THE PARRICIDE; OR, THE YOUTH'S CAREER OF CRIME. Br GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS, AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON,' MASTER TIMOTHY'S BOOK-CASE," 99 66 C. Howrs 29 June 1944 ADVERTISEMENT. THE Author, when only eighteen years of age, wrote a novel entitled "THE YOUTHFUL IMPOSTOR," which was published in three volumes, in 1835, the author then being twentyone. This work he has since completely remodelled, incorporating with it almost the whole of the episode involving the adventures of Sophia Maxwell; and the Tale, in its new and-it is hoped-improved form, is now issued to the public under the more appropriate title of "THE PARRICIDE." LONDON, May, 1847. Hark! where the owl shrieks on the lonely road, and the wing of the bat sweeps against the trees; while loud and frequent gusts of wind come shouting-bellowing-howling down from those dense, black clouds, the cradle of the storm! Are there not voices-unearthly voices, mingling with that blast which comes in all the fury of its despotic power? Hear ye not the moans and the lamentations of Nature-conveyed by the myriad tones in which she speaks in her wrath- -as if deploring the fall of one of her children? For, Oh! heavy is the fall of the body of flesh and blood-a dull-ominous-dreadful sound, such as the fall of no other object in creation gives forth: a sound that sends the vital fluid cold as Spitzbergen's water, back to the harrowing heart-makes the hair bristle up and raises, as if by the waving of an enchanter's wand, a thousand appalling spectres, evermore to haunt the MURDERER! Withering is the curse that must attend on his footsteps-the footsteps of him, the slayer of a being fashioned after the image of the Omnipo tent! Tremendous thought-can the human mind endure it? Can the foul murderer sup port the awful burthen? And yet men drag on their wretched lives-pursued by the phan |