton, "we will have no more rhyme than just +enough for a posy to the ring. You must tell the legend in simple +prose; and when it is finished, I will make a little party to hear it +read." + +The young gentleman promised obedience; and going to his pillow, with +his head full of the familiar spirits that used to be worn in rings, +watches, and sword-hilts, he had the good fortune to possess himself of +an available idea in a dream. Connecting this with what he himself +chanced to know of the ring's real history, his task was done. Clara +Pemberton invited a select few of her friends, all holding the stanchest +faith in Edward's genius, and therefore the most genial auditors, if not +altogether the fairest critics, that a writer could possibly desire. +Blessed be woman for her faculty of admiration, and especially for her +tendency to admire with her heart, when man, at most, grants merely a +cold approval with his mind! + +Drawing his chair beneath the blaze of a solar lamp, Edward Caryl untied +a roll of glossy paper, and began as follows:-- + + +THE LEGEND + +After the death-warrant had been read to the Earl of Essex, and on the +evening before his appointed execution, the Countess of Shrewsbury paid +his lordship a visit, and found him, as it appeared, toying childishly +with a ring. The diamond, that enriched it, glittered like a little +star, but with a singular tinge of red. The gloomy prison-chamber in +the Tower, with its deep and narrow windows piercing the walls of stone, +was now all that the earl possessed of worldly prospect; so that there +was the less wonder that he should look steadfastly into the gem, and +moralize upon earth's deceitful splendor, as men in darkness and ruin +seldom fail to do. But the shrewd observations of the countess,--an +artful and unprincipled woman,--the pretended friend of Essex, but who +had come to glut her revenge for a deed of scorn which he himself had +forgotten,--her keen eye detected a deeper interest attached to this +jewel. Even while expressing his gratitude for her remembrance of a +ruined favorite, and condemned criminal, the earl's glance reverted to +the ring, as if all that remained of time and its affairs were collected +within that small golden circlet. + +"My dear lord," observed the countess, "there is surely some matter of +great moment wherewith this ring is connected, since it, so absorbs your +mind. A token, it may be, of some fair lady's love,--alas, poor lady, +once richest in possessing such a heart! Would you that the jewel be +returned to her?" + +"The queen! the queen! It was her Majesty's own gift," replied the +earl, still gazing into the depths of the gem. "She took it from her +finger, and told me, with a smile, that it was an heirloom from her +Tudor ancestors, and had once been the property of Merlin, the British +wizard, who gave it to the lady of his love. His art had made this +diamond the abiding-place of a spirit, which, though of fiendish nature, +was bound to work only good, so long as the ring was an unviolated +pledge of love and faith, both with the giver and receiver. But should +love prove false, and faith be broken, then the evil spirit would work +his own devilish will, until the ring were purified by becoming the +medium of some good and holy act, and again the pledge of faithful love. +The gem soon lost its virtue; for the wizard was murdered by the very +lady to whom he gave it." + +"An idle legend!" said the countess. + +"It is so," answered Essex, with a melancholy smile. "Yet the queen's +favor, of which this ring was the symbol, has proved my ruin. When +death is nigh, men converse with dreams and shadows. I have been gazing +into the diamond, and fancying--but you will laugh at me--that I might +catch a glimpse of the evil spirit there. Do you observe this red +glow,--dusky, too, amid all the brightness? It is the token of his +presence; and even now, methinks, it grows redder and duskier, like an +angry sunset." + +Nevertheless, the earl's manner testified how slight was his credence in +the enchanted properties of the ring. But there is a kind of +playfulness that comes in moments of despair, when the reality of +misfortune, if entirely felt, would crush the soul at once. He now, for +a brief space, was lost in thought, while the countess contemplated him +with malignant satisfaction. + +"This ring," he resumed, in another tone, "alone remains, of all that my +royal mistress's favor lavished upon her servant. My fortune once shone +as brightly as the gem. And now, such a darkness has fallen around me, +methinks it would be no marvel if its gleam--the sole light of my +prison-house--were to be forthwith extinguished; inasmuch as my last +earthly hope depends upon it." + +"How say you, my lord?" asked the Countess of Shrewsbury. "The stone +is bright; but there should be strange magic in it, if it can keep your +hopes alive, at this sad hour. Alas! these iron bars and ramparts of +the Tower are unlike to yield to such a spell." + +Essex raised his head involuntarily; for there was something in the +countess's tone that disturbed him, although he could not suspect that +an enemy had intruded upon the sacred privacy of a prisoner's dungeon, +to exult over so