The Soldier's Wife — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

78 Pity is it, dear child, that you will ever ex- change this blessed state of ignorance for the knowledge that there are in the world human beings of so fiend-like a character as to tie up their fellow-creatures and lacerate them almost to pieces! O Almighty God! wherefore do thy thunders sleep—why are thy lightnings at rest—when that being whom thou did’st create after thine own image, is thus barbarously maltreated by his fellow men# Oh! when I was a girl, | read in books that this was a Christian country—that we were a humane people—that we had a good paternal govern- ment—and that the spirit of the laws revolted against acts of barbarism and oppression: and I was taught, tub, to regard with horror and loathing the fanaties of other times, who in- fliected the tortures of the rack, the thumb- screw, the steel boot, the question by water, aud the other horrors perpetrated in the In- quisition. But, oh! how strange it 1s for books to inculcate one set of ideas, while expe- rience of the world stainps them with all the flagrancy of falsehood. Wea humane and ci- vilized people! and yet tolerate this horror which cries up to heaven for vengeance! No, no—we are barbarians—our Christianity is a mockery—our religion is‘a pretence—our laws are a delusion—and we have no right to vaunt our own humanity in contrast with the fiend- ish cruelty of the perished Inquisition !” As Lucy gave way to this train of musings, the glow of indignation brought back the color to her cheeks: she felt the blood boiling in her veins—her eyes flashed fire—her nostrils di- lated—and she looked as if inspired by some spirit which had never existed in her before. Her confidence in human nature had received a shock: she began to see things In a new light—she felt that with an artificial system of laws and justice, there were around her the visible and tangible evidences of diabohe tyrannies. ‘There were numerous churches m that same town of Portsmouth where she now dwelt ; and from every pulpit on the Sabbath went forth teachings of humanity and forgive- ness: but of all the clergymen who thus preached the divine doctrines of the Saviour— not one had been found bold and honest enough to present himself in the barrack-yard that morning and protest in the name of heaven against the satanie deed which was being com- mitted there! Lucy’s spirit had thus flamed up for awhile after the departure of the good-natured sol- dier's wife; but it scon sank again to the deep- est despondency; and then once more did she weep bitterly, bitterly, over the child whom ghe strained tc her bosom, Oh! it pierces us to the quick to reflect on the harrowing anguish which that young mother—herself so innecent, 60 pure-miuded, and so inoffensive—experi- enced then’ - Ah, ye demon-hearted misereants who uphold the horrors of the lash! do ye not know, reptile cowards that ye are—diabolical emissaries of Satan upon earth—cold-blooded merciless fiends—do ye not know, we ask, that the scourge which ye cause to be wielded against the back of a man, full often rebounds on the heart of a womanft Do you rever THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. pause to reflect, detestable savages that ye are, that the murderous weapon which euts into the palpitating flesh of the tied-up soldier, cuts as deeply and simultaneously too into the bosom of the soldier's wife? But no! Ye are incapable of any such humanizing reflection. And here in this moment of our bubning indig nation, we declare that we would sooner cor panionize with the fiercest of wild beasts o, the most loathsome of reptiles, than remain in the society of a man who dares to avow him self an adidas of the lash. Wherever such men are found, let them be spurned from the presence of those who entertain better and more Christian feelings: let them be seorned— spit upon—treated as the vilest and most hate- ful of vermin! If a man advocating the lash, dares to say that he is a Christian, tell him that he les most ftoully, and that Christianity itself is desecrated by the assertion! If he be a husband and a father, then pity his wife and his children: for rest assured that he is the vilest and most cold-blooded of domestic ty- rants! Jf he be a merchant or a trader, have no opinion of his honesty: for honesty is the result of good and proper feelings—whereas there can be nothing but the most abhorrent passions agitating, like reptiles in a morass, at the bottom of the foul and fetid soul of the man who advocates the punishment of the lash | In short, heap and accumulate all the powers of language—gather together all the elements of the most fiery indignation—collect and assemble all the terrible energies of the direst aversion and the bitterest hate, to constitute one tremendous crushing anathema to heap upon the head of the mouster who dares pro- claim himself a supporter of the scourge? but to return to the progress of our pvarra- tive. Some hours had passed after the visit of the good-natured soldier’s wife—when Luey, with her child in her arms, repaired to the barracks to inquire if she might be permitted to see her husband? She was told that she could not for the present—that he was pro- gressing as well as under circumstances could be expected—and that in a few days’ time she would doubtless be permitted to visit him. She dragged herself back to her lodging in the deepest, deepest despondency ; and ascending to her chamber, sat down to meditate again. She did not hear the heavy footsteps of a man ascending the stairs: nor did she hear that he knocked twice at the.door of her room—so completely absorbed were her thoughts in the one tremendous and terrifie topic. - But now the door opened; and she half started from her seat on observing a male form appear upon the threshold. It was dusk: a solitary candle burnt dimly upon the table—and as the visitor ad- ranced slowly into the room, the feeble rays meeting his countenance, revealed to her eyes the face of her father. : An ejaculation of astonishment, not alto vether unmingled with gratification, eseaped her lips as the thought flashed to her mind tl if he came in a friendly spirit, she would derive at least some consolation from the paternal | presence, ‘ae Gomicboo (E