"t.i.tsikan, such a thought is not worthy of you!" says Pulaski, interrupting him.
"No! no!" rejoins the Tartar, "it is a mere reflection only---it is one of those ideas which a robber cannot prevent.---My brave and unfortunate friends, I demand nothing from you---nay, more, you shall not retire on foot; I have some charming horses, with which I intend to present you.---And, for this lady, if you please. I will give you a litter, on which I myself have been carried for these last ten or twelve days. This young man here had given me such a wound, that I could no longer sit on horseback.---The litter is indeed a bad one, clumsily constructed, by means of branches of trees; but I have nothing except that or a little covered waggon, to offer you: choose which ever of them you please."
In the mean time, Dourlinski, who had not as yet uttered a single word, remained with his eyes fixed upon the ground, while an air of consternation was spread over his countenance.
"Unworthy friend!" says Pulaski to him, "how could you so cruelly abuse the confidence I reposed in you? Were you not afraid to expose yourself to my resentment? What demon blinded you?"
"Love!" replies Dourlinski, "an outrageous love! You, perhaps, do not comprehend to what excess the pa.s.sions may hurry on a man, violent and jealous by nature. This frightful example, however, ought to teach you, that a daughter so charming as yours is a treasure which one ought not to entrust to any person.
"Pulaski, I have, indeed, merited your hatred; but I am still worthy of your pity. I have rendered myself exceedingly culpable; but you behold me cruelly punished. I lose, in one single day, my rank, my riches, my honour, my liberty! more than all this, I lose thy daughter!
"O, Lodoiska! lovely maiden, whom I have so much outraged, will you deign to forget my persecutions, your danger, and your grief? Will you deign to grant to me a generous pardon?
"Ah! if there are no crimes which a sincere repentance cannot expiate, Lodoiska, I am no longer criminal. I would I were able, at the price of all my blood, to redeem those tears which I have occasioned you to shed.
Amidst the horrible state to which Dourlinski is about to be reduced, shall he not be permitted to carry with him the consoling recollection of having heard you tell him, that he is no longer odious to you?
"Too amiable, and until this present moment, too unfortunate maiden!
however great my wrongs may have been in regard to you, I have it in my power to repair them all by means of a single word---advance---approach me---I have a secret which can only be entrusted to your private ear: it is exceedingly important that it should be revealed to you!"
Lodoiska, without the least distrust, now leaves my side, and advances towards him without suspicion.
At that very moment I beheld a poniard glittering in the hand of Dourlinski!
I precipitate myself upon him.---It was too late; for I could only parry the second thrust; and the lovely Lodoiska, wounded immediately above the left breast, had already fallen senseless at the feet of t.i.tsikan!
Pulaski, furious at the horrid treason, drew his sabre quick as lightning, on purpose to avenge his daughter"s fate.
"No! no!" exclaims the Tartar, at the same time withholding his arm: "you are about to make this wretch suffer too gentle a death!"
"It is well," says the infamous a.s.sa.s.sin, addressing himself to me, and at the same time contemplating his victim with a cruel joy. "Lovzinski you appeared but now eager to be united with Lodoiska; why do you not follow her? Go, my too happy rival, go and accompany your mistress to the tomb! Let them prepare my _punishment_; it will appear pleasant to me: I leave you to torments no less cruel, and infinitely longer than mine."
Dourlinski was not allowed to utter another sentence, for the Tartars rushed in upon him, and threw him into the midst of the burning ruins.
What a night! how many different cares, how many opposite sentiments agitated my unhappy mind during its continuance! How many times did I experience the successive emotions of fear, hope, grief and joy! After so many dangers and inquietudes, Lodoiska was at length presented to me by her father, and I was intoxicated with the near hope of possessing her:---a barbarian had but now a.s.sa.s.sinated her in my pretence!
This was the most cruel and unfortunate moment of any during the whole course of my life!---But my happiness eclipsed, as it were, in a single instant, was not long in shining forth with all its former splendor.
Amidst the Tartars belonging to t.i.tsikan, was one somewhat conversant in surgery. We sent for him; on his arrival he examines the wound, and a.s.sures us that it is but a slight one. The infamous Dourlinski, constrained by his chains, and blinded by his despair, had happily been prevented from giving any other than an ill-directed blow.
As soon as t.i.tsikan was informed that the life of Lodoiska was not in any danger, he prepared to take leave of us.
"I leave you," said he, "the five domestics who accompanied Pulaski; provisions for several days, arms, six excellent horses, two covered waggons, and the people belonging to Dourlinski in chains. Their base lord is no more! Adieu! the day is about to appear; do not leave this place until to-morrow; I shall then visit the other cantons. Adieu, brave Poles! tell to your countrymen that t.i.tsikan is not so bad as he has been represented to them; and that he sometimes restores with one hand what he takes with another. Adieu!"
At these words he lifts his hand to his head, and having saluted us gracefully after the manner of his country, he gives the signal to depart: the Tartars mount their fleet coursers in an instant, pa.s.s along the drawbridge, and make for the neighbouring plain at a full gallop.