dark a ruin of such once brilliant fortunes. He looked +her in the face, but saw nothing to awaken his distrust. It would have +required a keener eye than even Cecil's to read the secret of a +countenance, which had been worn so long in the false light of a court, +that it was now little better than a mask, telling any story save the +true one. The condemned nobleman again bent over the ring, and +proceeded: + +"It once had power in it,--this bright gem,--the magic that appertains +to the talisman of a great queen's favor. She bade me, if hereafter I +should fall into her disgrace,--how deep soever, and whatever might be +the crime,--to convey this jewel to her sight, and it should plead for +me. Doubtless, with her piercing judgment, she had even then detected +the rashness of my nature, and foreboded some such deed as has now +brought destruction upon my bead. And knowing, too, her own hereditary +rigor, she designed, it may be, that the memory of gentler and kindlier +hours should soften her heart in my behalf, when my need should be the +greatest. I have doubted,--I have distrusted,--yet who can tell, even +now, what happy influence this ring might have?" + +"You have delayed full long to show the ring, and plead her Majesty's +gracious promise," remarked the countess,--"your state being what it +is." + +"True," replied the earl: "but for my honor's sake, I was loath to +entreat the queen's mercy, while I might hope for life, at least, from +the justice of the laws. If, on a trial by my peers, I had been +acquitted of meditating violence against her sacred life, then would I +have fallen at her feet, and presenting the jewel, have prayed no other +favor than that my love and zeal should be put to the severest test. +But now--it were confessing too much--it were cringing too low--to beg +the miserable gift of life, on no other score than the tenderness which +her Majesty deems one to have forfeited!" + +"Yet it is your only hope," said the countess. + +"And besides," continued Essex, pursuing his own reflections, "of what +avail will be this token of womanly feeling, when, on the other hand, +are arrayed the all-prevailing motives of state policy, and the +artifices and intrigues of courtiers, to consummate my downfall? Will +Cecil or Raleigh suffer her heart to act for itself, even if the spirit +of her father were not in her? It is in vain to hope it." + +But still Essex gazed at the ring with an absorbed attention, that +proved how much hope his sanguine temperament had concentrated here, +when there was none else for him in the wide world, save what lay in the +compass of that hoop of gold. The spark of brightness within the +diamond, which gleamed like an intenser than earthly fire, was the +memorial of his dazzling career. It had not paled with the waning +sunshine of his mistress's favor; on the contrary, in spite of its +remarkable tinge of dusky red, he fancied that it never shone so +brightly. The glow of festal torches,--the blaze of perfumed lamps,-- +bonfires that had been kindled for him, when he was the darling of the +people,--the splendor of the royal court, where he had been the peculiar +star,--all seemed to have collected their moral or material glory into +the gem, and to burn with a radiance caught from the future, as well as +gathered from the past. That radiance might break forth again. +Bursting from the diamond, into which it was now narrowed, it might been +first upon the gloomy walls of the Tower,--then wider, wider, wider,-- +till all England, and the seas around her cliffs, should be gladdened +with the light. It was such an ecstasy as often ensues after long +depression, and has been supposed to precede the circumstances of +darkest fate that may befall mortal man. The earl pressed the ring to +his heart as if it were indeed a talisman, the habitation of a spirit, +as the queen had playfully assured him,--but a spirit of happier +influences than her legend spake of. + +"O, could I but make my way to her footstool!" cried he, waving his +hand aloft, while he paced the stone pavement of his prison-chamber with +an impetuous step. "I might kneel down, indeed, a ruined man, condemned +to the block, but how should I rise again? Once more the favorite of +Elizabeth!--England's proudest noble!--with such prospects as ambition +never aimed at! Why have I tarried so long in this weary dungeon? The +ring has power to set me free! The palace wants me! Ho, jailer, unbar +the door!" + +But then occurred the recollection of the impossibility of obtaining an +interview with his fatally estranged mistress, and testing the influence +over her affections, which he still flattered himself with possessing. +Could he step beyond the limits of his prison, the world would be all +sunshine; but here was only gloom and death. + +"Alas!" said he, slowly and sadly, letting his head fall upon his hands. +"I die for the lack of one blessed word." + +The Countess of Shrewsbury, herself forgotten amid the earl's gorgeous +visions, had watched him with an aspect that could have betrayed nothing +to the most suspicious observer; unless that it was too calm for +humanity, while witnessing the flutterings, as it were, of a generous +heart in the death-agony. She