But there
was more of human charity, and less of that exaggerated severity in his
aspect, than was ordinarily seated in the deep lines of his austere
countenance. Now that the deed was done, and the excitement of his exalted
theories had given way to the more positive appearance of the result, he
might even have moments of harassing doubts concerning the lawfulness of
an act that he had hitherto veiled under the forms of a legal and
necessary execution of justice. The mind of Eben Dudley vacillated with
none of the subtleties of doctrine or of law. As there had been less
exaggeration in his original views of the necessity of the proceeding, so
was there more steadiness in his contemplation of its fulfilment.
Feelings, they might be termed emotions, of a different nature troubled
the breast of this resolute but justly-disposed borderer.
"This hath been a melancholy visitation of necessity, and a severe
manifestation of the foreordering will," said the Ensign, as he gazed at
the sad spectacle before him. "Father and son have both died, as it were,
in my presence, and both have departed for the world of spirits, in a
manner to prove the inscrutableness of Providence.
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