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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
face of the earth , without any fixed habitation—pilotless , belmless , and—useless . What wonder that the parents' hearts should quake for their only son ? * # # * # %
Stephen had now been absent more than a year from his island-home , and none knew where he was abiding . It was , indeed , * art agonizing state of uncertainty in which these poor people were now living . They knew not whether Stephen were alive or dead—they were almost inclined to think the latter . At length a London trader brought two large boxes to the island , addressed to old Mr Cameron . They were instantly
recognized as Stephen ' s boxes . He was coming home then ; the wanderer was about to return , to dwell among his own people again ! Jnit Stephen came not , so they opened the boxes . Mrs Cameron was not present at the opening , or what she would have seen there might have killed her out-right .
Among a quantity of dirty liner * they found sundry vestments all stained and clotted with blood . It was , indeed , a terrible thing to behold , for they thought it but too manifest that poor Stephen had been killed .
They did not search further that day . And oh ! what a dreadful night of sleepless agony did the sisters pass , thinking over what they had seen . Fear-fraught were the questions which they put to themselves and to each other . Was Stephen the murdered or the murderer ? Had he been the victim or
the perpetrator of a deed of blood—had he suffered or done evil ? And yet , perhaps , none of these things—perhaps no weapon had been drawn more terrible than the lancet of the surgeon . The sisters met the next morning at breakfast with pale faces and eyes dim with watching . "What ails you all ?" asked old Mrs Cameron . The sisters looked at one another , but were silent ; not one of them had the courage to speak . But towards noon-rtide one of the sisters , unknown to the rest , resolved to continue the inspection of Stephen ' s boxes . She could not bear this fearful state of suspense . It was better to know the worst at once—better anything than this heart-wearing incertitude . § o she opened the other box , and the truth was soon made manifest to Jiei—at least a partial revealing of the truth . She foun 4 nq bipod-stained weapon—no terrible confession of guilt—no nmtilated corpse or gory * head ' , but simply a bundle of letters , , ,,,,,.. This is a h ^ sy against romance , but I have to do with fact , l ^ tslll ^ ftli . Mi ^ a ( jailer ou found a bundle of letters , and with fear and trembling she sat down to read them * They were
Untitled Article
374 Stephen Cameron ;
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1837, page 374, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1832/page/56/
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