The Ladies' Garland

ELLEN.

A Sketch from "Scenes and Thoughts."

BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

I endeavoured to learn the story of the ill-fated
Ellen and the interesting mourner whom I beheld
hovering over her ashes; and I found that they
were indeed the pangs of a mother's heart which
had caused the grief I had witnessed. She had attended
her husband abroad, through many a scene
of trial and hardship; she had dressed his wounds
upon the day of battle, and she had watched over
her soldier's lowly pallet, with firm and unremitting
tenderness; but his wounds were healed, and
he rose from his sick bed, astonished at her magnanimity,
and grateful for her affection. They returned
together to their native country, that they might
seek a reward for their past sufferings in the bosom
of the country that gave them birth, and in the happy
retirement which they best loved. Several
children blest their union; but some were nipped
in the bud of infancy, and the rest prematurely destroyed
er e they were fully unfolded into blossoms.

One beloved daughter—their beautiful Ellen—
alone remained to them. All the tender shoots were
withered, save this one; and her they cherished as
their sole remaining pride, their only surviving
prop. That child grew up all that her parents
wished; and lovely in mind as in person, she constituted
their sum of human happiness on earth.—
But, alas! the sweetest and most delicate flowers
are often nipped the soonest by the chill wind, or
by the blighting mildew. Her fragile form but too
easily sunk under the pressure of disease; and like
a tender reed, bent beneath its own unsupported
weight. Her eyes, indeed, sparkled with unusual
lustre, but it was no more like the brilliance of
health than the false glare of a wandering meteor
resembles the clear and steady effulgence of the
meridian sun; and though a bright bloom coloured
her cheek, it was not the rosy tint of vigour, but
the harbinger of approaching ruin. The terrified
parents beheld with horror, the dreadful symptoms.
In an agony of mind, which none besides can fully
appreciate, they tried all that nature dictated, or art
devise, to stop the progress of the fatal malady. But
it was too late. It made rapid and gigantic strides;
and hope itself was soon obliged to droop in anguish.
The lovely victim saw her fate before her, but her
wings were plumed for Heaven, and she wished not
to hover long upon the earth. While her body
drooped and languished, her mind became strengthened
and fortified; and the undecaying spirit seemed
to shine forth more visibly and more beautifully,
when the mortal shroud which enveloped it was
gradually falling.

At length life gradually waned
—and waned, until its lamp shot up one bright, but
quivering gleam, and then was darkened forever!
She was dead—but the rose still played upon the
half closed lips, whose last accents had breathed
the fond name of mother! And those who looked
upon her could scarcely believe but that she sweetly
slept.