They had been gone scarcely two hours when several of the neighbouring n.o.bility, supported by a detachment of militia, came on purpose to invest the castle of Dourlinski.
Pulaski himself went out to receive them: he related the particulars of all that had occurred; and some, gained over by his eloquence, promised to follow us to the palatinate of Lublin.
They asked for only two days to prepare every thing necessary for the expedition, and actually came and rejoined us at the appointed time, to the number of sixty.
Lodoiska having a.s.sured us that she was now able to undergo the fatigues of a journey, we placed her in a commodious carriage, which we had luckily been able to procure for this purpose.
After having restored Dourlinski"s people to liberty, we abandon the two covered waggons to them, in which t.i.tsikan, acting with his usual generosity, had left part of his immense booty: this we divided among them in equal proportions.
We arrived, without meeting with any accident, at Polowisk, in the Palatinate of Lublin, this being the place which Pulaski had appointed for the general rendezvous.
The news of his return having gone abroad, a crowd of malecontents in the s.p.a.ce of less than a month flocked to and increased our little army to such a degree, that we soon found it to amount to no less than 10,000 men.
Lodoiska entirely cured of her wound, and perfectly recovered from her fatigues, had regained her usual spirits, and appeared in possession of all her former beauty. Pulaski one day called me into his tent, and spoke as follows. "Three thousand Russians have appeared, as you well know, upon the heights above, and at no greater distance than half a league from us: take, in the course of the ensuing night, three thousand chosen men, and go and chase the enemy from the advantageous posts which they now occupy. Recollect that on the success of a first attempt depends almost always that of the campaign; recollect that you are about to avenge your country"s wrongs; recollect too, my friend, that to-morrow I shall learn thy victory, and that to-morrow also thou shalt espouse Lodoiska!"
(_To be continued._)
THE FIERY ORDEAL; A Judicial Anecdote.
Towards the end of the Greek Empire at Constantinople, a general, who was an object of suspicion to his master, was urged to undergo the fiery proof of the Ordeal by an archbishop, a subtle courtier. The ceremony was this; three days before the trial the patient"s arm was inclosed in a bag, and secured by the royal signet; he was expected to bear a red hot ball of iron three times, from the altar to the rails of the sanctuary, without artifice and injury. The general eluded the experiment with pleasantry. "I am a soldier," said he, "and will boldly enter the lists with my accusers; but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with the gift of miracles. Your piety, holy prelate, may deserve the interposition of heaven, and from your hands I will receive the fiery globe, the test of my innocence." The archbishop stared, the emperor smiled, and the general was pardoned.
POWER.
Power is no good quality by itself; it is the Power of doing good, alone, that is desirable to the wise. All vice is selfishness, and the meanest is that which is most contractedly selfish.
Great minds can reconcile sublimity to good-humour; in weak ones, it is generally coupled with severity and moroseness.
Sublime qualities men admire; they love the gentler virtues. When Wisdom would engage a heart, she wooes in a smile. What the austere man advises with his tongue his frown forbids.
The vulgar-rich call the poor the vulgar: let us learn to call things by their proper names; the rude and ungentle are the vulgar, whether, in fortune, they be poor or rich.
The truly poor and worthless are those who have not sense to perceive the superiority of internal merit to all foreign or outward accomplishments.
ANECDOTE OF DR. GOLDSMITH.
Those in the least acquainted with the private character of the doctor, knew that _economy_ and _foresight_ were not amongst the catalogue of his virtues. In the suite of his pensioners (and he generally enlarged his list as he enlarged his finances) was the late unfortunate Jack Pilkington, of scribbling memory, who had served the doctor so many tricks, that he despaired of getting any more money from him, without coming out with a _chef d"uvre_ once for all. He accordingly called on the doctor one morning, and running about the room in a fit of joy, told him his fortune was made, "How so, Jack?" says the doctor. "Why," says Jack, "the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, you must know, has long had a strange _penchant_ for a pair of _white mice_; now, as I knew they were sometimes to be had in the East Indies, I commissioned a friend of mine, who was going out then, to get them for me, and he is this morning arrived with two of the most beautiful little animals in nature." After Jack had finished this account with a transport of joy, he lengthened his visage by telling the doctor all was ruined, for without _two guineas_ to buy a cage for the _mice_, he could not present them. The doctor unfortunately, as he said himself, had but half a guinea in the world, which he offered him. But Pilkington was not to be beat out of his scheme; he perceived the doctor"s watch hanging up in his room, and after premising on the indelicacy of the proposal, hinted, that if he could spare that watch for a week, he could raise a few guineas on it, which he would repay him with grat.i.tude. The doctor would not be the means of spoiling a man"s fortune for such a trifle. He accordingly took down the watch, and gave it to him, which Jack immediately took to the p.a.w.n-brokers, raised what he could on it, and never once looked after the doctor, till he sent to borrow another half guinea from him on his death-bed; which the other, under such circ.u.mstances, very generously sent him.
FUGITIVE TRIFLES.