"So I was permitted to depart from the tribunal of petty justice
without handcuffs, and uncollared by a constable; but people looked
coldly and suspiciously upon me. The first thing I did was to
hasten to the house of my beloved, in order to inform her of every
circumstance attending the transaction. I found her, but how? A
malicious female individual had hurried to her with a distorted
tale, to the effect that I had been taken up as an utterer of
forged notes; that an immense number had been found in my
possession; that I was already committed, and that probably I
should be executed. My affianced one tenderly loved me, and her
constitution was delicate; fit succeeded fit; she broke a blood-
vessel, and I found her deluged in blood; the surgeon had been sent
for; he came and afforded her every possible relief. I was
distracted; he bade me have hope, but I observed he looked very
grave.
"By the skill of the surgeon, the poor girl was saved in the first
instance from the arms of death, and for a few weeks she appeared
to be rapidly recovering; by degrees, however, she became
melancholy; a worm preyed upon her spirit; a slow fever took
possession of her frame. I subsequently learned that the same
malicious female who had first carried to her an exaggerated
account of the affair, and who was a distant relative of her own,
frequently visited her, and did all in her power to excite her
fears with respect to its eventual termination.
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