Skip to main content

A Woman’s Vengeance

March 2023
3min read


I thank 1 you for your sympathy, But help! No, 2 there is none for me. For what I’ve done I feel no sting Of penitence, nor can time bring One pang of sorrow. You may think Me hard, unfeeling, and may shrink 3 From me with loathing when I say, I’m glad my bullet found the way Into his heart; and I would do The same again, and glory 4 too, In having done it. Penalty! For what they now may do with me I care but little. 5 He is dead, And that ends all. What made me do the deed? The old, Old 6 time-worn story of man’s cold And heartless cruelty; of wrongs Heaped on her head, 7 to whom belongs At least respect, 8 if nothing more. I met him—him, my husband—just Five years ago. My God! what trust I placed in his fair words, so soft, So sweet, so full of love. But love is blind, And I was madly so. The first two years Were full 9 of joy—joy without tears. My life was of peaceful love. But ah! the change came sudden, fast; My summer sun was overcast. 10 The godlike being that I thought Of all mankind 11 the most perfect wrought, Tore off 12
the mask that hid his face,
And, to my horror, 13 in his place Revealed a demon, 14 blackest-hued, Remorseless, pitiless, imbued With all the wickedness that heart Can hold, or shameless sin 15 impart.… Then came at last the final blow— The worst that love can contemplate, And which can turn that love to hate. 16 One night, when he had gone from me, I found a letter which he carelessly Had overlooked. The script 17 was small And neat—a woman’s hand! A wall Of fire outstretched 18 before my eyes; A nameless horror seemed to rise.

GESTURES, 1. Bow head. 2. V. Con. 3. E.V. to right. 4. A.O. 5. Shrug shoulders. 6. H.B. 7. P.H.O. 8. H.O. 9. B.H.O. 10. V.A.O. 11. B.H.O. 12. V. Sp. 13. E.V. to R. 14. Ind. D.O. 15. P.D.O. 16. P.D.O. 17. Look in left hand. 18. V.H. Sw. 19. Clasp to breast. 20. To head. 21. B.P.D. 22. B.C1. D. 23. Sp. 24. Trace on left hand. 25. Hand to head. 26. H.O. 27. To self. 28. Left Sp. 29. H.F. 30. B. sp. 31. Lis. 32. To self. 33. H.O. 34. Lean to R. and raise hand. 35. To head. 36. B.V.Sp. 37. H.F. 38. Look to left. 39. B.D.F. 40. Left H.O. 41-42. B.Sp. 43. Start back. 44. R. hand to heart. 45. Left V. Sw. 46. Sp. 47. Ind. H.F. 48. B.V.H.F. 49. B.H.O. 50. A.O, 51. To self.


No, no! this could not be. He might Be bad, be dead to sense of right, But false! O Heaven! 19 The dreadful thought Surged in my brain. 20 I crushed 21 it, fought 22 It down with frenzied eagerness. The note was open; chilled, nerveless, I drew it 23 from its fold and read, 24 “This night to meet him,” so it said. This night! how throbbed 25 my aching head! Her house it gave—the place, the hour— I seemed renewed with sudden power. He 26 would be there, and so would I. 27 I cast 28 the hated letter by; My child from off the floor I clasped, And from the bureau drawer I grasped A loaded pistol that would right My wrong. So out 29 into the night, Into the raging storm, I fled, My babe clasped 30 in my arms.… So through the night I sped along Until I reached her house. And then I heard 31 A voice within—his voice! Each word In sweet and loving tenderness, And accents that my 32 heart should bless Were lavished on her 33 listening ears. I listened, listened, 34 all unseen, Until I thought I should go wild. 35 Then, with a desperate hand, flung wide 36 The casement. With a bound, beside The two 37 stood. She started—screamed; He turned 38 and saw me, and then seemed A moment as if turned to stone; And as his baseness I made known, She—poor thing—with a long, low cry, Sank 39 to the floor despairingly. Then, like a fiend let loose from hell, He toward 40 me leaped with one fierce yell, And grasping 41 quick a heavy chair Cried, “Curse you!” whirled it high 42 in air. I sprang aside 43 in sudden dread; The blow fell full upon the head Of my sweet child, that lifeless dropped Back in my arms. My heart throbs 44 stopped; A red mist swam 46 before my sight; I could not scream, try as I might. I grasped the pistol 46 from my breast, And then I killed 47 him! All the rest For days to me was blank; 48 and when— O Heaven! why did I not die then? At last my sense came back. I would Have taken my own life if I could. But it perhaps was better 49 so; God will not judge me hard, I know. And when, in answer to His call, I stand within the heavenly hall, 50 And the Blessed One Says, “Why hast thou transgressed my laws?” My babe shall plead its mother’s 51 cause.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "December 1968"

Authored by: The Editors

’Bye, Phoebe Snow, Goodbye Buffalo What a way was to go! But if you’ll travel come to this yule Eschew the Road of Diesel Fuel

Authored by: The Editors

An obscure Pennsylvania carpenter named John Scholl left the world a legacy of charming toys and beautiful fantasies

Authored by: Richard B. Morris

States they were, united they were not; while their Secretary for Foreign Affairs sought to pull them together, Europe waited for them to fall apart

Authored by: Peter Padfield

Battle can never be civilized, but in a century of total war and almost total barbarism it is refreshing to look back upon chivalrous combat. If it is gallantry and honor, even quixotism, you thirst for in a barren time, they are at their highest in the duel between His Britannic Majesty’s frigate Shannon and the United States frigate Chesapeake , which met off Boston in the calm, early evening of June 1, 1813. Here is an authoritative and totally absorbing description of that famous encounter, together with an account of the principals, Captain P. B. V. Broke and Captain James Lawrence.

Authored by: Alvin M. Josephy Jr.

The new Kinzua Dam floods the Senecas’ ancestral lands—in violation of our oldest Indian treaty. "Lake Perfidy” may even have claimed the bones of their greatest chief

Authored by: Thomas Fleming

An African-American physician and his family were arrested for murder in Detroit after defending their home against an angry mob of whites. Then attorney Clarence Darrow came to their defense.

Featured Articles

Rarely has the full story been told how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

Often thought to have been a weak President, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or political fallout.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.