the interview; which, as the time of execution drew nigh, must take place
instantly or not at all. Habited in deep black, which, from the contrast,
made the pale primrose of her cheek still paler, entered his drooping wife;
bearing on her bosom, "cradled on her arm," their child, happily
unconscious alike of its father's ignominy--its mother's sorrows. With
uncertain steps she tottered towards him. He advanced to her embrace, at
first, with coolness and deliberation; but when her altered look, on which
care had engraven an accusation that smote with the chill of death his
guilty heart--her lack-lustre eye--her form almost reduced to a shadow--met
his glance, his resolution dissolved before them: the better feelings of
his nature, long lulled by habitual vice, and fixed in inertion by the
flattering commendations of his spiritual guide, burst forth afresh like a
stream long pent up, and overwhelmed him with their gush. He sank upon one
knee, and received his wife and child falling into his embrace. His haughty
spirit was humbled, was softened. He could have borne her curses with
indifference, he could have returned a formal adieu with equal
formality--he had expected to encounter a scene, and was made up
accordingly: but to look upon her thus--her days gone like a shadow--to
witness her sunken eye filled with beamings in which he alone was
enshrined--to see her meek and forgiving, whose light heart had been turned
to sorrow, whose gay morning dreams had been turned to sad realities, whose
confidence had been abused and happiness wrecked,--all, all by his baseness
and treachery:--to behold his forsaken wife, superior to all this, clinging
to him for his last farewell, as if she and not himself were the offender,
was beyond his expectation. He knew he had merited curses and hate, and he
met with affection and tenderness; his heart yearned--a sensation of
admiration for her virtues and constancy came over him, and, ere it had
possessed him entirely, it humbled his proud spirit--it undeceived his
false expectations. "My God, I have not deserved this!" burst from his
swelling heart. A tear, such as he had not shed since he left the paths of