Newspaper Page Text
/ Written for the Georgia Collegian.
/ THE DEATH ALLIANCE,
BY HALUL SKRAPS.
CHAP. I.
Washington, D. C., )
May 30th, 1860. J
Olivia :
I am coming home to claim you.
Why should you defer the coteksum
mation of the fondest hopes of my
life? Why so proud ? why so arifcbi
tious? Why do you expect me to
carve my name so high in the tem
ple of' Fame, ere I make you my
bride ? If you love me, (and you
say you do,) wait not until the cares
of a professional life enervate my
youth and dispel every tinge of its
wonted rorpance and generous sym
pathy. My prospects are flattering;
but my ambition is not to make a
name, but to be happy. Give up
your schemes of an alliance by which
you may hope to humiliate the ones
mies of your youth. Let the prime
impulses of yonr true and noble na.
ture control you, and thus bring to
your heart.
Your own betrothed,
Douglass Stewart.
r
But a few days intervened between
the Writing o#the above, and Doug-
LasyStewart’s departure for Crystal
Dak*-, his hom& in the Land ©f FiSw-.
crs.|
Douglass Stewart, a true son of
Southern chivalry, at nineteen, enter
ed the bar under the charge of a su
rior practitioner in the capital city of
the Bepublic. His manly bearing,
bis quick, impulsive nature, and his
bright, intelligent eyes, stamped him
as a man of action and promise.—
Olivia was an adopted child of the
Stewart family; an Italian beauty,
whom Douglass had rescued from
the remains of a wrecked vessel, years
before, on the Florida coast, near his
own sea side homo. Association had
endeared them to each other, until
friendship had ripened into love.—
Olivia, who in her earliest childhood
it was supposed, had had instilled
into her the splendor and importance
of a noble alliance, even when won
by the young Floridian, had not
abandoned all hopes of perfectiug her
patriotic schemes.for the deliverance
of her downtrodden country. Henco
she had urged him to enter upon his
duties as a pleader. Douglass went
to Washington; toiled and rose.—
Wearied of long absence, he deter
mined to go home, claim his betroth
ed, and then return to the pursuit of
his studies with the feelings and res
olutions of a man and a citizen. To
this end, he wrote the foregoing let**
ter as a forerunner of his coming.
He came, but as he approached his
lovely Southern home, he saw no in
THE GEORGIA COLLEGIAN.
dications of festivity. He under-*
stood; and when they met it was to
part. He pleaded and remonstrated
—but in vain. She replied :
‘ I love you, Douglass; but I love
my country too. Beturn, and be»*
come her liberty’s champion.’
‘1 go, Olivia ; not to Italy’s
but to the frontiers of my own dear
South. There I hope to win a proud,
ambitious heart, or find a reckless
soldier’s grave.' Farewell. 1 ’
CHAP. 11.
The tocsin of war resounded. One
hundred true Southern hearts rallied
around the noble youth, and asked
him to lead* them to their country’s
altar, there to be sacrificed on the
shrine of her liberty.
Captain’ Douglass Stewart, first on
Virginia’s hard fought fields and then
on the blood-stained plains of tl>e
West, was ever found foremjjt'st
amongst the columns advancing do
the dread affray. In onslaught
and charge, his towering form was
seen far in advance—leading bis men,
on the enemies’ lines.
At Shiloh, his bravery was so con
spicuous as to attract the notice and
admiration of the commanding Gen
eral. At one juncture of the strug
gle, he became so daring and reck
less as to excite the greatest alarm
among his devotod troops,
aafe&y. Ife had left hte command
far behind and was rapidly advancing
to a party of the enemies’ cavalry.—
Angelo Fontaine, his bosom friend
and Lieutenant, knowing that he
sought death or a dear bought victo
ry, rußhed to bis rescue. Ere Fon
taine reached him, he had shot dead
two of the cavaliers, but the others
were bearing down on him with their
merciless sabres. His arm was al
ready shattered, and he was fast giv
ing way when Fontaine arrived—
turned the tide of battle, seized his
friend and bore him in triumph back
to his command, and thence to the
rear.
Capt. Stewart in company with his
friend, Angelo Fontaine, went to his
home on the coast of Florida. For
weeks he lay midway between life
and death. A mother’s pride was
turned to weeping, and Olivia’s pray
ers for fame and glory to heart-ren
ding petitions for the salvation of her
beloved Douglass.
The crisis came and went. He
lived. In the first moments of con
sciousness ho called for Olivia, whom
he asked :
‘ Will you tfiarry me ?*
‘ I will, Douglass, so sure as the
Great Jehovah spares your devoted
life.’
‘ Then I’ll live.’
His convalescence was wonderful
ly rapid. The presence of the queen
ly Olivia acted like a charm. Her
dark, Italian eyes were talismans and
frightened away the monster, dis
ease. But as he became stronger
and stronger, it was noticed that
Olivia became less fond, less tender.
