The tears fell fast and full from the eyes
of the kneeling girl, who neither sobbed nor spoke, but, with continued
and yet despairing attention, endeavored earnestly to catch the few
words of one who was on the eve of departure, and the words of whom, at
such a moment, almost invariably acquire a value never attached to them
before: as the sounds of a harp, when the chords are breaking, are said
to articulate a sweet sorrow, as if in mourning for their own fate.
The outlaw, all this while, stood apart and in silence. Although perhaps
but little impressed with the native solemnity of the scene before him,
he was not so ignorant of what was due to humanity, and not so unfeeling
in reference to the parties here interested, as to seek to disturb its
progress or propriety with tone, look, or gesture, which might make
either of them regret his presence. Becoming impatient, however, of a
colloquy which, as he saw that it had not its use, and was only
productive of mortification to one of the parties, he thought only
prudent to terminate, he advanced toward them; and his tread, for the
first time, warned them of his presence.
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