Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by Harper &Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the SouthernDistrict of New-York.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
ADDENDA.
The lightning streamed athwart the heavens in quick and vivid flashes.One peal of thunder after another echoed from cliff to cliff, while adriving storm of rain, wind and hail, made the face of nature black anddismal. There was something frightfully congenial in this uproar of thecontending elements with the storm raging in Bacon's heart, as he rushedfrom the scene of the catastrophe we have just witnessed. The darknesswhich succeeded the lurid and sulphureous flashes was not more completeand unfathomable than the black despair of his own soul. These vividcontrasts of light and gloom were the only stimulants of which he wassusceptible, and they were welcomed as the light of his path! By theirguidance he wildly rushed to his stable, saddled, led forth, and mountedhis noble charger, his own head still uncovered. For once the[Pg 4] gallantanimal felt himself uncontrolled master of his movements, fleet as thewind his nimble heels measured the narrow limits of the island. A suddenglare of intense light served for an instant to reveal both to horse andrider that they stood upon the brink of the river, and a singleindication of the rider's will was followed by a plunge into thetroubled waves. Nobly and majestically he rose and sank with theswelling surges. His master sat erect in the saddle and felt hisbenumbed faculties revived, as he communed with the storm. The ragingelements appeared to sympathize with the tumult of his own bosom. Helaughed in horrid unison with the gambols of the lightning, and yelledwith savage delight as the muttering thunder rolled over his head.
There is a sublime stimulus in despair. Bacon felt its power; he wasconscious that one of the first laws of our organization,(self-preservation,) was suddenly dead within him.
The ballast of the frail vessel was thrown overboard, and the sails werespread to the gathering storm with reckless desperation. Compass andrudder were alike abandoned and despised—they were for the use of thosewho had hopes and fears. For himself he spread his sails and steered hiscourse with the very sp