Part 33 (1/2)
”He is handsoht she, and blushed redder yet
How could it be that no drea within hith, it should part asunder, and allow hi its phantohten upon his face? She was co to the old and beautiful idea, had been severed froue but passionate desires, he yearned to meet
Her only could he love with a perfect love--him only could she receive into the depths of her heart--and now her i in the fountain by his side; should it pass away, its happy lustre would never gleaain
”How sound he sleeps!”the road so lightly as when she ca country hborhood, and happened, at that identical ti man as David Swan Had David forhter, he would have become the father's clerk, and all else in natural succession So here, again, had good fortune--the best of fortunes--stolen so near, that her gar of the ht, when two men turned aside beneath the maple shade Both had dark faces, set off by cloth caps, which were dran aslant over their brows Their dresses were shabby, yet had a certain s by whatever the devil sent them, and now, in the interim of other business, had staked the joint profits of their next piece of villainy on a game of cards, which was to have been decided here under the trees
But, finding David asleep by the spring, one of the rogues whispered to his fellow--
”Hist!--Do you see that bundle under his head?”
The other villain nodded, winked, and leered
”I'll bet you a horn of brandy,” said the first, ”that the chap has either a pocket-book or a snug little hoard of sst his shi+rts And if not there, we shall find it in his pantaloons' pocket”
”But how if he wakes?” said the other
His companion thrust aside his waistcoat, pointed to the handle of a dirk, and nodded
”So be it!” muttered the second villain
They approached the unconscious David, and, while one pointed the dagger towards his heart, the other began to search the bundle beneath his head Their two faces, griuilt and fear, bent over their victih to be mistaken for fiends, should he suddenly awake Nay, had the villains glanced aside into the spring, even they would hardly have known themselves, as reflected there But David Swan had never worn a more tranquil aspect, even when asleep on his mother's breast
”I must take away the bundle,” whispered one
”If he stirs, I'll strike,”along the ground, caazed alternately at each of these wicked men, and then at the quiet sleeper He then lapped out of the fountain
”Pshaw!” said one villain ”We can do nothing now The dog's master must be close behind”
”Let's take a drink, and be off,” said the other
The er thrust back the weapon into his bosom, and drew forth a pocket-pistol, but not of that kind which kills by a single discharge It was a flask of liquor, with a block-tin tumbler screwed upon the mouth Each drank a comfortable drahter at their unaccoone on their way rejoicing In a few hours they had forgotten the whole affair, nor once iel had written down the criainst their souls, in letters as durable as eternity As for David Swan, he still slept quietly, neither conscious of the shadow of death when it hung over hilow of renewed life when that shadoithdrawn
He slept, but no longer so quietly as at first An hour's repose had snatched from his elastic frame the weariness hich many hours of toil had burthened it Now he stirred--now moved his lips, without a sound--now talked in an inward tone to the noonday spectres of his drea the road, until it dashed through the dispersing e-coach He started up, with all his ideas about hier?” shouted he
”Room on top!” answered the driver
Up mounted David, and bowled away lance at that fountain of dreamlike vicissitude He knew not that a phantoolden hue upon its waters, nor that one of Love had sighed softly to their murmur, nor that one of Death had threatened to crimson them with his blood--all, in the brief hour since he lay down to sleep Sleeping or waking, we hear not the airy footsteps of the strange things that al Providence, that, while viewless and unexpected events thrust themselves continually athwart our path, there should still be regularity enough in ht even partially available?