1 have mvoiu uyou the Altar of CJod, eternal hostility to every lbnu of Tyranny over tne Mini! of aiau." I'uouus Jclibn.011. MINTED AND PUBLISHED BY II. WEBB. Volume 51. BX,CQB1SBURGU COIiUBIBIA COUNTY, PA. SATURDAY, JTOVEMBBR 9, 1839. Number 38. OFFICE OF THE DEMOCRAT, ' OprosiTB lit. Paul's Chuiich, Main-st. The COLVMMd DEMOCRAT will be vublished cvefii Salurda) morning, at ' TWO DOLLARS per annum, payable 'half yrarht in advance, 01 Two Dollars rr..r. "i"...! ... .m.. 'i..' ii.. .. J!ljiy Licnis, if noi paw iviimn mc year, JVb subscription will be taken for a shorter period than st.r months; nor any discon tinuance permitted, until all arrearages ''are discharged. ADVERTISEMENTS not exceeding a square will be cowpirvovhj inserted at .One Dollar for the first three insertions, and. Twenty-five cents for every subse quent nicrlion. CP.i liberal discount made to those loho advertise, by the year. LETTERS addressed on busiiicss, must :be post paid. j From Friendships Offering for 183!). THE MERCHANTS DAUGHTER AND THE JUDGE. BV THE AUTHOR OE 4 TlIK RCrOIUIER. It was the land of poetry and song the land peopled with the memories of the past the land ccr which the shadows of a long renown rested more glowingly than present glory. It was beautiful Italy ; the air like a sweet odour, was to tne sense as 10ft thouchts are to the mind, or tender feelings to the heart, breathing serenity and reaee. The sweet air swept balmly over the worn brow of an invalid, giving to the palled hue of his countenance the first faint dawning of returning health. The eye of the invalid was fixed on the dark characters of a book in cumbrous bin ding and massive clasps, which the Rox burgh Cittb would now consider an invalu able black-letter ; and so absorbed was he in its persual that he heard not the ap prnaching steps of visitors until the sound of their greetings roused him from his me diations. 4The saints have you in their keeping said his elder visitor, a man whose brow bore traces of age, though time had dealt leniently-wiih him. The dear Madonna bless you !' ejacula ted his other visitor, a young girl w.ith the large flashing eye, the pure oval face, and the classic contour of Italy. The invalid bowed his head to each of theso salutations. 4And now,' said the merchant, for such was the elder visitor, 'that your wounds are healing and your strength returning may we not inquire of your kin and coun try?' ' A slight flash passed over the pale face f the sick man ; he was silent for a mo mcnt as if communing with himself, ami then replied, I nm of England, and a sol- (liei, albeit of the lowest rank.' . 'Of England !' hastcly responded the merchant, ;'of England.' of heretic Englaw ho crossed himself devoutly, and started back as if afraid of contamination. 1 mav not denv home and country,' re plied the soldier, mild, but firmly. Hut 1 shall incur the church's censure for lrhoring thee I' exclaimed the merchant fhouknowest not what pains and pennltie niav be mine for doing thee this service !' ' 'Then let mc forth,' replied the soldier ; n-ou have been to me the good Samaritan and I would' not requite you with evil : let me go on my way, and may the blessinsg Heaven bo upon you m tho hour of your own need!' Nav. nav. I say not so. Thou hast tint yet strength for tho travel, and besides. England was onnp the brightest jewil in our lioly father's crown, and he might recon cile herself again; but I fear she will not, fpr your master Henry is a violent, hot blooded, man and hath torn away the king dom from appstolic care. Know you not that your land is under inlerdect, and I, as a true h? of tho holy, mother church, ought not now to ,be changing words with then !' 'Even io,' repliedjhe soildier; but there aro many that think the King's grace hardly ' dealt by. 'The sheppard knoweth best how to keep this fold,' replied the merchant, hastly 'but you are that king's soldier, you take his pay, you eat his bread, and doubtless ought to hope the best for him, and even so do I. I would that he might repent and ln'mble himself, and then our holy father would again receive him into the fold : but,- now I bethink me, thou wert reading, What were thy studies ?' The brow of tho soldier clouded, he hes itated a moment, but then gathering up his resolution replied, in the Jin of the battle this iooK was my breast plate, in tho hour of sickness my best balm,' he laid the open volume before the merchant. Holy saint! exclaimed tho merchant crossing himself, and drawing back as he beheld the volume which his church has closed against the l.iyman. 