Languages & literature > Aurus clavus, or, The adventures of a gold trinket, supposed to have been written by itself

132
when in solitude, “ Fair Italy, thy sunny climes
and fruitful plains, cannot cheer a broken¬
hearted man like me, nor give a balm for such
wounds as mine. The songs of thy nightingale
might sooth a soft sorrow, but it cannot mend
the heart that has been broken for sweeter
nightingales than thine. My joys have gone
down into the deep with you, my dear lost
daughters; your lovely forms are tossing on the
relentless waves. And as for thee, my dear boy,
thy aspirations hath been ‘ like the morning
cloud and early dew, which passeth soon away.’
And thou, Emma, my youngest, did it indeed
fall to the lot of thy distressed father to lay thy
beloved bones, my poor child, in a foreign land,
and the mother you so loved not here to shed
one parting tear over thy dear remains.” Thus
wept Sir James, and found himself somewhat
relieved, for grief sometimes finds its sweetest
and most effective balm in unloading itself
whilst in solitude.
His health was evidently much impaired,
for the awful reflection of a whole family having
been swept off, under such circumstances, re¬
quired no ordinary degree of manly feeling and for¬
titude to withstand the shock. He intended re-