How bitter had been the reverse!
and what incidents to fill up the sad volume of the
longest life of sorrow and bereavement had not Heaven
awarded her in lieu! In one short hour the weight of a
thousand worlds had fallen on and crushed her heart; and
when and how was the panacea to be obtained to restore
one moment's cessation from suffering to her agonised
spirit? Alas! she felt at that moment, that, although
she should live a thousand years, the bitterness and
desolation of her grief must remain. From the vessel she
turned her eyes away upon the distant shore, which it
was fast quitting, and beheld a column of mingled flame
and smoke towering far above the horizon, and attesting
the universal wreck of what had so long been endeared to
her as her home. And she had witnessed all this, and yet
had strength to survive it!
The courage of the unhappy girl had hitherto been sustained
by no effort of volition of her own. From the moment
when, discovering a friend in Oucanasta, she had yielded
herself unresistingly to the guidance of that generous
creature, her feelings had been characterised by an
obtuseness strongly in contrast with the high excitement
that had distinguished her previous manner.
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