l vice, and fixed in inertion by the
flattering commendations of his spiritual guide, burst forth afresh like a
stream long pent up, and overwhelmed him with their gush. He sank upon one
knee, and received his wife and child falling into his embrace. His haughty
spirit was humbled, was softened. He could have borne her curses with
indifference, he could have returned a formal adieu with equal
formality--he had expected to encounter a scene, and was made up
accordingly: but to look upon her thus--her days gone like a shadow--to
witness her sunken eye filled with beamings in which he alone was
enshrined--to see her meek and forgiving, whose light heart had been turned
to sorrow, whose gay morning dreams had been turned to sad realities, whose
confidence had been abused and happiness wrecked,--all, all by his baseness
and treachery:--to behold his forsaken wife, superior to all this, clinging
to him for his last farewell, as if she and not himself were the offender,
was beyond his expectation. He knew he had merited curses and hate, and he
met with affection and tenderness; his heart yearned--a sensation of
admiration for her virtues and constancy came over him, and, ere it had
possessed him entirely, it humbled his proud spirit--it undeceived his
false expectations. "My God, I have not deserved this!" burst from his
swelling heart. A tear, such as he had not shed since he left the paths of
innocence, stole down his cheek. Fervently, truly, affectionately, he
blessed his wife and child."

"They are gone. Was it a vision that had visited his waking dreams? The
spell is dissolved; he is still on earth, and earthly thoughts and worldly
crimes return and weigh down his soul."

"The fetters of vice are not broken in a moment; they may yield sometimes
like wax, but they close again, and the link is adamant. His foster-mother
came to say her last farewell. He shuddered as she entered. He felt the
presence of his evil genius, and wished she had spared him this. This, too,
was transient; her influence, though disarranged by the vision of the last
few moments, was not broken. He was again enslaved. The summons for
execution was answered by her hysteric sobs and wild ravings, and her loud
shrieks rang through the cell as De Lawrence impressed his last kiss."

The incidents of the previous sketch contain little, if any, extravagance
or affectation, and it would be better for men, if we could charge the
author of "Clouds and Sunshine"