'Thou then art among the hcrcticks who bring down curse upon my land! in ay, thy sojourn nere may uring uown maledictions upon mc and mine, upon my house and home ! But thou shalt forth ! I will not harbor theel I will deliver thee over to the church, tha she may chasten thee ! Away from him my child 1 away from him !' The soldier sat Sad and solitary, watch' ing the dying light of the sun, as he had passed majestically on to shine in other lends. One ray rested on the thoughtful broWof the lonely man as he sought brae' ing up his courage to meet the perilou luturc. as uc tnus muscu a sou voice broke upon his reverse. 'You aro thinking of your far off home.' said the Italian girl, 'how I wish that all I love had but one home it is a grief to have so many homes !' Theie is such a home,' replied the sol dier. 4 Ah!' replied Amelia 'but they say that heretics enmc not there ! Promise me that you will not bs a heretic any longer. The soldier smiled and sighed.' '"Sou guess why I am here to night,' re. sumed the Italian girl. I know it by that smile and sigh. You think that I am come to tell you to seek your own land and home and, 'therefore your smile, and just breathe one little sigh because you leave this bright sun and ine.' 'Am I then to leave you, perhaps to be delivered over to the power of your impla cable church.' Amelia crossed herself. 'No, no, go to your own country and be happy. Here is noney my father could not deny mc when I begged it of him with kisses and tears. Go and be happy and forget us. 'Never 1' exclaimed tho soldier, earnestly 'never land you, my kind and gentle nurse, my good angle you who have brought hope to my pillow, and beguiled the sad houis of sickness in a foreign laud words are but poor things to thank thee with.' 'I shall see you no more !' said the young Italian, 'and what shall make me happy when you aro gone j Who will tell mo the talc of flood and field ? I have been happy while you were here, and yet we met very sadly. My heart stood still when we first found you covered with blood, on our way back to Milanarter the battle. You lu d crept under the hedge, as wo thouhgt to dye. Rut I took courage to lay my hand upon your heart; and never has a morning passed, but I have gathered the sweetest flower to freshen your sick pillow ; anu wiiiic you were insensible in that terrible fever I used to steal into your chamber and kneel at your bed foot, and pray for tho Madonna's care. And when you revived you smiled at my flower, and and when you had voico to speak you thanked me-' Amelia's voice was lost in soils; and what wonder if one from man's 3tcrner na ture mingled with them ? Tho morrow came, Tlio Italian girl gathered a last flower, and gave it in tearful silence to the soldier. Uc kissed tho frag rant gift and then, with a momentary bold ness, the fair hand that gave it, than depar ted. The young girl watched his footsteps till they wero lost in sound, and then aban doned herself to weeping. 'Thou art sad, dear daughter,' said a venerable father to his child, as they tra- erscd that once countryfied expunsr through which wc now jostle our way from the City of Westminister 'ThotT Irlsad dear daughter. 'Nay, my father,' replied the maiden4! would not be so but it io hard always to wear a cheerful countenance when ' ' The heart is sad, thou wouldst say,' 4 Nay I mean it not.' ' 1 have scarcely seen thee smile bince wo entered tins nngianu i may not say this heretic England.' Hush ! dear faiher hush ! tho winds may whisper it, see you not that we aro surrounded by a multitude' 4 They are running madly to soma revel Let us leave their path, then,' said the girl it suits not our fallen tortuncs, or our disordered faith, to seem to mingle in this stream of folly. Doubtless the kinr has some new pageantry.' 'Well if it be so,' replied the father, 'hap py the gewgaw and the show might brin the truant smile to thy lip, and tho lost his tro to thino eye. Thou -art too young to be thus mondly sad. See how anxious, how eager, how happy seem this multitude not one care worn brow! thou mayest catch their chcefulncss. We will go with tho stream. The girl offered no further resistance. They were strangers in the land poor al- mst pennylcss. They had come from their own country to reclaim a debt which onoof the nobles of the court had incurred in more prosudroda davtv.uheti the mer chant was rich in silver and gold and mer-chnndize. The vast thong poured on swelling until it became a mighty tide the bells pealed out tho cannon bellowed, human voices aug mented the din. The Thames was lined on either side; every building on its margin crowded, and its surface peopled. Every sort of aquatic vessel covered its bosom so that the flowing river seemed rather some broad road teaming for life. Galley after galley, glittering with the gold and the purple, came on laden with the wealth, and the pride, and the beauty of the land, and presently the acclamation of a thousand voices rent the skies. 