JENNY KELLY. No, 'tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue All corners of the world. How many an affecting narrative might be drawn from the stories which the " simple annals" of humble life supply! How many a tale, the circumstances of which may have been known only to few, and soon forgotten by all, would awaken general sympathy, if some friendly hand had been found to record it! Many, whose lives from beginning to end present no single incident worth relating, find a biographer to note their existence, and the every day common places of their being; and this is all the world can learn from their memoirs. But in scenes remote from those of grandeur, of fashion, and of folly, it not unfrequently happens that the history of individuals is fraught with more of interest, and affords a more useful and instructive lesson to mankind, than all that can be gleaned from the insipid biography of those who inherit adventitious claims to rank and distinction. The reader may have heard some impressive and pathetic stories, perchance bordering on romance, of unpretending and obscure origin. The following, derived from an authentic source, is not unworthy of notice. In the town of Newry, in Ireland, lived Jenny Kelly, the subject of this little narrative. At this distance of time not anything material is known of her parents; it is only known that they were honest and industrious, and that they brought up their daughter according to their means. Before she attained the age of eighteen years, she became the object of affection to two suitors. This distinction, which would have been flattering to the vanity of most young women of her age, proved to her the greatest misfortune. She had a fine countenance, an elegant figure, an amiable disposition, and was of singu larly industrious habits. Her voice was moreover uncommonly fine, and she carolled as merrily as the lark, and as sweetly as the nightingale. In short, she could not but make any man a good wife, and a delightful companion. Poor girl! when I think of her fate, a tear of pity falls to her memory. Yet Jenny did not become a prey to the arts of a seducer: she was reserved for misery of a different kind. The two rivals who sought her affections, were brother clerks, in the firm of Messrs. Ogle and Thompson, well known merchants in Newry. The circumstances of each were nearly equal, and they were generally regarded with a degree of respect, little short of that shown to the partners themselves. Kays was the name of one lover, Mc. Evoy that of the other. Kays was a very handsome young man, tall and well shaped; his rival had not the same advantages of person, and was conscious of the superiority of Kays in this respect; but this reflection only caused him to redouble his attentions to Jenny, and to do everything in his power to ingratiate himself into her esteem. Whether or not Kays was less ardent or persevering in evincing his attachment cannot now be known; but after much persuasion and entreaty, Jenny, though her heart owned a preference of Kays, yielded to the importunities of Mc. Evoy, and was married to him accordingly. Jenny was young, and probably scarcely knew her own heart at the time, else she ought not to have given her hand to one lover, and her affections to another. It was a weakness on her part, and she bitterly atoned for it; yet who shall blame her? "Women are not, "In their best fortunes, strong," and might there not be some neglect on the part of Kays? When Jenny became a wife, she was fully sensible of the duties and obligations which her new condition im-: posed upon her; and she determined to do all in her power not only to retain the affections of her husband, but to encrease her own towards him. With these feel VOL. II. E E ings they might have been happy; but connubial bliss was not to be the lot of this young creature. It may be easily imagined that Kays, who was not less fond of Jenny than his successful rival, was plunged into a state of distraction, as soon as he knew of the utter ruin of his hopes. In the first paroxysm of his rage, he threatened destruction to both; but becoming more calm, he conceived a scheme of revenge, which he determined to carry into effect. He began to affect an indifference on the subject; then to utter inuendos that could not but create strange conjectures; and at last he did not scruple to insinuate, in plain terms, and in such a way that it was sure to reach Mc. Evoy's ears, that he had previously to her marriage had an illicit intercourse with the young bride. Such reports were not slow in finding circulation; they speedily came to the knowledge of Mc. Evoy and his wife, and their feelings on the occasion it may be easily supposed were deeply though very differently affected. Jenny became melancholy; her appetite failed her, she grew pale and thin, and was frequently caught in tears. The cruelty of Kays cut her to the heart; Mc. Evoy, though he did not absolutely believe in the rumours of his wife's dishonour, was not certain that they were altogether false. Of all feelings that of jealousy is the most easily roused, and when once awakened, "Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmation strong Kays and Mc. Evoy were still placed near each other, and there were mutual heart-burnings and bickerings between them. Both however avoided coming to open resentment; the one knowing himself to be the projector of an unfounded calumny; the other being loth to render more public than it was the reported disgrace of his wife. Poor Jenny bore up against the influence of her feelings as long as she could; her home was wretched, to her susceptible and artless mind, for doubt and suspicion hung over it. Her husband's eye no longer beamed on her with the soft light of confiding love; in a few weeks she fell ill, her brain became delirious, and her medical attendants despaired of her life. Mc. Evoy was himself in a state to be pitied, and well might he have approached the author of his sufferings, in the language of our greatest bard. "If thou dost slander her, and torture me, On horror's head horrors accumulate: Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed; Greater than that." The effect of Kay's perfidy now stared him in the face, and for the first time made him sensible of his baseness. He was not naturally of a bad disposition; and his passion for Jenny revived in all its force; he would have died to restore her to her senses, and to repair the wrong he had done her. He hastened to her mother's house to confess his guilt, and to ask her forgiveness; but he was |