The Children of the Abbey: A Tale

"It would raise your pity but to see the tears Force through her snowy lids their melting course, To lodge themselves on her red murm'ring lips, That talk such mournful things;...

Overwhelmed with grief and disappointment at the supposed perfidy of Amanda, Lord Mortimer had returned to England, acquainting Lord Cherbury and Lady Martha of the unhappy caus...

"Canst thou bear cold and hunger? Can these limbs, Framed for the tender offices of love, Endure the bitter gripes of smarting poverty? When in a bed of straw we shrink together...

"As one condemned to leap a precipice, Who sees before his eyes the depths below, Stops short, and looks about for some kind shrub To break his dreadful fall."--DRYDEN.

From that evening, to the day destined for the ball, nothing material happened. On the morning of that day, as Amanda was sitting in the drawing-room with the ladies, Lord Morti...

"Oh how this tyrant doubt torments my breast! My thoughts, like birds, who frighted from their rest, Around the place where all was hushed before, Flutter, and hardly settle any...

"The breezy call of incense-breathing morn; The swallow twittering from its straw built shed; The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse him from his lo...

"Sincerity! Thou first of virtues, let no mortal leave Thy onward path, although the earth should gape, And from the gulf of hell destruction cry To take dissimulation's winding...

But a shock more severe than those she had lately experienced was yet in store for our hapless heroine. About a fortnight after the visit of the Kilcorbans and the priest, as sh...

"------------------She alone Heard, felt, and seen, possesses every thought, Fills every sense, and pants in every vein. Books are but formal dulness, tedious friends, And sad a...

The dejection of Amanda gradually declined, as the idea of seeing Lord Mortimer again revived. It revived not, however, without hopes, fears, and agitations. Sometimes she imagi...

"Why, thou poor mourner, in what baleful corner Hast thou been talking with that witch, the night? On what cold stone hast thou been stretched along, Gathering the grumbling win...

"Go bid the needle its dear north forsake, To which with trembling reverence it does bend: Go bid the stones a journey upward make: Go bid the ambitious flame no more ascend; An...

"For true repentance never comes too late; As soon as born she makes herself a shroud, The weeping mantle of a fleecy cloud, And swift as thought her airy journey takes, Her han...

"The modest virtues mingled in her eyes, Still on the ground dejected, darting all Their humid beams into the opening flowers. Or when she thought-- Of what her faithless fortun...

The fatigue, distress, and agitation of Amanda could no longer be struggled with; she sunk beneath their violence, and for a week was confined to her bed by the fever which had...

"Well, child," said Mrs. Macpherson, "do you choose to take anything?" "I thank you, madam," replied Amanda, "I should like a little tea." "Oh! as to tea, I have just taken my o...

"But, my love," cried Lord Cherbury, as he wiped away the tears which pity and horror at the fate of Lady Euphrasia had caused Amanda to shed, "will your brother, think you, san...

"From the loud camp retired and noisy court, In honorable ease and rural sport; The remnant of his days he safely passed, Nor found they lagged too slow nor flew too fast. He ma...

To begin, then, as they say in a novel, without further preface, I was the only child of a country curate, in the southern part of England, who, like his wife, was of a good, bu...

The next morning brought Sir Charles Bingley to Castle Carberry. Fitzalan was out, but Amanda received him in her dressing-room. He told her, with evident concern, he was on the...

hand, for her particular perusal. Oh! what mementoes were those volumes of the happy hours she had passed at the cottage! The night waned away, and still she continued weeping o...

"A crimson blush her beauteous face o'erspread, Varying her cheeks by turns with white and red; The driving colors, never at a stay, Run here and there, and flush and fade away;...

In the drawing-room were already assembled the marquis, marchioness, Lady Euphrasia, Miss Malcolm, and Freelove. Lady Araminta perceived in the hesitating voice of Amanda the em...

We shall now account for the incidents in the last chapter. Amanda's letter to the Rushbrooks filled them with surprise and consternation. Mrs. Rushbrook directly repaired to Mr...

"But thou who, mindful of the unhonored dead, Dost in these lines their artless tale relate, If chance, by lonely contemplation led, Some kindred spirit should lament thy fate,...

"'Ah,' said I, 'they already lie under unreturnable obligations to you. In losing you,' added I, involuntarily, 'they would lose their only comfort.' 'Since then,' cried he, 'yo...

"Cease, then, ah! cease, fond mortal to repine At laws, which Nature wisely did ordain; Pleasure, what is it? rightly to define, 'Tis but a short-lived interval from pain: Or ra...

The following evening they were engaged to spend at a farmer's. The invitation was given with such humility, yet pressed with such warmth, that they could not avoid accepting it...

"Alas! the story melts away my soul! That best of fathers, how shall I discharge The gratitude and duty which I owe him? --By laying up his counsels in your heart."--CATO.