Did she not love him ? O, yes; but
shelved her country too. Her am
bition expelled every true and nobler
affection from her troubled heart;
and when asked by Douglass to
name the day of their nuptials, she
dioj..Bot command, but begged that
he would again seek and fight for the
applaiisefpf his country and nation.
And he said,
•* Withy'dn as my bride, I could
have fought for my country’s liberty;
I go now;; without ypu, to seek my
own, in de&th !*
He rejoined his regiment as Colo ■>
nel Stewart.' liis promotion was be
stowed i}? eptasideratfon of honorable
and daring Service Kt the battle of
Shiloh; iFdfca year and more, he led
his bjeloved troops in the onset, he
himself frequenting the thickest of
the fight, until the terrible shock
came that rent asunder the mighty
ariiues, and'snapped in twain many
heart-strings. Col. Stewart, having
failed'to meet his death, now, in a
moment of desperation, thought of
|alling bis men together, and swear
them never to lower their arms until
every drop of life’s blood had been
spilled. But, appreciating the con
jyjpri of paopUy-be*
dismissed them, -and prepared to
leave his-native South.
Angelo Fontaine learning his resos
hition, came to his friend and press
ed him to go with him tp his Italian
home, saying;
‘ There you can wait in my home
at Florence, beneath our sunny sky,
until the storm of revolution has
passed from your persecuted coun
try; there you can have leisure to
paint and read and sketch; there
you can find other Italian beauties,
and those who are less ambitious;
and.you, by your true chivairic spi
rit, can revive our drooping Yiolante,
who, for years, has grieved the loss,
in the merciless waves, of her only
sister. Come with me.’
The invitation of Fontaine was
gladly accepted. Col. Stewart has
tily prepared to depart; but before
he lauched for the foreign shore, he
dictated to his mother the following
letter:
1 Depr Mother^
‘ Were there fione at homo but
yoUjjE would come to you ; but she
whom I love is there, and looks to me
for liurels to adorn her brow. I go
to win them. Ere this reaches you,
1 will be sailing for Italy. There I
hope to learn something of Olivia’s
family. Address me at Florence.—
Until then, adieu.
Your affectionate son, * ™
Douglass/
CHAP* 111.
Six fleeting months have passed
away. It is a summer night in Flo
rence. A canoe, containing two
forms, floats on the waters. The
stars shimmer and shiver on the Flo
rence river.
‘ Sing, Yiolante !’
‘ Os what, Douglass?’
‘ Your lost sister, Yiolante; it will
attest the truth of our hearts’ be
trothal to night.’
And the violet-eyed Italian did
sing. |>he improvised as if her lost
sister looked down upon her from the
stars of heaven.
‘Your sister’s name, Yiolante ?’
‘Olivia.’
‘ ’Tis she. Where was she lost?’
‘ On the American coast.’
‘Yiolante, your sister lives. She
•is in my mother’s home.’
Douglass dispatched that he, with
Olivia’s sister, would reach Florida
by the next passing vessel.
They came. Crystal Lake rejoiced
with happy guests, to celebrate the
re-union of mother, sister and broth
er.
‘Mother, Olivia, brother, here ia
Yiolante, my affianced bride.’
A deathly pallor suffused the face
of the once proud, but now humbled,
Olivia.
‘ I wronged him; and this ia -my
reward!’ said she, and fell senfeelese
i, t£ktilo floor. > , jwnnm
Olivia was borne to irfr room,
where for days, in her delirium, she
gave vent to her despair. But when
consciousness returned,.she baeame
more resigned. Love had supplanted
Ambition.
At last, it became evident that she
was sinking. She calls for Douglass
and Yiolante. They stand before her.
‘Yiolante, sister, dear/ said she,
‘ I have sacrificed him to Ambition ;
I now sacrifice myself to Love. I
loved him, but deserved him not; yon
lovs him, and deserve him too.’
. She then placed Violante’s hand in
his, and said—
‘ Douglass, I have wronged you.—
Forgive me. I still aspire, not to a
worldly alliance, but an eternal one.
I have courted Death ; he awaits me;
Igo to his embrace. Farewell!’
And she died. ' f'
...Old Billy W was dying.Lte
was an ignorant man, and a .vef
wicked one. Dr. D , an excellent
physician, and a very pious man, jfvas
Attending him. The old feltow&sk**
ed for bread. The doctor approach
ed the bedside, and in a very /olemn
tone, remarked:
My dear fellow, man caAnot live
by bread alone. /
No, said the old fellowJslightly re
viving; he’s bleeged to mave a few
wegetables. The subjqfct was drop
ped. j
*..DoeB the Collector of the Port
of New York coffee/much else ?
7