| | 221 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Count Julian, or, The last days of the Goth  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “It is in the mouths of many that Julian left his daughter, Cava, at the court of
king Roderick, as he well knew the surpassing beauty of her charms, and as well
the fierce passion of the king for such loveliness as hers. That he hath not erred
in his expectations, is no less the rumor of the court. Cava, it is said, hath been
distinguished by the king's eye; and the bruit is, that, though she hath lost in virtue,
yet will the gain of Julian in high station be proportionate to her loss and great
beyond his desire. Yet, though this be the speech of many who have integrity and
speak not often idly, there are some who remember of the noble blood and proper
pride of the Julian family, who, though they cannot gainsay the tidings of king
Roderick's favor and of the frailty of the lady Cava, are yet unwilling to yield faith
so readily to that which reports the willing pliance of Julian to his own dishonor.
One of these, in his sorrow and his doubt, hath written these presents. He asks
not for reply, since the deeds of the father, hereafter to be shown, will testify how
far he hath been a party to the ruin of his child.” “Egiza—my lord, that should have been, had our hopes been blessed—farewell,
farewell for ever. Hold me as one dead to thee, even if I be not dead to life. There
is an impassable gulf between us. I cannot love thee, last I should debase thee
by affections which can never more be hallowed. I cannot keep thy love, since such
cannot belong or be given to those who are degraded. I cannot look upon thee, even
if I live, since I feel my shame, and should dread to meet with favor in thy eyes.
Yet, for the love which thou didst bear me, give me thy pity now; let thy prayers
go up for one who has not so much sinned as suffered sin—whose weakness of body,
not whose willingness of mind, has given her up—a most unhappy woman—to the
brutal rage of a tyrant. I can speak no more. My cheeks, which have been cold
and pale, like the unfeeling marble, now burn me as I write thee. I dare not say
what I have suffered—thou wilt scarce dare to conceive it. Yet, think only that I
I am lost to thee, to hope, to life, to myself, for ever, for ever, and thou wilt know
cannot tell thee. Once more, my lord—my noble lord—once more I implore thy
pity and thy prayers for the wretched | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 222 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Helen Halsey, or, The Swamp state of Conelachita | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The unwise license and injurious freedoms accorded
to youth in our day and country, will render
it unnecessary to explain how it was that,
with father and mother, a good homestead, and
excellent resources, I was yet suffered at the
early age of eighteen, to set out on a desultory
and almost purposeless expedition, among some
of the wildest regions of the South-West. It
would be as unnecessary and, perhaps, much
more difficult, to show what were my own motives
in undertaking such a journey. A truant
disposition, a love of adventure, or, possibly, the
stray glances of some forest maiden, may all be
assumed as good and sufficient reasons, to set a
warm heart wandering, and provoke wild impulses
in the blood of one, by nature impetuous
enough, and, by education, very much the master
of his own will. With a proud heart, hopeful of all
things if thoughtless of any, as noble a steed as
ever shook a sable mane over a sunny prairie, and
enough money, liberally calculated, to permit an
occasional extravagance, whether in excess or
charity, I set out one sunny winter's morning
from Leaside, our family place, carrying with me
the tearful blessings of my mother, and as kind a
farewell from my father, as could decently comport
with the undisguised displeasure with which
he had encountered the first expression of my
wish to go abroad. Well might he disapprove
of a determination which was so utterly without
an object. But our discussion on this point need
not be resumed. Enough, that, if “my path was
all before me,” I was utterly without a guide.
It was, besides, my purpose to go where there
were few if any paths; regions as wild as they
were pathless; among strange tribes and races;
about whose erring and impulsive natures we
now and then heard such tales of terror, and of
wonder, as carried us back to the most venerable
periods of feudal history, and seemed to promise
us a full return and realization of their strangest
and saddest legends. Of stories such as these,
the boy sees only the wild and picturesque as
pects,—such as are beautiful with a startling
beauty—such as impress his imagination rather
than his thoughts, and presenting the truth to his
eyes through the medium of his fancies, divest it
of whatever is coarse, or cold, or cruel, in its
composition. It was thus that I had heard of
these things, and thus that, instead of repelling, as
they would have done, robbed of that charm of
distance which equally beautifies in the moral as
in the natural world, they invited my footsteps,
and seduced me from the more appropriate domestic
world in which my lot had been cast. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 223 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Father Abbot, or, The home tourist | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The members of the Monastery—our merry
Monks of the Moon—had accomplished a third
rubber of whist, when it was perceptible that a
general cloud of gravity—it would be irreverent
to call it dulness—had fallen upon the assembly.
