Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/258

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
246
SKETCH OF CONNECTICUT,

ed royalty of Mohegan, which appeared at the close of the third chapter. His memory is still revered, and the celebrity which he acquired in the science of medicine, is still enjoyed by his descendants. Soon after the conversation which has been related, he stopped on a visit of charity, to which he was so much accustomed, that it was said his horse turned involuntarily towards the abodes of poverty. The divine, thanking him for his attention to the mysterious invalid, pursued his homeward journey.

Exhausted in body, but confirmed in faith, Oriana waited her dissolution. Such was the wasting of her frame, that she seemed reduced to a spiritual essence, trembling, and ready to be exhaled. Every pure morning, she desired the casement to be thrown open, that the fresh air might visit her. But at length, this from an occasional gratification became an object of frequent necessity, to aid laborious respiration. The couch, which she had been resolute in leaving while her strength permitted, was now her constant refuge. The febrile symptoms of that terrible disease, which delights to prey on the most fair and excellent, gradually disappeared; but debility increased to an almost insupportable degree. Smiles now constantly sat upon her face, and seemed to indicate that the bitterness of death had already passed. The irritation of pain, which had marked her features, subsided into a tranquil loveliness, which sometimes brightened into joy, as one who felt that "redemption draweth nigh." One night, sleep had not visited her eyes; for, whenever her sense