Year: 1866

Manuscript Found In Prison Cell.


NY hours are numbered! A felon's doom
awaits me From my damp dark cell, go
forth to the gibbet and tha halter! To
morrow's sun will set upon my unhaliowed
grave-the grave of the assassin T! None
will regret my untimely end. The eye OF
pity will be dry-the voice of compassion
mute as the spirit of the murderer takes
Its fight. All thank thee Heaven, that
no kindred eye will behold tho execution
of my doom; that no father, no mother
liveth, to call me son; that no relative re
maineth to call me friend. Death has taken
all-all save one---whom once fondly be
lieyed, had been spared in mercy to me.
Ah!why have we two, the last Of our ILL
fated race been reserved, only to become
the victims of an accursed destiny?


And thou art dying Ellen ! They have
told me so-and 1 am here in chains
who should hold thee in his arms-I who,
but peace my heart, ere l so mad y =


1t seems but yesterday that l.eld thee
on my knee Ga child myself) and kissed
thy tiny hands and feet, and taught thy
lisping accents to repeat, "Cousin Wal,
ter"


Now does the vision of our childhood
days, uprise before me-our journeys to
and from the little school house-the paths
on which we strayed in search ofwild flow
ers-the bridge over the brooks whereon
we fingered to watch the changing shad-
ows on the water, or to listen to the music
ofits flow And the dear old home. The
cottage in the vale! see it now, and the
garden and orchard, the grove, the mead
ow, the dancing rivulet, l see, | see oh
my God! The face of a fair young girl
at the latticed window shading her eyes
with her hand as she watches at sunset
for the coming of youth who is fastening
homeward across the fields.


We believe in the eternity OF our hap.
pincss, as we believe in the eternity of our
love! A shadow at length fell across the
sunshine of our Eden. Our mother-your
own, N; ne by adoption-was seized with
the fatal malady of our race our watchfu
care and tender love were powcrless to save
The death summons came. All Ellen
think not that | have ever been unmindfu
of that hour, when our mother, holding
our hands in her dying clasp, demanded
Of me promise-a promise, without which
she said she could not die happy. gave
the promise to cur dying mother, nay
took an oath, calling upon the angels in
Heaven to witness it, to devote my whole
existence to her child, to love and cherish
her, to protect her with my life Have ]
not kept my vow? Oh my God, do not
die for her now | could not shield he1
from harm, but have avenged her wrongs
and my life is the penalty. Yes it is fol
thee Ellen l die This thought will be
present with me in my last moment, and
thrill with rapture my last heart throb. =


Men call me murderer, I, who slew the
monster that in the name of husband de-
stroyed thy happiness. They who con-
demn me, know lot the damnable wrong:
he has inflicted upon thee and upon me
Did they know ALL they would absolve me
before the great tribunal.


Our wedding day had been decided upon
A few weeks more would have made Ellen
my bride-when / was unexpectedly but
peremptorily called to distant part of the
country on business involving the whole ol
my pecuniary interest Then it was tha,
this man--this cowardly black hearted
wretch, who had entertained grudge
against Inc for years, seized this opporiu
nifty to avonge it. What phrenzy seizcs
my brain at tho thought of the dastardly
act? He sought Ellen in my absence, and
after gaining her confidence, lied to heI
about me, her betrothed, persuaded hel
that | was false, had given my love to an
other, aud then, when she had been stun