AFFECTING STORY OF TOM BRAGWELL

ROUGHT HOME TO THE CONSCIENCES OF THOSE IT MAY CONCERN.

Two days previous to the execution of poor BRAGWELL, and lost no time in getting myself intro

I arrived in
VOL. II.

ΚΚ

duced

*The Fiery Cross was a token made use of by the ancient Highand chieftains, in order to expediate and insure the rising of their respective clans in cases of emergency.

After having its extremities burnt in the fire, and extinguished in the blood of a goat, killed for the purpose, (emblematical of those who failed to appear at the warlike signal, being doomed to suffer the extremities of fire and sword,) this cross was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran with it, with the utmost speed, to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the significant token, was bound to send it forward with equal dispatch to the next village, and thus it passed with incredible velocity through the whole district.-The movements of this tremendous visitor, (from whose call there was no appeal) are admirably depicted by WALTER SCOTT, Esq. in the third canto to the Lady of the Lake; and. in a Lote to that canto, it appears, that the bloody symbol often made its circuit so late as the rebellion in 1745--6. Upon one occasion, it is aid to have passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in three hours!

The reason assigned by the OBSERVANT PEDESTRIAN for having substituted the Fiery Cross for the Beacon on the present occasion will appear in a future number, as we cannot possibly make room for the whole of his affecting narrative in this.

duced to the unfortunate youth, under the name of friend, who wished to see him. This I was enabled to da through the officious kindness of one of the magistrates, with whom I was personally acquainted; and who politely accompanied me to the door of the cell, into which I had no sooner gained admission than he left the jailer to de his office, who locked me up with the unhappy hero of my story.

The poor lad sat, as I entered, in a corner of his narrow house, loaded with irons, his head reclining upon one of his hands, which rested on his knee. At first he seemed to tally insensible or indifferent to my visit, and I had advan ced almost close upon him, before he appeared to evince the smallest inclination to change his position; but when I addressed him in the following soothing strain-"What crime, my poor young fellow, has brought you into such a pitiful situation?"-he started up from his reverie, and gazing in my face, with the wildest confusion, exclaimed: "Robbery and Murder to be sure! Ah! little did I once think that ever TOM BRAGWELL would have turned out & murderer. But it is all over now-my doom is fixedand the devil will have his own at last!-I was in bell last night!—and in a few days-let me see-the day after to-morrow I will be roasting in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; but the sooner the better," he cried out, in an agony of despair; "for what is all I can There suffer to the pains I now feel. O what it is to be a

murderer and a murderer of the worst kind-a murderer of one's own father!-O Solomon Joy! Solomon Joy! ---Peter Langhead! Peter Langhead!O my fa ther! my But, Sir, did not I see you also last night and are you not the gentleman I saw in the beanfield? O that the earth had then opened and swallowed me up alive! From what crimes would I have been prevented; from what horror of remorse would I have been saved!" The greater part of this discourse I considered as the ravings of a distempered mind, which had, in the silence of a solitary dungeon, been brooding over its sor rows, previous to my arrival. It never once entered my thoughts, that these were the effusions of "busy meddling memory," which had been harrowing up his soul, and the

only

aly thing that surprised me was the quickness of his reollection in recognising a person, of whom he must have ad such an imperfect and transient glance before.

Wishing to calm as much as possible that perturbation to which I observed he had been thrown, by the flush of is countenance, the tears that trickled down his cheeks, nd the fiery glare of his swollen eyes, I interrupted him uickly by saying; "that I did not know, nor ever heard, bat such a thing as the murder of a parent had been laid

his charge, and, I sincerely hoped, that whatever were is other crimes, he had not been charged with that of arricide."

"Ah! but I lay it to my own charge," answered lie, astily. "I learned yesterday that my father was dead. I knew immediately that it was I who did it! O conscience! conscience !-What a dream I had last night-I shall never forget it; and you was there too, Sir; and no wonder that I started up when I saw you, for I was ruminating upon it when you entered, and it can never be erased from my memory, such terrible impression had my dream."