'The King !' the r ctiw11 Intirllv iVinvn ltlf Atn of the mob. It wa3 enough; the unhappy merchant was immediately consigned over to the sec ular. Oh ! sad were those prison hours 1 the girl told her beads the father prayed to all the saints and then came the vain consolation by which each endeavored to cheat the olh- j cr. They thought ol their own sunny lanu, its balmy air, its living beauty, and that thought was home. November came with all its bloom the j month that should have been the grave of the ycai, coming as it docs with shroud and ccronloth, foggy, dark and dreary; the fath er's brow numbered more wrinkles, the once black hair was more nearly bleached, the features more attenuated. And the daughter ah ! youth is the trans parent lamp of hope but in her the light was dim. In fear and trembling the unhappy for eigners waited tho day of doom. Tho mer chant's offence was one little likely to meet with no mercy. Henry ".-as jealous of his titleand head of the church. He had drawn up n code of articles of belief, which his subjects we;e desired to subscribe to, & he had instituted a court of which he had made Lord Cromwell vicar-gcneral, for the e.v press trial of those whose orthodoxy in the king s creed was called into question Ncithor could the unhappy merchant hope to find favor with his judge, for it was known that Cromwell was storongly attached to the growing reformation, and from the acts of severity with which he had lately visi ted some of the adherents of the Romish creed, in his new character of vicar-general it was scarcely probable that he would show mercy to one attached, by lineage, and love to papal liome. blranjrers as they were unknowing and unknown, what had th n;t to fear, nndavhat was left to hope ? King ! long ive the King!' He came Henry the 8th came, in all that regal digni ty; and gordeous splendor, in which he so much delighted. And then began the pageant, contrived to throw odium an Rome, and to dograde the protensio'ns of the Pope. Two galleys, one hearing the arms of England, the other marked by tho pnpalinsignia, advanced to wards each other and the fictitious contest commenced. Borne on by tho crowd, our merchant and his daughter had been forced into a conspi cuous situation. The peculiar dress, the braided hair, the beauty and the foreign as pect of the girl had marked her out to the rude gallantry of the crowd; so that to a limited sphere, the faiher and daughter were themselves objects interest and curiosity. The two vessels joined, and the mimic contest was begun. Of course the English colors triumphed over the papal. Upon to this point tho merchant bore his pangs in silence; but when the English gallery had assumed the virtory, then came the trial of patience. Effigies of the cardinals wero hurled into the slieam amidst the shouts and derisions of tho mob. At each plunge groanb issued from his tortured breast. It was in vain that Amelia clung to his arm, and implored him, by every tear to restrain himself. His religious zeal overcame his prudenco; and when at las), tho figure of the Pope dressed in his poiificial robes, waa hurled into tho tide, the loud exclamation of agony and horror burst from his lips. 4 0 monstrous impiety of an accursed and sac The morni;. ' of trial came. The fogs ol that dismal mouth spread (ike a veil o ver earth. There was no beauty in th landscape no light in the heavens, and no hope in the heart. The judges took their places : a crowd o wretched delinquents came to recieve their doom. We suppose it to be a refinement of modern days, that men are not punished for their crimes, but only to deter olhet from committing them. The court of Hen ry's seemed to think otherwise, there was allelic array of human passions in the judges as well as in the judged. On one hand re creant fear abjured his creed; on another heroism braved all contingencies courting the pile ar.d slake, with even passionate dc sireand the pile .vo stake were given with iitem and unremitting cruelty. At length there stood at the bar an aged man and a beautiful girl, the long white hai of the one fell Iousely over the shoulders and left unshaded a faecO wrinkled as much by care as by age; the dark locks of theoth were braided over a countenance clouced by sorrow, and wet with tears. The mockery of trial went on. It was easy to prove what even the criminal did not attempt to gainsay. The aged merchant avowed his fidelity to the Pope as a true son of the church, denied ths supremacy of Henry over any part of