now approached him. + +"My good lord," she said, "what mean you to do?" + +"Nothing,--my deeds are done!" replied he, despondingly; "yet, had a +fallen favorite any friends, I would entreat one of them to lay this +ring at her Majesty's feet; albeit with little hope, save that, +hereafter, it might remind her that poor Essex, once far too highly +favored, was at last too severely dealt with." + +"I will be that friend," said the countess. "There is no time to be +lost. Trust this precious ring with me. This very night the queen's +eye shall rest upon it; nor shall the efficacy of my poor words be +wanting, to strengthen the impression which it will doubtless make." + +The earl's first impulse was to hold out the ring. But looking at the +countess, as she bent forward to receive it, he fancied that the red +glow of the gem tinged all her face, and gave it an ominous expression. +Many passages of past times recurred to his memory. A preternatural +insight, perchance caught from approaching death, threw its momentary +gleam, as from a meteor, all round his position. + +"Countess," he said, "I know not wherefore I hesitate, being in a plight +so desperate, and having so little choice of friends. But have you +looked into your own heart? Can you perform this office with the truth +--the earnestness--time--zeal, even to tears, and agony of spirit-- +wherewith the holy gift of human life should be pleaded for? Woe be +unto you, should you undertake this task, and deal towards me otherwise +than with utmost faith! For your own soul's sake, and as you would have +peace at your death-hour, consider well in what spirit you receive this +ring!" + +The countess did not shrink. + +"My lord!--my good lord!" she exclaimed, "wrong not a woman's heart by +these suspicious. You might choose another messenger; but who, save a +lady of her bedchamber, can obtain access to the queen at this untimely +hour? It is for your life,--for your life,--else I would not renew my +offer." + +"Take the ring," said the earl. + +"Believe that it shall be in the queen's hands before the lapse of +another hour," replied the countess, as she received this sacred trust +of life and death. "To-morrow morning look for the result of my +intercession." + +She departed. Again the earl's hopes rose high. Dreams visited his +slumber, not of the sable-decked scaffold in the Tower-yard, but of +canopies of state, obsequious courtiers, pomp, splendor, the smile of +the once more gracious queen, and a light beaming from the magic gem, +which illuminated his whole future. + +History records how foully the Countess of Shrewsbury betrayed the +trust, which Essex, in his utmost need, confided to her. She kept the +ring, and stood in the presence of Elizabeth, that night, without one +attempt to soften her stern hereditary temper in behalf of the former +favorite. The next day the earl's noble head rolled upon the scaffold. +On her death-bed, tortured, at last, with a sense of the dreadful guilt +which she had taken upon her soul, the wicked countess sent for +Elizabeth, revealed the story of the ring, and besought forgiveness for +her treachery. But the queen, still obdurate, even while remorse for +past obduracy was tugging at her heart-strings, shook the dying woman in +her bed, as if struggling with death for the privilege of wreaking her +revenge and spite. The spirit of the countess passed away, to undergo +the justice, or receive the mercy, of a higher tribunal; and tradition +says, that the fatal ring was found upon her breast, where it had +imprinted a dark red circle, resembling the effect of the intensest +heat. The attendants, who prepared the body for burial, shuddered, +whispering one to another, that the ring must have derived its heat from +the glow of infernal fire. They left it on her breast, in the coffin, +and it went with that guilty woman to the tomb. + +Many years afterward, when the church, that contained the monuments of +the Shrewsbury family, was desecrated by Cromwell's soldiers, they broke +open the ancestral vaults, and stole whatever was valuable from the +noble personages who reposed there. Merlin's antique ring passed into +the possession of a stout sergeant of the Ironsides, who thus became +subject to the influences of the evil spirit that still kept his abode +within the gem's enchanted depths. The sergeant was soon slain in +battle, thus transmitting the ring, though without any legal form of +testament, to a gay cavalier, who forthwith pawned it, and expended the +money in liquor, which speedily brought him to the grave. We next catch +the sparkle of the magic diamond at various epochs of the merry reign of +Charles the Second. But its sinister fortune still attended it. From +whatever hand this ring of portent came, and whatever finger it +encircled, ever it was the pledge of deceit between man and man, or man +and woman, of faithless vows, and unhallowed passion; and whether to +lords and ladies, or to village-maids,--for sometimes it found its way +so low,--still it brought nothing but sorrow and disgrace. No purifying +deed was done, to drive the fiend from his bright home in this little +star. Again, we hear of it at a later period, when Sir Robert Walpole +bestowed