Yet, for this vision of the Past, Who fashioned so the human mind, But Memory's phantasy of dreams. Through the mind's waste of wo and sin, Of an immortal origin! CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK. [IN the following ballad, the author has endeavored to display the strong enthusiasm of the early Quaker, the short-sighted intolerance of the clergy and magistrates, and that sympathy with the oppressed, which the "common people," when not directly under the control of spiritual despotism, have ever evinced. He is not blind to the extravagance of language and action which characterized some of the pioneers of Quakerism in New England, and which furnished perse cution with its solitary but most inadequate excuse. The ballad has its foundation upon a somewhat remarkable event in the history of Puritan intolerance. Two young persons, son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick, of Salem, who had himself been imprisoned and deprived of all his property for having entertained two Quakers at his house, were fined ten pounds each for non-attendance at church, which they were unable to pay. The case being represented to the General Court, at Boston, that body issued an order, which may still be seen on the court records, bearing the signature of Edward Rawson, Secretary, by which the treasurer of the County was "fully empowered to sell the said persons to any of the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer said fines." An attempt was made to carry this barbarous order into execution, but no shipmaster was found willing to convey them to the West Indies. Vide SEWALL'S HISTORY, pp. 225-6, G. BISHOP.] To the God of all sure mercies let my blessing rise to-day, Last night I saw the sunset melt through my prison bars, stars; In the coldness and the darkness all through the long night time, Alone, in that dark sorrow, hour after hour crept by ; No sound amid night's stillness, save that which seemed to be The dull and heavy beating of the pulses of the sea; All night I sat unsleeping, for I knew that on the morrow The ruler and the cruel priest would mock me in my sorrow, Dragged to their place of market, and bargained for and sold, Like a lamb before the shambles, like a heifer from the fold! Oh, the weakness of the flesh was there the shame; the shrinking and And the low voice of the Tempter like whispers to me came : "Why sit'st thou thus forlornly!" the wicked murmur said, "Damp walls thy bower of beauty, cold earth thy maiden bed? "Where be the smiling faces, and voices soft and sweet, 66 Why sit'st thou here, Cassandra? - Bethink thee with what mirth Thy happy schoolmates gather around the warm bright hearth; How the crimson shadows tremble on foreheads white and fair, On eyes of merry girlhood, half hid in golden hair. Not for thee the hearth-fire brightens, not for thee kind words are spoken, Not for thee the nuts of Wenham woods by laughing boys are broken, No first-fruits of the orchard within thy lap are laid, For thee no flowers of Autumn the youthful hunters braid. "Oh! weak, deluded maiden !—by crazy fancies led, "Mad scoffers of the priesthood, who mock at things divine, "And what a fate awaits thee? -a sadly toiling slave, Oh! ever as the Tempter spoke, and feeble Nature's fears I thought of Paul and Silas, within Phillippi's cell, And how from Peter's sleeping limbs the prison-shackles fell, Till I seemed to hear the trailing of an angel's robe of white, And to feel a blessed presence invisible to sight. Bless the Lord for all His mercies! - for the peace and love I felt, Like dew of Hermon's holy hill, upon my spirit melt; Slow broke the gray cold morning; again the sunshine fell, At length the heavy bolts fell back, my door was open cast, And slowly at the sheriff's side, up the long street I passed; I heard the murmur round me, and felt, but dared not see, How, from every door and window, the people gazed on me. And doubt and fear fell on me, shame burned upon my cheek, Swam earth and sky around me, my trembling limbs grew weak: "Oh, Lord! support thy handmaid; and from her soul cast out The fear of man, which brings a snare the weakness and the doubt." Then the dreary shadows scattered like a cloud in morning's breeze, And a low deep voice within me seemed whispering words like these: "Though thy earth be as the iron, and thy heaven a brazen wall, Trust still His loving kindness whose power is over all." We paused at length, where at my feet the sunlit waters broke On glaring reach of shining beach, and shingly wall of rock ; The merchant-ships lay idly there, in hard clear lines on high, Tracing with rope and slender spar their net-work on the sky. And there were ancient citizens, cloak-wrapped and grave and cold, And grim and stout sea-captains with faces bronzed and old, And poisoning with his evil words the ruler's ready ear, I cried, "The Lord rebuke thee, thou smiter of the meek, Dark lowered the brows of Endicott, and with a deeper red O'er Rawson's wine-empurpled cheek the flush of anger spread; "Good people," quoth the white-lipped priest, "heed not her words so wild, Her Master speaks within her the Devil owns his child! But gray heads shook, and young brows knit, the while the sheriff read That law the wicked rulers against the poor have made, Then to the stout sea-captains the sheriff turning said: "Which of ye, worthy seamen, will take this Quaker maid? In the Isle of fair Barbadoes, or on Virginia's shore, You may hold her at a higher price than Indian girl or Moor." |