Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-10-17
a DYING MANS CONFESSION.
/" What o'clock is it, James p

What o'clock is it, James%
Nearly twelve, sir.
Heavens thought it was near sum
rise. How long the hours are. Give me
some wine, James. l am getting weak. !"
The old servant filled wine glass and
handed it to bis dying master, who
quaffed it feverishly, aud then fell back
upon his pillow with long, shuddering
moan.
eff the morning would come If the
morning would only come !"
"Try to sleep, Mr.. Errold!" said the
attendant, soothiugly.
"Sleep" gasped the sick man. II
shall never know sleep again upon the
earth l am dying, james, and my
conscience will keep me awake until
death speaks to my soul. How dark it
ia Turn up the ligbt-I-I-can't see
your face. There Now sit down be-
side me but first give me more wine; /
will need strength. l am going to make
confession. am going to tell you the
dark secret whose horror has never left
me by night or day for thirty. five years"
The bright, soft light of the astral lamp
fell upon John Errold's face, fully reveal
ing to the frightened gaze of the servant
the awful anguish of the white, trembling
lips, the unnatural glare of the eyes, and
the quick, fierce dilating of the nostrils.
81 sold my soul to the devil for gold
do you hear, man2 There is blood upon
my hands, innocent blood, the blood Of a
little child-my baby brother. l MUIR
dered him just thirty-fve years ago to-
night"
trembling; thirty-fve years ago you
were child yourself"
$50 | was, James, so was; boy of
ten years, but no less murderer. Listen
am not, as you know, an American by
birth, but an Englishman. was born at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. My mother died
in giving me birth. Eight years after my
father took second wife, a young East
Indian heiress, daughter of the famous
Col. D., Of the -th regiment. She was
an orphan; her fortune was at her own
disposal-she was the sole inheritrix of
sixty thousand pounds. When my father
died, which he did in year after the
marriage, my young step mother fell into
rapid decline, brought on by the vio-
lence of her grief. In three months after
nv fathers death, she, too, was at rest
Her will bequeathed her entire fortune
with the exception of Eve thousand
pounds to myself, and five to her only
living relative, cousin, barrister in
London-to her infant son, Percy in
the event of whose death the bulk Of her
fortune was to be divided equally between
this aforesaid cousin and myself. Our
appointed guardian was a Doctor n, a
famous London divine, to whose home
Percy and were removed in few weeks
after the decease Of my step-mother.
james, was accursed with preco-
cious mind. At ten years of age / was
not child, but brooding, dreamy man,
with all Of mans longing for power and
riches-all of mans innate, intense am
bition for honor and fame. / held aloof
from companions suited to my age, pre-
ferriug rather the society OF grave, elder.
ly men, aud / read the works Of Rosseau,
Moutesouieu, Hume and other profound
and dangerous writers, with an eager
ness and understanding which seems
almost incredible 10 me now as look
back upon that period of my life, which
was childhood 10 naught save years.
AFTER my stepmothers death, l
brooded necessarily upon the thought
that we're IL not for her sickly, orphaned
BE- be, /. should be the inheritor Of . splen-
did fortune; And ] greE st last TO hate
the little creature who stood between me
and the wealth for which / felt au em-
bryo miser' longing. a
81 told you hat vas accnrsed with
q precocious mind aye, and With an
evil naturs--a nature wholly devoid Of
nobility, and peculiarly susceptible 70
everv species of temptation.
"One night Satan entered in ny soul;