the ring, among far richer jewels, on the lady of a British +legislator, whose political honor he wished to undermine. Many a dismal +and unhappy tale might be wrought out of its other adventures. All this +while, its ominous tinge of dusky red had been deepening and darkening, +until, if laid upon white paper, it cast the mingled hue of night and +blood, strangely illuminated with scintillating light, in a circle round +about. But this peculiarity only made it the more valuable. + +Alas, the fatal ring! When shall its dark secret be discovered, and the +doom of ill, inherited from one possessor to another, be finally +revoked? + +The legend now crosses the Atlantic, and comes down to our own immediate +time. In a certain church of our city, not many evenings ago, there was +a contribution for a charitable object. A fervid preacher had poured +out his whole soul in a rich and tender discourse, which had at least +excited the tears, and perhaps the more effectual sympathy, of a +numerous audience. While the choristers sang sweetly, and the organ +poured forth its melodious thunder, the deacons passed up and down the +aisles, and along the galleries, presenting their mahogany boxes, in +which each person deposited whatever sum he deemed it safe to lend to +the Lord, in aid of human wretchedness. Charity became audible,--chink, +chink, chink,--as it fell, drop by drop, into the common receptacle. +There was a hum,--a stir,--the subdued bustle of people putting their +hands into their pockets; while, ever and anon, a vagrant coin fell upon +the floor, and rolled away, with long reverberation, into some +inscrutable corner. + +At length, all having been favored with an opportunity to be generous, +the two deacons placed their boxes on the communion-table, and thence, +at the conclusion of the services, removed them into the vestry. Here +these good old gentlemen sat down together, to reckon the accumulated +treasure. + +"Fie, fie, Brother Tilton," said Deacon Trott, peeping into Deacon +Tilton's box, "what a heap of copper you have picked up! Really, for an +old man, you must have had a heavy job to lug it along. Copper! +copper! copper! Do people expect to get admittance into heaven at the +price of a few coppers?" + +"Don't wrong them, brother," answered Deacon Tilton, a simple and kindly +old man. "Copper may do more for one person, than gold will for +another. In the galleries, where I present my box, we must not expect +such a harvest as you gather among the gentry in the broad aisle, and +all over the floor of the church. My people are chiefly poor mechanics +and laborers, sailors, seamstresses, and servant-maids, with a most +uncomfortable intermixture of roguish school-boys." + +"Well, well," said Deacon Trott; "but there is a great deal, Brother +Tilton, in the method of presenting a contribution-box. It is a knack +that comes by nature, or not at all." + +They now proceeded to sum up the avails of the evening, beginning with +the receipts of Deacon Trott. In good sooth, that worthy personage had +reaped an abundant harvest, in which he prided himself no less, +apparently, than if every dollar had been contributed from his own +individual pocket. Had the good deacon been meditating a jaunt to +Texas, the treasures of the mahogany box might have sent him on his way +rejoicing. There were bank-notes, mostly, it is true, of the smallest +denominations in the giver's pocket-book, yet making a goodly average +upon the whole. The most splendid contribution was a check for a +hundred dollars, bearing the name of a distinguished merchant, whose +liberality was duly celebrated in the newspapers of the next day. No +less than seven half-eagles, together with an English sovereign, +glittered amidst an indiscriminate heap of silver; the box being +polluted with nothing of the copper kind, except a single bright new +cent, wherewith a little boy had performed his first charitable act. + +"Very well! very well indeed!" said Deacon Trott, self-approvingly. +"A handsome evening's work! And now, Brother Tilton, let's see whether +you can match it." Here was a sad contrast! They poured forth Deacon +Tilton's treasure upon the table, and it really seemed as if the whole +copper coinage of the country, together with an amazing quantity of +shop-keeper's tokens, and English and Irish half-pence, mostly of base +metal, had been congregated into the box. There was a very substantial +pencil-case, and the semblance of a shilling; but he latter proved to be +made of tin, and the former of German-silver. A gilded brass button was +doing duty as a gold coin, and a folded shopbill had assumed the +character of a bank-note. But Deacon Tilton's feelings were much +revived by the aspect of another bank-note, new and crisp, adorned with +beautiful engravings, and stamped with the indubitable word, TWENTY, in +large black letters. Alas! it was a counterfeit. In short, the poor +old Deacon was no less unfortunate than those who trade with fairies, +and whose gains are sure to be transformed into dried leaves, pebbles, +and other valuables of that kind. + +"I believe the Evil One is in the box," said he, with some vexation. + +"Well done, Deacon Tilton!" cried his Brother Trott, with a hearty +laugh. "You ought to have a statue in copper." + +"Never mind, brother," replied the good Deacon, recovering his temper. +"I'll bestow ten dollars from my own pocket, and may heaven's blessing +go along with it. But look! what do you call this?" + +Under the copper mountain, which it had cost them so much toil to +remove, lay an antique ring! It was enriched with a diamond, which, so +soon as it caught the light, began to twinkle and glimmer, emitting the +whitest and purest lustre that could possibly be conceived.