“by grace divine my heart towards thee draw,
by due afflictions check presumptuous pride,
with hope and love turn fell despair aside,
and make my chief delight thy holy law!”
robert tudor tucker.
the great red sun, like a huge globe of fire, was sinking in the west,—i would have said the horizon, but that word gives the idea of a point nearly level with the eye, while the orb appeared far beneath them to the travellers in the eaglet. the red light tinted with a fiery glow the lower hemisphere of the balloon, which was all that met the eye of the earl, for he had cautiously abstained for many hours from glancing downwards towards the earth.
dashleigh was now perfectly calm, though silent and thoughtful. that one fearful day had effected upon the young nobleman the work of years. deeply solemn were his reflections. with a conscience neither dead nor unenlightened, the earl had needed no prophet to decipher for him the fiery “letters on the wall” of affliction. heavily and yet more heavily had descended on him the almighty’s chastening[209] hand, and every blow had evidently been aimed at his pride! had he not been humiliated in the presence of his friend,—satirized by his wife, ridiculed by the world, and had he not now by an unconquerable weakness, which a girl would have blushed to betray, been the actual cause of the fearful position in which he and his companions appeared! bitter, bitter was the humiliation of the proud man! had he been destitute of the faith which supports, and the hope which cheers, dashleigh would have been utterly crushed by the successive strokes laid upon him. but in him there was much of the gold, which beneath the hammer “does not break, but extend.” dashleigh resembled less the son of kish whom trial drove into fierce despair, than the haughty assyrian king who, having endured that most humbling degradation which was the appointed punishment for pride, “lifted up” his “eyes unto heaven,” and “blessed the most high,” with a spirit subdued.
strangely had passed the day; as light as the feather down, the balloon floated in the ocean of air. the party in the car had partaken of the slight refreshment which had been provided, in little expectation that even that would be required during a two hours’ expedition. beverage there was none, for the wine had exploded both the bottles from the cause mentioned in a preceding chapter. the lips of each of the sufferers was parched and dry, and a painful sensation of thirst was added to the trials of the hour.
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augustine and mabel had exhausted all their inventive powers in contriving means to cut an opening in the ball of the balloon. several attempts had been made, but all had ended in disappointment. the knife, flung upwards with a steady hand, had glanced back from the varnished silk, and fallen through depths which the mind shuddered to calculate. every effort but strengthened the conviction that all effort was unavailing.
there had been silence for a long time in the car,—silence of which dwellers upon earth can scarcely form a conception. there was here no rustling leaf, no buzz of an insect’s wing to break the awful stillness! motion itself was impalpable, being unaccompanied by the slightest sound!
“augustine,” said the earl, raising himself on his elbow, for he still in a reclining posture occupied the lower part of the car, “do you believe that you can hide from me the fact that you have no power over the balloon; that our condition is hopeless?”
“nay,” replied his friend, “let us never despair. the gas may yet find some vent. there was never yet balloon made so air-tight that it would not leak in the course of time.”
mabel thought that she had never seen the pale, delicate features of the earl invested with such true dignity, as when with low, but distinct utterance he made his reply: “i would rather look the danger in the face. my brain is not dizzy now,—none are[211] dizzy who look above rather than below them. i have a presentiment that we shall never reach the ground alive.”
not a word was uttered in contradiction or reply, and the earl continued in the same calm, deliberate tone: “death is a great preacher, augustine; he tells us startling truths! he tarnishes with a touch the gilding on objects that once appeared to us bright! he levels the prince and the peasant. he has been preaching to me a soul-searching sermon, and from a very solemn text.”
“what is the text?” inquired augustine, while mabel bent forward to listen.
“the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of man shall be laid low, and the lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”
again there was solemn, deathlike silence! perhaps, as mabel and her uncle sat watching the last edge of the sun’s disc disappear, and the sky gradually darken into night, the self-reliant genius, the high-spirited girl, were secretly applying to themselves the sublime words of the prophet of judah.
while twilight still lingered, a thought struck mabel. she remembered that she had brought with her an envelope ready directed to her sister, with a sheet of blank paper enclosed, for her fancy had been pleased with the idea of dating a letter from “the clouds.” making a table of her seat in the car, mabel knelt down, and with a pencil wrote a sad[212] and touching farewell to the parent and sister so tenderly loved. many names were kindly remembered in that note, for the proud spirit of mabel was softened and subdued by the pressure of trial, and no one was then recalled to her mind but with a feeling of kindness. to her step-mother mabel sent a long message. she confessed her fault with frank regret, and asked the pardon of mrs. aumerle, not only for the last act of open disobedience which was now so fearfully punished, but for a long course of petty provocations, for sullen looks, and proud retorts, and bitter words spoken against her; mabel entreated forgiveness for all. her tears dropped fast upon the sheet—the first tears which she had shed on that day, but she dashed them hastily from her eyes. mabel then folded the note and kissed it, as if believing that the paper might bear to her home the impress of that last token of love; then she dropped her letter over the side of the car, watching it as it descended, and picturing to herself the grief and tenderness with which it would be received, and read, and treasured up as a mournful memorial of her of whose fate it might be the only record.