Our excellent Father Abbot himself was detected
in a most expansive yawn, showing an extremity
of condition such as had never befallen him before.
We had our Jester, but he failed, in a laboured
effort, to provoke the merriment of the order at
the expense of our venerable head; and we were
fast sinking into that state of collapse, which betokens
dissolution and departure in social as in
human bodies, when our excellent Father Abbot
startled the brotherhood into sudden vitality, by
an exclamation as unnatural in his case as it was
uncongenial with the faith professed by the fraternity. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 224 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The lily and the totem, or, The Huguenots in Florida | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The Huguenots, in plain terms, were the Protestants of
France. They were a sect which rose very soon after the
preaching of the Reformation had passed from Germany into the
neighboring countries. In France, they first excited the apprehensions
and provoked the hostility of the Roman Catholic
priesthood, during the reign of Francis the First. This prince,
unstable as water, and governed rather by his humors and caprices
than by any fixed principles of conduct—wanting, perhaps,
equally in head and heart—showed himself, in the outset of his
career, rather friendly to the reformers. But they were soon
destined to suffer, with more decided favorites, from the caprices
of his despotism. He subsequently became one of their most
cruel persecutors. The Huguenots were not originally known by
this name. It does not appear to have been one of their own
choosing. It was the name which distinguished them in the days
of their persecution. Though frequently the subject of conjecture,
its origin is very doubtful. Montlue, the Marshal, whose
position at the time, and whose interests in the subject of religion
were such as might have enabled him to know quite as well as
any other person, confesses that the source and meaning of the
appellation were unknown. It is suggested that the name was
taken from the tower of one Hugon, or Hugo, at Tours, where
the Protestants were in the habit of assembling secretly for
worship. This, by many, is assumed to be the true origin of
the word. But there are numerous etymologies besides, from
which the reader may make his selection,—all more or less
plausibly contended for by the commentators. The commencement
of a petition to the Cardinal Lorraine—“Huc nos venimus,
serenissime princeps, &c.,” furnishes a suggestion to one set of
writers. Another finds in the words “Heus quenaus,” which, in
the Swiss patois, signify “seditious fellows,” conclusive evidence
of the thing for which he seeks. Heghenen or Huguenen, a
Flemish word, which means Puritans, or Cathari, is reasonably
urged by Caseneuve, as the true authority; while Verdier tells us
that they were so called from their being the apes or followers of
John Hus—“les guenons de Hus;”—guenon being a young ape.
This is ingenious enough without being complimentary. The
etymology most generally received, according to Mr. Browning,
(History of the Huguenots,) is that which ascribes the origin of
the name to “the word Eignot, derived from the German
Eidegenossen, q. e. federati. A party thus designated existed at
Geneva; and it is highly probable that the French Protestants
would adopt a term so applicable to themselves.” There are,
however, sundry other etymologies, all of which seem equally
plausible; but these will suffice, at least, to increase the difficulties
of conjecture. Either will answer, since the name by which the
child is christened is never expected to foreshadow his future
character, or determine his career. The name of the Huguenots
was probably bestowed by the enemies of the sect. It is in all
likelihood a term of opprobrium or contempt. It will not materially
concern us, in the scheme of the present performance, that we
should reach any definite conclusion on this point. Their
European history must be read in other volumes. Ours is but
the American episode in their sad and protracted struggle with
their foes and fortune. Unhappily, for present inquiry, this
portion of their history attracted but too little the attention of
the parent country. We are told of colonies in America, and of
their disastrous termination, but the details are meagre, touched
by the chronicler with a slight and careless hand; and, but for
the striking outline of the narrative,—the leading and prominent
events which compelled record,—it is one that we should pass
without comment, and with no awakening curiosity. But the few
terrible particulars which remain to us in the ancient summary, are
of a kind to reward inquiry, and command the most active sympathies;
and the melancholy outline of the Huguenots' progress,
in the New World, exhibits features of trial, strength and
suffering, which render their career equally unique in both countries;—a
dark and bloody history, involving details of strife, of
enterprise, and sorrow, which denied them the securities of home
in the parent land, and even the most miserable refuge from
persecution in the wildernesses of a savage empire. Their
European fortunes are amply developed in all the European
chronicles. Our narrative relates wholly to those portions of their
history which belong to America. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 227 | Author: | Smith
Richard Penn
1799-1854 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The actress of Padua, and other tales | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In the year 1812, shortly after the declaration of
war with Great Britain, I made an excursion, partly
on business, partly of pleasure, into that beautiful
and romantic section of Pennsylvania, which lies
along its north-eastern boundary. One morning,
while pursuing my journey, I heard at a distance
the sound of martial music, which gradually became
more distinct as I ascended the Blue Ridge, and
seemed to proceed from a humble village, situated
in the deep valley beneath, on the bank of the Delaware.