--It was as +brilliant as if some magician had condensed the brightest star in heaven +into a compass fit to be set in a ring, for a lady's delicate finger. + +"How is this?" said Deacon Trott, examining it carefully, in the +expectation of finding it as worthless as the rest of his colleague's +treasure. "Why, upon my word, this seems to be a real diamond, and of +the purest water. Whence could it have come?" + +"Really, I cannot tell," quoth Deacon Tilton, "for my spectacles were so +misty that all faces looked alike. But now I remember, there was a +flash of light came from the box, at one moment; but it seemed a dusky +red, instead of a pure white, like the sparkle of this gem. Well; the +ring will make up for the copper; but I wish the giver had thrown its +history into the box along with it." + +It has been our good luck to recover a portion of that history. After +transmitting misfortune from one possessor to another, ever since the +days of British Merlin, the identical ring which Queen Elizabeth gave to +the Earl of Essex was finally thrown into the contribution-box of a New +England church. The two deacons deposited it in the glass case of a +fashionable jeweller, of whom it was purchased by the humble rehearser +of this legend, in the hope that it may be allowed to sparkle on a fair +lady's finger. Purified from the foul fiend, so long its inhabitant, by +a deed of unostentatious charity, and now made the symbol of faithful +and devoted love, the gentle bosom of its new possessor need fear no +sorrow from its influence. + +Very pretty!--Beautiful!--How original!--How sweetly written!--What +nature!--What imagination!--What power!--What pathos!--What exquisite +humor!"--were the exclamations of Edward Caryl's kind and generous +auditors, at the conclusion of the legend. + +"It is a pretty tale," said Miss Pemberton, who, conscious that her +praise was to that of all others as a diamond to a pebble, was therefore +the less liberal in awarding it. "It is really a pretty tale, and very +proper for any of the Annuals. But, Edward, your moral does not satisfy +me. What thought did you embody in the ring?" + +"O Clara, this is too bad!" replied Edward, with a half-reproachful +smile. "You know that I can never separate the idea from the symbol in +which it manifests itself. However, we may suppose the Gem to be the +human heart, and the Evil Spirit to be Falsehood, which, in one guise or +another, is the fiend that causes all the sorrow and trouble in the +world. I beseech you to let this suffice." + +"It shall," said Clara, kindly. "And, believe me, whatever the world +may say of the story, I prize it far above the diamond which enkindled +your imagination." + + + + + + +GRAVES AND GOBLINS. + +Now talk we of graves and goblins! Fit themes,--start not! gentle +reader,--fit for a ghost like me. Yes; though an earth-clogged fancy is +laboring with these conceptions, and an earthly hand will write them +down, for mortal eyes to read, still their essence flows from as airy a +ghost as ever basked in the pale starlight, at twelve o'clock. Judge +them not by the gross and heavy form in which they now appear. They may +be gross, indeed, with the earthly pollution contracted from the brain, +through which they pass; and heavy with the burden of mortal language, +that crushes all the finer intelligences of the soul. This is no fault +of mine. But should aught of ethereal spirit be perceptible, yet +scarcely so, glimmering along the dull train of words,--should a faint +perfume breathe from the mass of clay,--then, gentle reader, thank the +ghost, who thus embodies himself for your sake! Will you believe me, if +I say that all true and noble thoughts, and elevated imaginations, are +but partly the offspring of the intellect which seems to produce them? +Sprites, that were poets once, and are now all poetry, hover round the +dreaming bard, and become his inspiration; buried statesmen lend their +wisdom, gathered on earth and mellowed in the grave, to the historian; +and when the preacher rises nearest to the level of his mighty subject, +it is because the prophets of old days have communed with him. Who has +not been conscious of mysteries within his mind, mysteries of truth and +reality, which will not wear the chains of language? Mortal, then the +dead were with you! And thus shall the earth-dulled soul, whom I +inspire, be conscious of a misty brightness among his thoughts, and +strive to make it gleam upon the page,--but all in vain. Poor author! +How will he despise what he can grasp, for the sake of the dim glory +that eludes him! + +So talk we of graves and goblins. But, what have ghosts to do with +graves? Mortal man, wearing the dust