Although I pay no great attention to the airy fabrics of our night visions, yet as I seemed now to have got a clue to what he meant by the expression of having seen me last night; and learned, from what had just dropped from his lips, respecting his father's death, that there was at least some truth and meaning in what I before had concluded to be the incoherent ravings of a maniac, I could not help feeling a strong desire to be acquainted with the substance of his dream; and as he confessed that the incidents were too strongly impressed on his mind ever to be effaced, I had no difficulty in getting him to proceed with the following relation, as well as he could find utterance for his words.

BRAGWELL'S DREAM.

"I thought (proceeded the unhappy youth) that I was lying on my bed in my father's house, long after all the family were up, (as I had many times done,) when the old approached the bedside, drew aside the curtains, and,

man

looking stedfastly in my face, said, in his usual manner,
with kindness and benignity in his looks, TOMMY, come
TOMMY, my man, get up. Do not lie in your bed all day.
Come, my good lad, it is time to get up; I shall not desire
you to do any thing to day; so come, pray get up.' But
when I just looked him in the face, and closed my eyes
again as usual, he, all on a sudden, appeared to change his
tone, and in a voice very different from that in which he
had been accustomed to accost me, cried out, as he retired,
Come away, Sir,-you must come away-this is the
last time I shall call you.' Must come away! muttered
I to myself; but I shan't come away; and if this is the
way you are to speak to me, I hope it is the last time ever
you shall call me, and was just in the act of folding my hands
again to sleep, when a voice, loud and boisterous, thundered
in my ears-Turn out BRAGWELL! turn out! no sculk-
ing below my boy, every one must have his share!'-
immediately recognized the voice as having once before
disturbed my peaceful slumbers, and looking up in a
fright, beheld the ghastly features of my poor unfortunate
shipmate, just as he appeared after he received the fatal
shot. His eyes were glazed in death, but they seemed
fixed on me, and although his pale lips had lost their natu
ral hue, they seemed to quiver as he uttered: See what
comes of disobedience to parents! Behind him stood another
pale and ghastly figure, in whose haggard countenance, as
he bent forwards, and looked over his companion's shoul
der, I thought I discovered the lineaments, (although great-
ly altered by the finger of death,) that so strongly marked
the face of SOLOMON JOx. The blood seemed still to
trickle from the wound of a pistol ball on his temple, to
which he pointed with his finger, as he spoke in an un-
earthly sound, which still vibrates in my ear: See what
comes of idleness, the fruitful mother of mischief, and of
dissolute companions, the unfortunate bane of youth; yet
who would have thought that Toм BRAGWELL, who did
eat of my bread, and made merry at my expense but a few
days before, would have been my murderer!These all
passed away in solemn and silent succession at the ap-
proach of a personage of a very different appearance from
the rest; yet he also was not without his wounds and his

scars. Rays of glory, however, beamed from them, and no bloody taints appeared on his pure white robes. 'His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace* ;' and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. He too advanced, and came close up to the bed-side; and looking earnestly at me, softly said: 'I am HE that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.' 0 BRAGWELL! BRAGWELL! what providential warnings you have neglected, what gracious calls you have slighted! How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not. Had the mighty things been done to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, which have been done for you, they would. have repented in dust and ashes. But because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand,. and no man regarded, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy§.' You have sinned away your day of grace, and have done despite to the spirit of God, and there is nothing remaining for you now but a 'fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. Soon, soon, alas! shall you know what it is to feel the smart of an agonising conscience! what it is to dwell in everlasting burnings!" While this person spake I observed another of a very different aspect, pacing the floor at a small distance behind him, whose countenance brightened up, in proportion as the other was affected, and who seemed to enjoy an ecstasy of pleasure as my humane visitant wept, while he pronounced the awful doom, which my conscience whispered me was JUST. As the former departed from me this demon came forward, when I immediately had the mortification to hear the following words pronounced by my deadly ener my, SIMON FRISK: "O you ill looking dog, did I not tell you that the next watch you stole I hoped that you would be hanged for it, and now I shall have my wish!

KK 3

Rev. i, 14. † Rev. i. 18. Prov. i. 26 Prov. xxix. 1.

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Heb. x. 27