Nothing could exceed the splendour of the
scene that lay below. The sun was just rising; his
first beams were gradually stealing through the break
or gap in the distant mountains, which seems to have
been burst open by the force of the torrent; and as
they gilded the dark green foliage of the wilderness,
presented a view which might well awaken the genius
of art, and the speculations of science, but was far
too pure to be estimated by those, whose taste had
been corrupted by admiration of the feeble skill of
man. Circumstances that it is impossible for me to explain
to-day, compel me to postpone our union for
the present, and perhaps forever. If I have any
influence over you, pray suspend your visits at Singleton
Hall, until such time as I may deem it prudent
to recall you. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 230 | Author: | Smith
Seba
1792-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | May-day in New York, or, House-hunting and moving | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Dear Aunt:—I s'pose you begin to think by this
time it's a good while since I writ to you; but the
truth is, any body might as well try to write a letter
in a hornet's nest as to try to write one in New
York any time for a month before the first of May,
especially if they live in a hired house and expect
to have to move when May-day comes round; and
that I take it is the case with jest about one half
the New Yorkers about every year. It's an awful
custom, and where it come from I can't find out;
but it has used me up worse than building forty
rods of stone wall, or chopping down ten acres of
trees. I haint had my clothes off for a week, and
I haint had a quiet night's rest for a month; and
the way my bones have ached would be enough to
make a horse cry his eyes out. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 231 | Author: | Snelling
William Joseph
1804-1848 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Tales of the Northwest, or, Sketches of Indian life and
character | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We read with admiration how Curtius rode into
the gulf in the Forum, to save his country, amidst
the shouts and applauses of surrounding thousands;
but when a poor, ignorant savage, rather than
do violence to his own rude notions of honor, awaits
a fate that he believes inevitable, in sadness and
silence, without the sympathy of an individual, or
any of the circumstances that spurred the Roman
to a glorious death, we think no more of it, and
the story is soon forgotten. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 233 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Clinton Bradshaw, or, The adventures of a lawyer | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Near the court house, in one of our principal cities,
(the especial whereabout and name, for certain
reasons, we must leave to the sagacity of our readers,)
in an autumnal evening, about eight o'clock, or
after, not many years since, a young gentleman might
have been seen walking in rather a quick step, like
one who felt himself in somewhat of a hurry. On
reaching the door of what appeared to be a lawyer's
office, he rapped quickly against it with a
leaden-headed rattan, such as were then, and are
now, much the fashion. “Come in,” said a voice,
from the upper story of the building, from the window
of which a light shone forth into the street. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 235 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | East and west | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Jerry! Jeremiah, I say!” exclaimed an old man,
standing at the head of his cellar door, and stooping
down so as to command the view of as much of his
subterranean premises as his situation would permit,
and his spectacles would allow him to take by peering
over them, for they qualified him to read better,
but not to see farther. “Jeremiah!” he continued at
the top of his voice, and then in a lower tone he
added to himself, impatiently, “The black dolt is as
deaf as—” when he was interrupted by Jerry, who
stuttered whenever he attempted to speak quickly. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 236 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | East and west | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We must shift the scene of our story like those of
the drama, to the whereabout of our different characters.
