noise that drove the affrighted narrator to the shelter of any hole from
the eye of merciless man. But the cruel scene did not end here. Even in
the yet sensible ear of the Saied, expiring in agonies, his execrable
murderer ordered that his wife and daughters should be given up to the
soldiers; and that, in punishment of such universal rebellion in the
town, the whole place should be razed to the ground. But this last act
of blood on a son of the Prophet cost the perpetrator his life. For the
soldiers themselves, and the nobles who had been partisans of the
usurper, were so struck with horror at the sacrilegious murder, and
appalled with the threatened guilt of violating women of the sacred
family, that they believed a curse must follow the abettors of such a
man. The next step, in their minds, was to appease Heaven by the
immolation of the offender; and, in the course of that very night, a
band of his servants cut the cords of his tent, which, instantly falling
in upon him, afforded them a secure opportunity of burying their
poniards in his body. The first strokes were followed by thousands. So
detested was the wretch, that in a few minutes his remains were hewn and
torn to pieces. It does not become men to lift the veil which lies over
the whole doom of a ruthless murderer; but there is something in the
last mortal yell of a tyrant, whether it be a Robespierre or a Nackee
Khan, which sounds as if mingled with a dreadful echo from the eternal
shore.




~Sketches in Virginia.~


The Rock Bridge is described by Mr. Jefferson, late President of the