which shall require a sepulchre, +might deem it more a home and resting-place than a spirit can, whose +earthly clod has returned to earth. Thus philosophers have reasoned. +Yet wiser they who adhere to the ancient sentiment, that a phantom +haunts and hallows the marble tomb or grassy hillock where its material +form was laid. Till purified from each stain of clay; till the passions +of the living world are all forgotten; till it have less brotherhood +with the wayfarers of earth, than with spirits that never wore +mortality,--the ghost must linger round the grave. O, it is a long and +dreary watch to some of us! + +Even in early childhood, I had selected a sweet spot, of shade and +glimmering sunshine, for my grave. It was no burial-ground, but a +secluded nook of virgin earth, where I used to sit, whole summer +afternoons, dreaming about life and death. My fancy ripened +prematurely, and taught me secrets which I could not otherwise have +known. I pictured the coming years,--they never came to me, indeed; but +I pictured them like life, and made this spot the scene of all that +should be brightest, in youth, manhood, and old age. There, in a little +while, it would be time for me to breathe the bashful and burning vows +of first-love; thither, after gathering fame abroad, I would return to +enjoy the loud plaudit of the world, a vast but unobtrusive sound, like +the booming of a distant sea; and thither, at the far-off close of life, +an aged man would come, to dream, as the boy was dreaming, and be as +happy in the past as lie was in futurity. Finally, when all should be +finished, in that spot so hallowed, in that soil so impregnated with the +most precious of my bliss, there was to be my grave. Methought it would +be the sweetest grave that ever a mortal frame reposed in, or an +ethereal spirit haunted. There, too, in future times, drawn thither by +the spell which I had breathed around the place, boyhood would sport and +dream, and youth would love, and manhood would enjoy, and age would +dream again, and my ghost would watch but never frighten them. Alas, +the vanity of mortal projects, even when they centre in the grave! I +died in my first youth, before I had been a lover; at a distance, also, +from the grave which fancy had dug for me; and they buried me in the +thronged cemetery of a town, where my marble slab stands unnoticed amid +a hundred others. And there are coffins on each side of mine! + +"Alas, poor ghost!" will the reader say. Yet I am a happy ghost enough, +and disposed to be contented with my grave, if the sexton will but let +it be my own, and bring no other dead man to dispute my title. Earth +has left few stains upon me, and it will be but a short time that I need +haunt the place. It is good to die in early youth. Had I lived out +threescore years and ten, or half of them, my spirit would have been so +earth-incrusted, that centuries might not have purified it for a better +home than the dark precincts of the grave. Meantime, there is good +choice of company amongst us. From twilight till near sunrise, we are +gliding to and fro, some in the graveyard, others miles away; and would +we speak with any friend, we do but knock against his tombstone, and +pronounce the name engraved on it: in an instant, there the shadow +stands! + +Some are ghosts of considerable antiquity. There is an old man, +hereabout; he never had a tombstone, and is often puzzled to distinguish +his own grave; but hereabouts he haunts, and long is doomed to haunt. +He was a miser in his lifetime, and buried a strong box of ill-gotten +gold, almost fresh from the mint, in the coinage of William and Mary. +Scarcely was it safe, when the sexton buried the old man and his secret +with him. I could point out the place where the treasure lies; it was +at the bottom of the miser's garden; but a paved thoroughfare now passes +beside the spot, and the cornerstone of a market-house presses right +down upon it. Had the workmen dug six inches deeper, they would have +found the hoard. Now thither must this poor old miser go, whether in +starlight, moonshine, or pitch darkness, and brood above his worthless +treasure, recalling all the petty crimes by which he gained it. Not a +coin must he fail to reckon in his memory, nor forget a pennyworth of +the sin that made up the sum, though his agony is such as if the pieces +of gold, red-hot, were stamped into his naked soul. Often, while he is +in torment there, he hears the steps of living men, who love the dross +of earth as well as he did. May they never groan over their miserable +wealth like him! Night after night, for above a hundred years, hath he +done this penance, and still must he do it, till the iron box be brought +to light, and each separate coin be cleansed by grateful tears of a +widow or an orphan. My spirit sighs for his long vigil at the corner of +the market-house! + +There are ghosts whom I tremble to meet, and cannot think of without a +shudder. One has the guilt of blood upon him. The soul which he thrust +untimely forth has long since been summoned from our gloomy graveyard, +and dwells among the stars of heaven, too far and too high for even the +recollection of mortal anguish to ascend thither. Not so the