Kate Aylesford: A Story of the Refugees

Shout to them in the pauses of the storm, And tell them there is hope. * * * It is too late; No help of human hand can reach them there; One hour will hush their cries. —Maturin.

It was several hours later in the evening. In a small room, in one of the dwellings which the conflagration at the Neck had spared, Aylesford lay extended on a bed, his life ebb...

She is mine own; And I as rich in having such a jewel, As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold. —Shakespeare.

And many an old man’s sigh, and many a widow’s, And many an orphan’s water-standing eye— Men for their sons’, wives for their husbands’ fate, And orphans for their parents’ time...

But at this crisis, and when another instant would have dismissed one, if not both of the combatants, to death, a gun-barrel was thrust between them, striking up their blades, a...

The southern half of New Jersey is almost a dead level, covered with pine and oak forests, growing on a sandy soil. A slightly elevated ridge, however, runs in a southwesterly d...

Did you ever see the devil, With his iron-wooden shovel, A scratching up the gravel. With his night-cap on? * * * * Did you ever, ever, ever, Ever, ever, ever, ever, Ever, ever,...

The precious moments which Kate had lost, first by falling asleep, and afterwards through the watchfulness of the hound, stimulated her now to the utmost speed of which she was...

“To hear The roaring of the raging elements, To know all human skill, all human strength, Avail not; to look around, and only see The mountain wave incumbent with its weight, Of...

Another day, the conversation, when Uncle Lawrence was present, happened to turn on the battle of Trenton, and the famous winter campaign of Washington in the Jerseys. The veter...

“White as a white sail on a dusky sea, When half the horizon’s clouded and half free, Fluttering between the dim wave and the sky, Is hope’s last gleam in man’s extremity.” —Byron.

The astonishment of Arrison, when he discovered the escape of Kate, was only equaled by his rage. He was not the first, however, to detect her flight. Having resisted the influe...

“What! mounted already?” said Major Gordon, as he rode up to the gate of Sweetwater, and saw Kate in the saddle. “I had no idea even that you intended to ride today. I thought,...

As she spoke, she struck Arab with all her strength, so that he shot forward like a bolt from a cross-bow, entering the forest, on the right, where the tracks of an old road wer...

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain, Where smiling Spring its earliest visit paid, And parting Summer’s lingering bl...

If Major Gordon had thought Kate charming, in her simple morning dress, he considered her transcendently beautiful on horseback. The easy, graceful seat; the light bridle hand;...

There’s little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: for she is never sad, but when she sleeps; and not over sad then; for I have heard my daughter say she hath often dream...

Deep in the forest, that stretches, a pathless wilderness, to the south and west of Sweetwater, there stood, at the period of our story, a solitary log-cabin, with about two acr...

The Neck was a tongue of land, which, jutting out into the tide, and surrounded on two sides by salt marshes, formed the last piece of solid ground as the voyager descended the...

The venerable edifice of Christ Church, the oldest house of worship of its denomination in Philadelphia, still retains the outward appearance it wore five and seventy years ago....

In this You satisfy your anger and revenge; Suppose this, it will not Repair your loss; and there was never yet But shame and scandal in a victory, When, rebels unto reason, pas...

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart— A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth? That can with studied, shy, ensnaring art, Betray sweet Jenny’s unsuspecting truth? Cur...

Arrison was thunderstruck by the sudden apparition of Uncle Lawrence. His first movement was to start back, as if he saw a spirit; for the old man was the last person he had exp...

Our heroine was so completely prostrated by physical fatigue and mental excitement, that she sank into the first chair which presented itself, when the door closed; and covering...

The Forks, as its name imported, was situated at the head of navigation, at the junction of two small branches of the river, on whose shores the events we have been narrating oc...

“I love that dear old house! my mother lived there Her first sweet marriage years. * * * * The sunlight there seems to me brighter far Than wheresoever else. I know the forms Of...

It would be impossible to convey, in words, an adequate idea of the state of Aylesford’s mind, after his separation from Major Gordon. Rage, shame and jealousy possessed him by...

It is, methinks, a morning full of fate! It riseth slowly, as her sullen car, Had all the weight of sleep and death hung at it! She is not rosy-fingered, but swollen black. —Jon...

We must now return to Kate, whom we left a prisoner with the outlaws, and momentarily in dread that she would be compelled to sacrifice life in order to avert dishonor.

Suddenly a figure glided forth into the moonlight, which, for one moment, Kate almost fancied was a spirit. It was clothed in white, and bore the semblance of a young girl, not...

“Sometimes, I suppose. He can’t be for ever dangling after her. At any rate, now that I’ve come back, I’ll take good care that he don’t.” And he finished with an oath.

It was out on the broad Atlantic. The sun had just set, red and colossal, behind a bank of clouds, leaving the whole firmament around him in a blaze of glory. Far along the west...

Such is the power of that sweet passion, That it all sordid baseness doth expel, And the refined mind doth newly fashion Unto a fairer form, which now doth dwell In his high tho...

During the period that Newell had been in such imminent peril, the persons on the wreck had been wholly forgotten. Major Gordon was the first to remember the sufferers. Looking...

Be just, and fear not! Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s and truth’s, then if thou fall’st, O Cromwell! Thou fall’st a blessed martyr. —Shakespeare.

The room into which Mr. Herman ushered his guests apparently occupied about half of the lower floor, and was employed indiscriminately for a kitchen, sitting-room and parlor. A...

Major Gordon had been left an orphan at an early age, with but a small competence, most of which had been exhausted on his education, so that, on his attaining his majority, his...

The old church, amid its now verdureless grove of oaks, seemed, as they drove past, to look sadly on their departure; while the stream in its rear audibly lamented, and the anci...

You raised these hallowed walls; the desert smil’d, And Paradise was opened in the wild. No weeping orphan saw his father’s stores Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze our floors;...

The British advanced in the most gallant manner to the attack of Major Gordon’s position, each boat keeping its place as carefully in the line as soldiers on parade. In a few mi...

The lives of Kate and Major Gordon were as happy as might have been foretold, from their mutual affection, their firm principles, their good sense, and the adaptability of their...

Captain Powell was one of those who had been a listener at Aylesford’s bedside, during the confession of the latter. Arriving in New York, after the loss of his ship, without em...

Circumstances favored the wishes of Aylesford even more than he had dared to hope, for that evening, at the tea-table, Kate announced her intention of riding over, on the follow...

Helen I love thee; by my life I do: I swear by that which I will love for thee, To prove him false that says I love thee not. —Shakespeare.

The instant Major Gordon was out of sight of Sweetwater, and had plunged into the forest that lay between it and his quarters, he gave vent to the angry emotions that had raged,...

Fastening the skiff to the overhanging bough of a tree, Uncle Lawrence stepped ashore, followed by Major Gordon. For about ten minutes, the two advanced along a narrow woodland...

Still as he fled his eye was backward cast, As if his fear still followed him behind, As flew his steed as if his bands had brast, And with his winged heels did tread the wind....

Suddenly the distant cry of a hound seemed borne upon the air. Often before, during the morning, as we have said, Kate had fancied she heard such a noise; and as often had she b...

This was the beginning of an acquaintance between Major Gordon and the heiress of Sweetwater, which soon ripened into intimacy. Of the dangers of such a friendship, to the gentl...

The story-teller is like the weaver of an elaborate pattern in tapestry. To a spectator he seems continually to be dropping threads without necessity, and as often taking up new...

The British, being thus masters of the field, proceeded to their work of destruction. Their wounded had first to be removed indeed, and their dead buried; but as there were few...