Our hopes and fears
Start up alarmed, and o'er life's narrow verge
Look down—On what?—a fathomless abyss,
A dark eternity, how surely ours!———
The crowd of assembled gazers and idlers at Ellangowan had followed the views of amusement, or what they called business, which brought them there, with little regard to the feelings of those who were suffering upon that occasion. Few, indeed, knew any thing of the family. The father, betwixt seclusion, misfortune, and imbecillity, had drifted, as it were, for many years, out of the notice of his contemporaries—the daughter had never been known to them. But when the general murmur announced that the unfortunate Mr Bertram had broken his heart in the effort to leave the mansion of his forefathers, there poured forth a torrent of sympathy, like the waters from the rock when stricken by the wand of the prophet. The ancient descent and unblemished integrity