murderer's +ghost! It is his doom to spend all the hours of darkness in the spot +which he stained with innocent blood, and to feel the hot stream--hot as +when it first gushed upon his hand--incorporating itself with his +spiritual substance. Thus his horrible crime is ever fresh within him. +Two other wretches are condemned to walk arm in arm. They were guilty +lovers in their lives, and still, in death, must wear the guise of love, +though hatred and loathing have become their very nature and existence. +The pollution of their mutual sin remains with them, and makes their +souls sick continually. O, that I might forget all the dark shadows +which haunt about these graves! This passing thought of them has left a +stain, and will weigh me down among dust and sorrow, beyond the time +that my own transgressions would have kept me here. There is one shade +among us, whose high nature it is good to meditate upon. He lived a +patriot, and is a patriot still. Posterity has forgotten him. The +simple slab, of red freestone, that bore his name, was broken long ago, +and is now covered by the gradual accumulation of the soil. A tuft of +thistles is his only monument. This upright spirit came to his grave, +after a lengthened life, with so little stain of earth, that he might, +almost immediately, have trodden the pathway of the sky. But his strong +love of country chained him down, to share its vicissitudes of weal or +woe. With such deep yearning in his soul, he was unfit for heaven. +That noblest virtue has the effect of sin, and keeps his pure and lofty +spirit in a penance, which may not terminate till America be again a +wilderness. Not that there is no joy for the dead patriot. Can he fail +to experience it, while be contemplates the mighty and increasing power +of the land, which be protected in its infancy? No; there is much to +gladden him. But sometimes I dread to meet him, as he returns from the +bedchambers of rulers and politicians, after diving into their secret +motives, and searching out their aims. He looks round him with a stern +and awful sadness, and vanishes into his neglected grave. Let nothing +sordid or selfish defile your deeds or thoughts, ye great men of the +day, lest ye grieve the noble dead. + +Few ghosts take such an endearing interest as this, even in their own +private affairs. It made me rather sad, at first, to find how soon the +flame of love expires amid the chill damps of the tomb; so much the +sooner, the more fiercely it may have burned. Forget your dead +mistress, youth! She has already forgotten you. Maiden, cease to weep +for your buried lover! He will know nothing of your tears, nor value +them if he did. Yet it were blasphemy to say that true love is other +than immortal. It is an earthly passion, of which I speak, mingled with +little that is spiritual, and must therefore perish with the perishing +clay. When souls have loved, there is no falsehood or forgetfulness. +Maternal affection, too, is strong as adamant. There are mothers here, +among us, who might have been in heaven fifty years ago, if they could +forbear to cherish earthly joy and sorrow, reflected from the bosoms of +their children. Husbands and wives have a comfortable gift of oblivion, +especially when secure of the faith of their living halves. Jealousy, +it is true, will play the devil with a ghost, driving him to the bedside +of secondary wedlock, there to scowl, unseen, and gibber inaudible +remonstrances. Dead wives, however jealous in their lifetime, seldom +feel this posthumous torment so acutely. + +Many, many things, that appear most important while we walk the busy +street, lose all their interest the moment we are borne into the quiet +graveyard which borders it. For my own part, my spirit had not become +so mixed up with earthly existence, as to be now held in an unnatural +combination, or tortured much with retrospective cares. I still love my +parents and a younger sister, who remain among the living, and often +grieve me by their patient sorrow for the dead. Each separate tear of +theirs is an added weight upon my soul, and lengthens my stay among the +graves. As to other matters, it exceedingly rejoices me, that my +summons came before I had time to write a projected poem, which was +highly imaginative in conception, and could not have failed to give me a +triumphant rank in the choir of our native bards. Nothing is so much to +be deprecated as posthumous renown. It keeps the immortal spirit from +the proper bliss of his celestial state, and causes him to feed upon the +impure breath of mortal man, till sometimes he forgets that there are +starry realms above him. Few poets--infatuated that they are!