Year: 1876

Ou0 IuOTo WO1u, oaO pesit'aS n19o 40 '~"AA


X


Let curtain fall over that scene. Let il
fall over the torment endured-the torment
of the damned. For weeks, for months, I was
a prey to the mercies of fends. They made
sport fine, gibbering and pointing, with cruel
mocking laughter, as writhed and shrieked
in their clutches, striving vaiply to escape
They tell me I was mad, and I believe it
My brother suffered no stranger to listen te
my rawlings, but nursed me patiently and faith
fully through my disorder. He learned frou
nv frantic selfaccusations the motives which
had prompted me to attempt his life, and the
betrayal awoke the profoundest pity for me in
his heart. sorrowing for my murdered wife
as for beloved sister, he nevertheless could
find some extenuation for my crime, commit
ted, as he believed it to be, under the influence
of insanity in one of its most frightful phases


So he thought, generously and mercifully,
ready to palliate this heinous sin, as he had
ever been to find excuses for the lesser offences
of my earlier days. But I, alas! while CRATE
fully blessing him in my heart for his good
ness, can yield myself to no delusive selfex'
oneration. was not mad when fired that
fatal shot, though I became so afterward. l
knew what I was doing. Deliberately, and
prompted by bitter and evil passions, drew
nv weapon upon him. And it was the retri-
button of God that consequence so awful
followed the act. Let the world say what it
will in extenuation of it-and it has been dis
cussed, know, as such things must be, tar
and wide, though the truth has never been re-
vealed. I solemnly do aver that know and
confess myself to be one of the most atrocious
criminals on the face of the earth, worthy OF
death, nay, of torture-even of torture worse,
if possible, than 1 have endured, and still do
endure. ..................I was recovering slowly
from the frightful state into which I had first
been thrown by my wife's death, and was lying
one night alone upon my bed, in state be-
tween waking and sleeping, when vision ap-
peared to me. I saw Olive, my murdered
Olive, open the door and enter my chamber
She was robed in white, and had one hand
pressed upon her heart, over the wound had
made there. Noiselessly she advanced and
stood beside my pillow. There was no anger
in her gaze, but her eyes fixed themselves upon
my face with weird solemnity, an awful im-
movability that curdled my blood. Long she
stood thus looking upon me, while l lay in
capable of motion or utterance, impelled by a
resstless fascination to return her unwaver-
ing gaze. At last she spoke, in low and
far-away tone, that seemed as if borne toward
me from some remote spot, yet it fell upon my
ear as clear and distinct as the chimes of the
neighboring church-tower.


"PhiIlip! I come to ask for pity at your
hands. You will not now refuse my prayer.
cannot rest, and my soul is weary of wan
ds-;asgs Fe-.srtd ss-'n
vain. thing alone can bring me peace
it is revealed to me, and it lies with you to
bring it to pass. Take my mortal remains
from the vault where they have been deposit
ed, and give them resting place near you,
that wherever you 60 they may 60 also. The
reason for this 1 cannot explain. l only
know that by this means alone can the quiet
repose I crave be granted me-" Thus speak
ing, she vanished.


Mysterious and awful decree! I was pow.
erless to resist it; but in yielding to it felt
that was adding fresh sting to the agony
that already ranked my heart To have the
evidences of my crime thus forever kept in
sight-to be condemned to bear them about
with me-was a punishment unparalleled in
its severity, and it was for this cause, doubt
less, that it was entailed upon me. I submit
ted to my fate. The casket containing the
corpse of Olive was taken from the vault, and
by proper mode Of preparation, had the
bones collected and arranged, depositing them
in secure chest, of size suitable to be con
veyed from one place to another without in
convenience. Wherever I have gone, this
terrible reminder of my sin has followed me-
Day and night it has been my companion. II
stands beside me as I write. And as it is de
creed, by the most ancient Of laws, that the
guilt of the criminal shall be visited upon
those who come after him, l, since leave nc
direct descendant, shall will this chest and its
contents, on my death, to my nearest Of kim
my nephew, Charles Lyndon, the sole survi
wing son of my brother Rudolph, who mar
ried, late in life, an estimable lady, who rem
dered his closing years happy, and consoled
him for the grief I had made him endure
May this relic, descending from generation to
generation in our unhappy fs lilly, be warn
ing to each one into whose possession it shall
fall, to impress upon them the danger Of in
dulging in those fatal passions which have
ruined and destroyed my peace in this world
and the next.


And now I shall close this dying confes'
sion, and place it in the chest which contains
the bones of her who died by my hand. My
time for departure from this world draweth
nigh. Woe is me. Whittier must go! Al
ready the voice of doom seems sounding in
my ears. Vile and polluted that am, fain
would I plunge into nothingness; and escape
the dread judgment that awaits me! In vain


No grief, no repentance, can avail me now


Before me I see that awful bar at which
must stand. Overwhelmed, stricken down by
the hand of righteous retribution, l hearpro
nounced the sentence, louder than a trumpet
call-Anama Maranatha i! Woe, woe, to the
lost soul, cast into the blackness of darkness,
and the anguish that knows no end