dashleigh had watched the action of his young companion, and now drew from his vest a small but very elegant pocket-book, which bore on one side an embossed gold shield, on which his name was engraved, surmounted by his coronet. this was the first gift of affection which the young nobleman had[213] received from his affianced bride. it had been his constant companion since the hour when he had received it from her hand. dashleigh opened the book, and gazed for some moments on the inscription written on the fly-leaf, though the thickening darkness would have rendered it difficult to decipher, had he not known every syllable by heart. the earl then, rather by feeling than sight, traced two words on one of the blank pages, reclasped the book, and gave it to mabel with an expressive movement of the hand. sadly and silently she dropped into the dark abyss the love token of the unhappy annabella.
more than an hour elapsed before the silence again was broken. the thin air of these upper regions had become intensely cold, and mabel shivered in her spring attire. the balloon was drifting steadily on before the night breeze, as was marked by its dark globe appearing to blot out one constellation after another from the sky as it swept on, the sole object that broke the immense expanse of the star-lit heavens.
“i think,” observed mabel with a heavy sigh, “that all in my father’s house must now be met together for evening prayers.” she paused, as fancy brought before her eye the warm lighted room, the curtains drawn, the lamp-light falling on so many dear familiar faces! mabel thought how her father’s voice would tremble as he uttered his fervent supplications[214] for those in such awful peril, and how ida would try to smother her bursting sobs, that she might not unnerve him by the sound of her distress. “they will be praying for us,” continued mabel; “should we not pray together—even here?”
“none have more need of prayer,” murmured the earl; augustine’s head was bowed in assent.
“god is with us—even in this awful, awful height where no human being can approach us,” faltered mabel.
“augustine aumerle,” said lord dashleigh, “do you lead our evening devotion.”
“any one rather than me!” exclaimed augustine; “none so unfit—so unworthy—so incapable!”
and there was truth in these strange words. to the gifted scholar, the eloquent orator, the language of prayer was not familiar, the spirit of prayer had long, alas! been unknown! augustine had indeed, during his visit to his brother, usually joined in the family devotions, but he had done so from courtesy to man, not from reverence for god. unconvinced of the weakness or sinfulness of his own nature, he had sought neither pardon nor aid; he had felt no need of a divine sustaining power, for he had contentedly rested on his own. augustine had made an idol of intellect, with pride for its priest, under the much abused name of reason. what marvel that with all his knowledge augustine knew not how to pray!
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the earl felt the difficulty almost as strongly as his friend, though from a different cause. he had never been disturbed by a doubt on the subject of religion, and had from his earliest youth regarded revealed truth with reverence, and acts of worship with respect; but he had carried even into his devotion the cold formality which naturally followed an overweening sense of personal dignity. dashleigh had been a regular attendant at church; but with the shy reserve of his nature, it would have seemed to him, till that night, impossible to have poured forth in the hearing of man an extempore prayer to his god. but where pride is humbled, the spirit of supplication may rest. never had the peer so felt before the littleness of personal distinctions; never, therefore, before had his heart been so attuned to simple prayer. as augustine shrank from leading the devotions, which each one present felt would be at once the source of comfort and the fulfilment of duty, the nobleman, with folded hands, repeated aloud the first petitions in the litany which instinct rather than memory suggested to his mind. augustine and his young niece in low and earnest tones echoed the cry for mercy upon miserable sinners; and when it was followed by the comprehensive prayer, “in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment—lord, deliver us!” arose in solemn unison from three voices and three hearts. never[216] had the supplication been more earnestly, more fervently breathed.
the lord’s prayer concluded the brief service, which for the time made that little car appear as a floating temple. the chill cloudy solitude seemed less terrible when the name of the giver of all good, the fount of all blessings, had sounded within it. those who had prayed together, felt their souls more knit together, and more prepared to meet with firmness whatever the dark, drear night might bring. philosophy had brought no comfort, earthly rank no relief, but the sense of the presence of a heavenly father was as balm to the suffering sinking soul.
