--and his features exhibited
the liveliest image of despair,--"all hope has long since been extinct
within my breast. See you yon theatre of death?" he mournfully pursued,
pointing to the fatal bridge, which was thrown into full relief against
the placid bosom of the Detroit: "recollect you the scene that was
acted on it? As for me, it is ever present to my mind,--it haunts me in
my thoughts by day, and in my dreams by night. I shall never forget it
while memory is left to curse me with the power of retrospection. On
the very spot on which I now stand was I borne in a chair, to witness
the dreadful punishment; you see the stone at my feet, I marked it by
that. I saw you conduct Halloway to the centre of the bridge; I beheld
him kneel to receive his death; I saw, too, the terrible race for life,
that interrupted the proceedings; I marked the sudden upspring of
Halloway to his feet upon the coffin, and the exulting waving of his
hand, as he seemed to recognise the rivals for mastery in that race.
Then was heard the fatal volley, and I saw the death-struggle of him
who had saved my brother's life. I could have died, too, at that
moment; and would to Providence I had! but it was otherwise decreed. My
aching interest was, for a moment, diverted by the fearful chase now
renewed upon the height; and, in common with those around me, I watched
the efforts of the pursuer and the pursued with painful earnestness and
doubt as to the final result. Ah, Blessington, why was not this all?
The terrible shriek, uttered at the moment when the fugitive fell,
apparently dead, at the feet of the firing party, reached us even here.
I felt as if my heart must have burst, for I knew it to be the shriek
of poor Ellen Halloway,--the suffering wife,--the broken-hearted woman
who had so recently, in all the wild abandonment of her grief, wetted
my pillow, and even my cheek, with her burning tears, while
supplicating an intercession with my father for mercy, which I knew it
would be utterly fruitless to promise. Oh, Blessington," pursued the
sensitive and affectionate young officer, "I should vainly attempt to
paint all that passed in my mind at that dreadful moment. Nothing but
the depth of my despair gave me strength to support the scene
throughout. I saw the frantic and half-naked woman glide like a phantom
past the troops, dividing the air with the rapidity of thought. I knew
it to be Ellen; for the discovery of her exchange of clothes with one
o