Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

wen aly dima ote i > +. (as 29> Era vbeg to ei? tae A . i es a rj ~ ie | = 2 a ae ya 5 £ 16 BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. } j ‘His character is blameless, Iva, so far as human eye can judge. He is a most exemplary person, and a pattern of filial affection, they say. He supports his mother by his writings. Oh, me-” ) This last exclamation seemed wrung from her in sudden distress; she sighed heavily and wearily. «How long have you known the Southerner?” I asked. «IT made his acquaintance last summer—at Saratoga,” she answered, in a sinking voice. ‘‘ He had just been lib- erated from prison. He was captured with a company of Con- federates some three months before and brought up North. He was the son of a wealthy Virginia planter, who put him- self at the head of a regiment when the war commenced, and fell in one of the first battles. ‘he plantation was burned, and the estate destroyed; Mrs. Beaumont forced to fly and hide with her slaves in the swamps, with Cecil as a protector. A small remnant of Colonel Beaumont’s com- pany gathered round his son, and Cecil became a noted cuerrilla and a scourge to our men, whenever opportunity occurred. At length swamp-fever carried off a third of them, and the rest were captured in the Chickahominy Swamp, the skeletons of themselves. Most of them were exchanged; but there was no one to take interest in young Beaumont or his mother; they were sent North and _ at last liberated. Young Cecil came to Saratoga, an invalid, and there he met me, and without any design on my part—not the slightest, Iva—became too much attached to me. It is very false of him—he is treating very cruelly an amiable young lady who was very kind to him when he was sick and in prison. Her father was governor of the prison, and mainly by her influence the young soldier was liberated. He sought her hand, and was accepted—poor child! her disin- terested love scarcely merits such returns,” «What! is he so false as that?” I exclaimed; “but who could help loving you, Isolina? You are so beautiful and grand!” She smiled rather sadly, and resumed: ' ‘Miss Meredith spent last winter at New York, and a sweeter creature I think I never met. She became a warm friend of mine; and you can understand how pain- ful it is for me to be the cause of wrong to her. I have sent the inconstant young man back to her once already, and I fondly hoped that his sudden passion would pass comicbooks.com: -