POWER OF INTELLECT.
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her mother had not strength to withhold her. In a corner of the chamber stood a large and heavy sword axe, leaning against the wall: Susanna lifted it and rushed to the window; a man's hand was seen grasping the lower part of the window casing, apparently with the design of swinging himself up into the room: but Susanna raised the axe, and letting it fall with all its weight on the outstretched wrist, severed the hand from the arm. The man, with a cry of pain, fell from the window into the street, and the hand rolled on the floor of the chamber. Margaretha now heard the patrol approaching all else was still; and she replaced Susanna in her bed, where powerless and senseless from exhaustion, she soon fell into a deep sleep; while her mother busied herself in removing the traces of their nocturnal visitant. She raised the dissevered hand, intending to throw it out of the window: on one finger was a ring, which she recognized but too well it was the ring which Susanna gave when she was betrothed to Opalinsky; and she had now no doubt that he had attempted to enter the house forcibly to remove her from it.
The sun was high, and shining through the broken window, and Margaretha was still watching by the bed of her daughter, when she awoke with a start. “Mother, “said she, “I have had a frightful dream. I thought “-but, turning her eyes towards the window, she perceived the shattered panes, which her mother had not completely hidden. She doubted then whether it was a dream or reality that had so alarmed her. “The wind, “said her mother, “has torn off the shutter and blown it against the window, and so broke it. “Oh, no, “said Susanna, “not the wind only, it was Sturmwind. I saw him, dreadful man! “and again her senses wandered.
But she was strong in youth, and grew better; and with her mother's tender care she recovered. When she was able to walk about, she said one day: “Mother, misfortune has visited me early. I was a bride the wife of a robber: I am so still. I cannot mix again in the world; people would turn from me, shun me. But, “she added, with a sigh, “there is still a place of refuge left for me: the Saviour of the world receives and protects the poor, and those whom the world despises. Let me, then, vow myself to the service of a cloister. The church alone can loosen my bands; and there I shall find that peace and comfort which are denied to me elsewhere. “Margaretha listened she could not reply, for sobs rose thickly and choked her voice. “Do not weep, mother, “continued Susanna, “I shall not be lost to you: I shall pray for you, work for you, and even see you. “My child, “said Margaretha, after a pause, your bands are already loosened. A marriage, perpetrated by such deceit, cannot be legal. Besides, the ring you gave is in my hands. God has judged! “She fetched the ring and shewed it to her. Susanna burst into tears. She pressed her mother to tell her how it had came into her possession, and she related what had occurred during the night of her delirium.
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“Righteous God! “exclaimed the shuddering girl, “thou hast armed a weak hand; and what sense could not have resolved on, thou hast executed by the phrenzy of sickness. “She continued to implore her mother that she might retire to a convent, so that at last she agreed to her determination, and she was received as a serving lay sister, by the Marianites, whose convent stood on one of the bills which surround Wilna. She performed the fatiguing duties of her selfchosen vocation with patience and gentleness, and when her mother visited her, her countenance was tranquil and even cheerful.
One morning, as she was going to the convent church, there to pray and meet her child, a crowd was assembled at the place of execution, by which her road lay; and some, who were running, cried to others “that is Sturmwind, who is going to be hanged! “Involuntarily she looked around, and saw with horror a criminal, who had lost one hand, expire in strong convulsions, between two more who had been already executed in the same manner. Shuddering she turned away, and on reaching the convent related to Susanna the cause of her emotion. “His measure was full, “she replied, “and he has atoned for his misdeeds. And now I am freed from the last links in which misfortune held me. “She begged to be admitted into the order of the convent, and, after the year of her noviciate, she became a nun.
Some of the old inhabitants of Wilna still remember the fair, unfortunate nun; and have said that, in her dark grey woollen dress, her pale, serene countenance resembled that of an angel, who, compassionating mankind, dwelt on earth to alleviate their woes!
POWER OF INTELLECT.
“There is a certain charm about great superiority of intellect that winds into deep affections, which a much more constant and even amiability of manners in lesser men, often fails to reach. Genius makes many enemies, but it makes sure friends friends who forgive much, who endure long, who exact little; they partake of the character of disciples as well as friends. There lingers about the human heart a strong inclination to look upward to revere in this inclination lies the source of religion, of loyalty, and also of the worship and immortality which are rendered so cheerfully to the great of old. And, in truth, it is a divine pleasure to admire! admiration seems in some measure to appropriate to ourselves the qualities it honours in others. We wed we root ourselves to the natures we so love to contemplate, and their life grows a part of our own. Thus, when a great man, who has engrossed our thoughts, our conjectures, our homage, dies, a gap seems suddenly left in the world a wheel in the mechanism of our own being appears abruptly stilled; a portion of ourselves, and not our worst portion for how many pure, high, generous sentiments it contains! dies with him. “Eugene Aram.