--soar +upward while the least whisper of their name is heard on earth. On +Sabbath evenings, my sisters sit by the fireside, between our father and +mother, and repeat some hymns of mine, which they have often heard from +my own lips, ere the tremulous voice left them forever. Little do they +think, those dear ones, that the dead stands listening in the glimmer of +the firelight, and is almost gifted with a visible shape by the fond +intensity of their remembrance. + +Now shall the reader know a grief of the poor ghost that speaks to him; +a grief, but not a helpless one. Since I have dwelt among the graves, +they bore the corpse of a young maiden hither, and laid her in the old +ancestral vault, which is hollowed in the side of a grassy bank. It has +a door of stone, with rusty iron hinges, and above it, a rude sculpture +of the family arms, and inscriptions of all their names who have been +buried there, including sire and son, mother and daughter, of an ancient +colonial race. All of her lineage had gone before, and when the young +maiden followed, the portal was closed forever. The night after her +burial, when the other ghosts were flitting about their graves, forth +came the pale virgin's shadow, with the rest, but knew not whither to +go, nor whom to haunt, so lonesome had she been on earth. She stood by +the ancient sepulchre, looking upward to the bright stars, as if she +would, even then, begin her flight. Her sadness made me sad. That +night and the next, I stood near her, in the moonshine, but dared not +speak, because she seemed purer than all the ghosts, and fitter to +converse with angels than with men. But the third bright eve, still +gazing upward to the glory of the heavens, she sighed, and said, "When +will my mother come for me?" Her low, sweet voice emboldened me to +speak, and she was kind and gentle, though so pure, and answered me +again. From that time, always at the ghostly hour, I sought the old +tomb of her fathers, and either found her standing by the door, or +knocked, and she appeared. Blessed creature, that she was; her chaste +spirit hallowed mine, and imparted such a celestial buoyancy, that I +longed to grasp her hand, and fly,--upward, aloft, aloft! I thought, +too, that she only lingered here, till my earthlier soul should be +purified for heaven. One night, when the stars threw down the light +that shadows love, I stole forth to the accustomed spot, and knocked, +with my airy fingers, at her door. She answered not. Again I knocked, +and breathed her name. Where was she? At once, the truth fell on my +miserable spirit, and crushed it to the earth, among dead men's bones +and mouldering dust, groaning in cold and desolate agony. Her penance +was over! She had taken her trackless flight, and had found a home in +the purest radiance of the upper stars, leaving me to knock at the stone +portal of the darksome sepulchre. But I know--I know, that angels +hurried her away, or surely she would have whispered ere she fled! + +She is gone! How could the grave imprison that unspotted one! But her +pure, ethereal spirit will not quite forget me, nor soar too high in +bliss, till I ascend to join her. Soon, soon be that hour! I am weary +of the earth-damps; they burden me; they choke me! Already, I can float +in the moonshine; the faint starlight will almost bear up my footsteps; +the perfume of flowers, which grosser spirits love, is now too earthly a +luxury for me. Grave! Grave! thou art not my home. I must flit a +little longer in thy night gloom, and then be gone,--far from the dust +of the living and the dead,--far from the corruption that is around me, +but no more within! + +A few times, I have visited the chamber of one who walks, obscure and +lonely, on his mortal pilgrimage. He will leave not many living +friends, when he goes to join the dead, where his thoughts often stray, +and he might better be. I steal into his sleep, and play my part among +the figures of his dreams. I glide through the moonlight of his waking +fancy, and whisper conceptions, which, with a strange thrill of fear, he +writes down as his own. I stand beside him now, at midnight, telling +these dreamy truths with a voice so dream-like, that he mistakes them +for fictions of a brain too prone to such. Yet he glances behind him +and shivers, while the lamp burns pale. Farewell, dreamer,--waking or +sleeping! Your brightest dreams are fled; your mind grows too hard and +cold for a spiritual guest to enter; you are earthly, too, and have all +the sins of earth. The ghost will visit you no more. + +But where is the maiden, holy and pure, though wearing a form of clay, +that would have me bend over her pillow at midnight, and leave a +blessing there? With a silent invocation, let her summon me. Shrink +not, maiden, when I come! In life, I was a high-souled youth, +meditative, yet seldom sad, full of chaste fancies, and stainless from +all grosser sin. And now, ill death, I bring no loathsome smell of the +grave, nor ghostly terrors,--but gentle, and soothing, and sweetly +pensive influences. Perhaps, just fluttering for the skies, my visit +may hallow the wellsprings of thy thought, and make thee heavenly here +on earth. Then shall pure dreams and holy meditations bless thy life; +nor thy sainted spirit linger round the grave, but seek the upper stars, +and meet me there! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, OTHER TALES AND SKETCHES *** +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +******* This file should be named haw7510.txt or haw7510.zip ******* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw7511.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw7510a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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