I became abstracted and seriously ill, was forbidden
all excitements; hence easily avoided the sight of newspapers; and,
on the plea you have heard, my family were withheld from speaking on
any public subjects that manifestly gave me pain. But I could not
prevent the tongues of our visitors from discoursing on a theme which
at that period interested every thinking mind. I heard of the valiant
Kosciusko, the good Stanislaus, and the palatine Sobieski, with his
brave grandson, spoken of in the same breath. I durst not surmise who
this grandson was; I dared not ask--I dreaded to know.
"At length," added the agitated father, quickening his voice, "the
idol of my heart--she for whom I had sacrificed my all of human
probity, perhaps my soul's eternal peace--died in my arms. Where
could a wretch like me turn for consolation? I had forfeited all
right to it from Heaven or earth. But at last a benignant spirit
seemed to breathe on me, and I bent beneath the stroke with humility;
for I embraced it as the just chastisement of a crime which till
then, even in the midst of my married felicity, had often pressed on
my dearest feelings like the hand of death. I repeat, I bore this
chastening trial with the resignation I have described. But when, two
years afterwards, my eye fell by accident upon the name of Sobieski
in one of the public papers, I could not withdraw it; my sight was
fascinated as if by a rattle-snake.
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