"Oh, let me unlade my breast, Pour out the fulness of my soul before you, Show every tender, every grateful thought, This wondrous goodness stirs. But 'tis impossible, And utter...

Amanda had fainted soon after Colonel Belgrave entered the carriage, and she was reclining on his bosom in a state of insensibility when Lord Mortimer passed. In this situation...

Amanda was sitting alone in the drawing-room one morning, when a gentleman was shown into it, to wait for Lady Greystock. The stranger was about the middle period of life; his d...

The next evening Amanda's patience was put to the test; for after tea Mrs. Duncan proposed a walk, which seemed to cut off her hopes of visiting the chapel that evening; but aft...

"--------Hither turn Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid, Incline thy polished forehead. Let thy eyes Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn; And may the fanning breeze...

A month after the departure of Lord Mortimer the Roslin family left Ulster Lodge. Amanda sighed, as she saw them pass, at the idea of the approaching meeting, which might, perha...

It will now be necessary to account for the sudden appearance of Lord Mortimer at the convent. Our reader may recollect that we left him in London, in the deepest affliction for...

She alighted from the carriage when it stopped at the door, and entered the shop, where, to her inexpressible satisfaction, the first object she beheld was Miss Rushbrook, sitti...

"Oh love, how are thy precious, sweetest minutes Thus ever crossed, thus vexed with disappointments; Now pride, now fickleness, fantastic quarrels, And sullen coldness give us p...

"Oh let me now, into a richer soil, Transplant thee safe, where vernal suns and showers Diffuse their warmest, largest influence; And of my garden be the pride and joy."--THOMSON.

"And oft as ease and health retire, To breezy lawn or forest-deep, The friend shall view yon whitening spire, And 'mid the varied landscape weep; But thou who own'st that earthy...

Joy is as great an enemy to repose as anxiety. Amanda passed an almost sleepless night, but her thoughts were too agreeably employed to allow her to suffer from want of rest; ea...

"Yellow sheafs from rich Ceres the cottage had crowned, Green rustles were strewed on the floor; The casements sweet woodbine crept wantonly round, And decked the sod seats at t...

The turbulence of grief, and the agitation of suspense, gradually lessened in the mind of Amanda, and were succeeded by a soft and pleasing melancholy, which sprang from the con...

"Who knows the joys of friendship, The trust, security and mutual tenderness, The double joys, where each is glad for both; Friendship, our only wealth, our last retreat and str...

The solitude of Castle Carberry was interrupted in less than a fortnight by visits and invitations from the neighboring families. The first they accepted was to dinner at Mr. Ki...

"My dear Fanny," said Mrs. Duncan, addressing our heroine by her borrowed name, "if at all inclined to superstition, you are now going to a place which will call it forth. Dunre...

"Such on the ground the fading rose we see, By some rude blast torn from the parent tree! The daffodil so leans his languid head, Newly mown down upon his grassy bed!"--LEE.

of our little cherub, and above all (his meek eye encountering mine), take care of yourself, that, with my accustomed rapture, I may, on my return, receive you to my arms." Ther...

"Think'st thou I'll make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon With fresh surmises? No; to be once in doubt Is to be resolved. But yet I'll see before I do...

After tea Amanda asked little Betsey to accompany her in a walk; for Ellen (dressed in all her rural finery) had gone earlier in the evening to the dance. But Amanda did not beg...

Lord Cherbury hastened to support and calm her agitation, by assuring her Lord Mortimer was in perfect safety. Recovering a little by this assertion, she asked him "how he was a...

"----Thy grave shall with fresh flowers be dressed, And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast; There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, There the first roses of the ye...

"Mine eyes were half closed in sleep. Soft music came to mine ear; it was like the rising breeze, that whirls at first, the thistle's beard, that flies, dark shadowy over the gr...

The night was waning fast, and Adela rose to depart as her friend concluded her story; yet it required an effort of resolution to retire. Mrs. Marlowe, however, was too well con...

Castle Carberry, to which our travellers were going, was a large gothic pile, erected in the rude and distant period when strength more than elegance was deemed necessary in a b...

The ensuing morning, Oscar, Amanda, and Sir Charles began their journey. The Rushbrooks, who regarded Amanda as the cause of their present happiness, took leave of her with a te...

Solitude to Amanda was a luxury, as it afforded her opportunities of indulging the ideas on which her heart delighted to dwell; she yet believed she should see Lord Mortimer, an...

The raptures of this meeting surpassed description: to Oscar they were heightened by surprise; he was unfortunately that day on guard at the Bank--therefore could only pay them...

She remained a considerable time in a state of insensibility, and, when recovered, she found herself in a bed laid upon the floor in a corner of the outside room. Her senses wer...

To open our hearts to those we know will commiserate our sorrows is the sweetest consolation those sorrows can receive; to you, then, madam, I divulge mine, sure at least of pit...