"A little while ago this young thing,this child of eighteen years,was as happy a wife and mother as any in England;and her lips were blithe with song,which is the native speech of glad and innocent hearts.Her young husband was as happy as she;for he was doing his whole duty,he worked early and late at his handicraft,his bread was honest bread well and fairly earned,he was prospering,he was furnishing shelter and sustenance to his family,he was adding his mite to the wealth of the nation.By consent of a treacherous law,instant destruction fell upon this holy home and swept it away!That young husband was waylaid and impressed,and sent to sea.The wife knew nothing of it.She sought him everywhere,she moved the hardest hearts with the supplications of her tears,the broken eloquence of her despair.Weeks dragged by,she watching,waiting,hoping,her mind going slowly to wreck under the burden of her misery.Little by little all her small possessions went for food.When she could no longer pay her rent,they turned her out of doors.She begged,while she had strength;when she was starving at last,and her milk failing,she stole a piece of linen cloth of the value of a fourth part of a cent,thinking to sell it and save her child.But she was seen by the owner of the cloth.She was put in jail and brought to trial.The man testified to the facts.Aplea was made for her,and her sorrowful story was told in her behalf.
She spoke,too,by permission,and said she did steal the cloth,but that her mind was so disordered of late by trouble that when she was overborne with hunger all acts,criminal or other,swam meaningless through her brain and she knew nothing rightly,except that she was so hungry!For a moment all were touched,and there was disposition to deal mercifully with her,seeing that she was so young and friendless,and her case so piteous,and the law that robbed her of her support to blame as being the first and only cause of her transgression;but the prosecuting officer replied that whereas these things were all true,and most pitiful as well,still there was much small theft in these days,and mistimed mercy here would be a danger to property --oh,my God,is there no property in ruined homes,and orphaned babes,and broken hearts that British law holds precious!
--and so he must require sentence.
"When the judge put on his black cap,the owner of the stolen linen rose trembling up,his lip quivering,his face as gray as ashes;and when the awful words came,he cried out,'Oh,poor child,poor child,I did not know it was death!'and fell as a tree falls.When they lifted him up his reason was gone;before the sun was set,he had taken his own life.
A kindly man;a man whose heart was right,at bottom;add his murder to this that is to be now done here;and charge them both where they belong --to the rulers and the bitter laws of Britain.The time is come,my child;let me pray over thee --not FOR thee,dear abused poor heart and innocent,but for them that be guilty of thy ruin and death,who need it more."After his prayer they put the noose around the young girl's neck,and they had great trouble to adjust the knot under her ear,because she was devouring the baby all the time,wildly kissing it,and snatching it to her face and her breast,and drenching it with tears,and half moaning,half shrieking all the while,and the baby crowing,and laughing,and kicking its feet with delight over what it took for romp and play.Even the hangman couldn't stand it,but turned away.When all was ready the priest gently pulled and tugged and forced the child out of the mother's arms,and stepped quickly out of her reach;but she clasped her hands,and made a wild spring toward him,with a shriek;but the rope --and the under-sheriff --held her short.Then she went on her knees and stretched out her hands and cried:
"One more kiss --oh,my God,one more,one more,--it is the dying that begs it!"She got it;she almost smothered the little thing.And when they got it away again,she cried out:
"Oh,my child,my darling,it will die!It has no home,it has no father,no friend,no mother --""It has them all!"said that good priest."All these will I be to it till I die."You should have seen her face then!Gratitude?Lord,what do you want with words to express that?Words are only painted fire;a look is the fire itself.She gave that look,and carried it away to the treasury of heaven,where all things that are divine belong.
