The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861

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Various. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861

AGNES OF SORRENTO

CHAPTER V. IL PADRE FRANCESCO

CHAPTER VI. THE WALK TO THE CONVENT

GREEK LINES

THE ROSE ENTHRONED

A BAG OF MEAL

NAPOLEON THE THIRD

CONCERNING THINGS SLOWLY LEARNT

AMERICAN NAVIGATION:

DENMARK VESEY

NEW YORK SEVENTH REGIMENT

PHILADELPHIA

THE "BOSTON."

ANNAPOLIS

WHAT THE MASSACHUSETTS EIGHTH HAD BEEN DOING

OUR MORNING MARCH

ON GUARD WITH HOWITZER NO. TWO

THE BRIDGE

THE NIGHT-MARCH

MORNING

WASHINGTON

ARMY-HYMN

THE PICKENS-AND-STEALIN'S REBELLION

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The next morning Elsie awoke, as was her custom,—when the very faintest hue of dawn streaked the horizon. A hen who has seen a hawk balancing his wings and cawing in mid-air over her downy family could not have awakened with her feathers, metaphorically speaking, in a more bristling state of caution.

"Spirits in the gorge, quotha?" said she to herself, as she vigorously adjusted her dress. "I believe so,—spirits in good sound bodies, I believe; and next we shall hear, there will be rope-ladders, and climbings, and the Lord knows what. I shall go to confession this very morning, and tell Father Francesco the danger; and instead of taking her down to sell oranges, suppose I send her to the sisters to carry the ring and a basket of oranges?"

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As he walks up and down in the gold-and-purple evening twilight, his mind seems to him calm as that glowing sea that reflects the purple shores of Ischia, and the quaint, fantastic grottos and cliff's of Capri. All is golden and glowing; he sees all clear; he is delivered from his spiritual enemies; he treads them under his feet.

Yes, he says to himself, he loves Agnes,—loves her all-sacredly as her guardian angel does, who ever beholdeth the face of her Father in Heaven. Why, then, does he shrink from her marriage? Is it not evident? Has that tender soul, that poetic nature, that aspiring genius, anything in common with the vulgar, coarse details of a peasant's life? Will not her beauty always draw the eye of the licentious, expose her artless innocence to solicitation which will annoy her and bring upon her head the inconsiderate jealousy of her husband? Think of Agnes made subject to the rude authority, to the stripes and correction, which men of the lower class, under the promptings of jealousy, do not scruple to inflict on their wives! What career did society, as then organized, present to such a nature, so perilously gifted in body and mind? He has the answer. The Church has opened a career to woman which all the world denies her.

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