was utterly impossible under existing circumstances—­but he would do any thing else.  But nothing else would answer; and I insisted on proceeding to business without further delay.  Wold heard me, and became pale.  When we were placed at our respective stations, and while the final arrangements were being adjusted, I thought his replies to his friend’s observations betrayed much alarm.  But there was no retreat.  I was never calmer in my life, I even smiled when my careful friend told me that he had detected and prevented a concerted plan that would have given Wold the advantage.  The word was given.  Wold’s ball struck the earth before me, and threw some sand in my face.  Mine entered the seducer’s side!  I saw him gasp, reel, and fall, while the blood gushed out on the beach.  My friend hurried me away, and paused not until he had placed me in a stage just starting for Philadelphia.  I clasped his hand in silence, and the next moment the horses plunged away at the crack of the driver’s whip, and we were soon far on the road.  Reflection ere long convinced me that I had been guilty of an unjustifiable act.  If it was no crime in the estimation of men, it was certainly a grievous transgression in the eyes of God!  I then trembled.  The bleeding form and reproachful stare of Wold haunted my vision when the darkness set in.  Oh, the errors, in act and deed, of an impetuous youth thrown upon the world with no considerate friend to advise him!  The pity I felt for Laura was soon forgotten in the horrible thought that I was a MURDERER!  Oh, the anguish of that night!  Why did I not leave Wold to the judgment of an offended God?  Why did I not permit him to suffer the gnawing of the canker that must ever abide in his heart, instead of staining my hands with his blood?  Freely would I have abandoned every hope of pleasure in the world to have washed his blood away!

“When I arrived in Philadelphia, with a heavy heart, I sought a quiet hotel, not daring to confront my uncle with such a tale of woe and crime.  For several days I remained in my chamber without seeing any one but the servant that brought my food.  At length I asked for a New York paper.  For more than an hour after it was brought I could not summon courage to peruse the hated tragedy.  Finally I snatched up the sheet convulsively and glanced along the columns.  When my eyes rested upon the paragraph I was in quest of, I sprang to my feet in ecstasy.  The wound had not been fatal!  Wold still lived!

“In a twinkling I was dressed and on my way to my uncle’s residence.  Notwithstanding there was a dreadful epidemic in the city, and hearses and mourners were passing every few minutes, I felt within a buoyancy that defied the terrors of disease and death.

“But it seemed that disaster and desolation were fated to attend me whithersoever I turned.  A gloom brooded upon my heart when I approached my uncle’s mansion, and found the badge of mourning at the door.  I paused and asked the servant who was dead.  He informed me that my uncle alone remained.  His wife and children, all had been consigned to the tomb the day before, and he himself now lay writhing with the fell disease.  I rushed in and entered the sick chamber.  It was the chamber of death.  My uncle pressed my hand and died.  I followed him to the grave, the chief and almost only mourner.