Not long after the Lormans had settled in
their new home, Mr. Bennington, senior, left Perryville,
to attend the sitting of Congress. Mr. Taylor
Davidson, a south-western planter, who had land
claims that required his presence in Washington
city, and who was a friend of Mr. Bennington, had
been spending some weeks with him at Perryville,
on his way up the Ohio, awaiting Mr. Bennington's
departure, that they might proceed together. During
Mr. Davidson's stay in Perryville, he had made the
acquaintance of the Lormans, and had heard Ruth
talk a great deal about Helen Murray, from whom
she had received several letters, portions of which
she had read to him. Mr. Davidson was a single
man, and would be pronounced by a very young
lady, one for instance just “coming out,” as most
decidedly on the list of old bachelors; a lady of Miss
Judson's age might not think so. Mr. Davidson was
a high-minded, chivalrous southerner, who in his
youth had been in the army, and had served with
honour in our late war with Great Britain. On the
death of his brother, who had left him a handsome
fortune, he had travelled extensively in Europe, and
on his return, purchased a plantation and slaves on
the banks of the Mississippi, where he had resided
since, and accumulated an immense fortune. He
wore his age well, and was a fine-looking man, with
a gentlemanly and distinguished bearing. He was
forcibly impressed with the wit, vivacity, friendliness,
and worldly knowledge of those portions of Helen's
letters, which Ruth read to him, and he laughing
said to her: | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 238 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Howard Pinckney | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Punctual to her promise, Nurse Agnes, or as she
was commonly called, Aunt Agnes, visited Granny
Gammon on the ensuing day. Agnes thought the old
crone very ill; so much so that she determined to remain
with her. It was the first day of the fall races;
and Bobby, with the assistance of Pompey, who had
laid up the odd change which his master and others
had given him, had established a booth on the ground
for the double purpose of seeing the sport of which
he was passionately fond, notwithstanding the injury
he had received in indulging in it, and at the same
time of making a little money. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 240 | Author: | Thompson
Daniel P.
(Daniel Pierce)
1795-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | May Martin, or, The money diggers | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In one of those rough and secluded
towns, situated in the heart of the Green
Mountains, is a picturesque little valley,
containing, perhaps, something over two
thousand acres of improvable land, formerly
known in that section of the country
by the appallation of The Harwood Settlement,
so called from the name of the original
proprietor of the valley. As if formed
by some giant hand, literally scooping
out the solid mountain and moulding it
into shape and proportion, the whole valley
presents the exact resemblance of an
oval basin whose sides are composed of a
continuous ridge of lofty hills bordering it
around, and broken only by two narrow
outlets at its northerly and southerly extremities.
The eastern part of this valley
is covered by one of those transparent
ponds, which are so beautifully characteristic
of Vermontane scenery, laying in the
form of a crescent, and extending along
beneath the closely encircling mountains
on the east nearly the whole length of the
interior landscape, forever mirroring up
from its darkly bright surface, faintly or
vividly, as cloud or sunshine may prevail,
the motley groups of the sombre forest,
where the more slender and softer tinted
beech and maple seem struggling for a
place among the rough and shaggy forms
of the sturdy hemlock, peering head over
head, up the steeply ascending cliffs of
the woody precipice. While here and
there, at distant intervals, towering high
over all, stands the princely pine, waving
its majestic head in solitary grandeur, a
striking but melancholy type of the aboriginal
A*
Indian still occasionally found lingering
among us, the only remaining representative
of a once powerful race, which
have receded before the march of civilized
men, now destined no more to flourish
the lords of the plain and the mountain.
This pond discharges its surplus
waters at its southern extremity in a pure
stream of considerable size, which here,
as if in wild glee at its escape from the embrace
of its parent waters, leaps at once,
from a state of the most unruffled tranquility,
over a ledgy barrier, and, with noisy
reverberations, goes bounding along from
cliff to cliff, in a series of romantic cascades,
down a deep ravine, till the lessening
echoes are lost in the sinuosities of
the outlet of the valley. From the western
shore of this sheet of water the land
rises in gentle undulations, and with a
gradual ascent, back to the foot of the
mountains, which here, as on every other
side, rear their ever-green summits to
the clouds, standing around this vast fortress
of nature as huge centinels posted along
the lofty outworks to battle with the
careering hurricanes that burst in fury on
their immovable sides, and arrest and receive
on their own unscathed heads the
shafts of the lightning descending for its
victims to the valley below, while they
cheerily bandy from side to side the voicy
echoes of the thunderpeal with their
mighty brethren of the opposite rampart. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