the fold, and thus scaled his own doom. There was an awful stillness throughout the court stillness the precusor of doom broken only by the sobs of tho weeping girl.'as she clung to hei father's arm. How beit the expected sentence was interrupted; there came a sudden rush, fresh attendants thronged the court. ' Room for Lord Crom well ! Room for Lord Cromwell !' And tho vicar-general came in his pomp and his state, with all the insignia of office, to assume his place of premiiicncc at that tribunal. Notes of the proceedings were laid before Lord Cromwell. He was told of the intended sentence and he mado a ges ture of approbation. A gleam of hopo had dawned upon tho mind cf the Italian girl a3 Lord Cromwell entered. Sho watchrd his countenance as he read; it was stern, indicative of calm determination, but there were lines in it that spoke more of mista ken duty than inmate cruelty. Yet, when the vicar-general gave his token of assent, the steel entered Amelia's soul, and a sob, the verient accent of dispair, rang through the court, and where it met with a human heart pierced through all tho cruelty and oppression which armed it, and struck upon some of the natural feelings that divide men from monsters. That sound struck upon Lord Cromwell's car, his cyo sought tho place whence it proceeded; it rested on A melia and her father. A strange emotion pas sed over the face of the stern judge a per fect stillness followed. Lord Cromwell broke silence. He glan ced over the notes that had been handed te him, speaking in a low voice apparently to himself ' from Itally a merchant Milan ruined by the wars ay, those in Milan were owing to Clement's ambition, and Charles' knavery the loss of substanco to England to reclaim an old iudebtment.' Lord Cromwell's eye raisnd once moro upon the merchant and his daughter. Ye are of Italy from Milan; is that your birth-place? ' We are of Tuscans,' replied the mer chant, ' of Lucca; and oh ! noble Lord, it there is any mercy in this show it now to this unhappy girl.' 4 To bolh, or to neither,' exclaimed the? girl; wc will live or we will die together. The vicar-general made answer to ncitn- i . r l: er. tie rose aorupuy ai a sign irum uuu tho proper officer declared the court adjour ned the sufferers were hurried back to their cslb some went whither they would others, whither they would not; but all dis persed. A faint and solitary light glanced from a chink cf the prison walls it came from the narrow cell of the Italian merchant and his daughter. The girl slept ay slept. Sleep does not always leave the wretched, to light on lids unsullied with a tear. Reader hast thou known intense misery, and canst thou not remember, how thou hast fell and wept, and agonized, until the very excitement of the misery wore out thy bod's power of en durance, and slept like a toper, a lethargy, bound thee in its chains. Into such a sleep had Amelia fallen; she was lying on that prison floor her face palo as if ready for the grave, the lrge tears yet resting on her cheeks, and over her sat tho merchant lean ing, asking himself whether, treasure that she was, and had even been to him, he could wish that sleep to be the sleep of death. The clanking of the key caught the mer chant's ear; a gentle step entered the pris on. Tho father's first thought was the child, he made a motion to enjoin silence it was obeyed his vister advanced with a silent tread; the merchant looked upon him with wonder. Surely no and yet could it be ? that his judge Lord Crom well, the vicar-general stood before him, and stood not with threatening in his eye not denunciations on his lip, but took bis stand an the other side of Amelia, gazing on her with an eye in which tenderness and compassion were conspicuous. Amazement bound up the faculties of thn merchant. He seemed to himself as one that dreameth. 4 Awake gentle girl, Awake, said Lord Cromwell, as he stooped over Amelia. 4 Let me hear thy voice onrc moro as it sounded in mine car in other days.' The gontlo accent fell too lightly "to break tho spell of heavy slumber, and tho merchant, whoso fears, feelings, and con fusion formed a perfect chaos, stooping over his child suddenly awoke her with the cry of Amelia ! Amelia ! awake and bchd our judge I' 4 Nay, nay, not thus roughly,' said Lord Cromwell, but tho sound has already re called Amelia to tho sense of wretcU.hisss. She half raised herself from hei incumbent posture into a kneeling one, shadowing her dazzled eyes with her hand, her streaming hair falling in wild disorder over her shoul ders, and thus resting at tho feet of her judge. Look on me, Amelia,' said Lord Crom- 31 ft
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