“Saturday, 2 P. M.
“My dear, lost Julia,

“How can I convey the sad intelligence of an
event which has shipwrecked every hope connected
with you and happiness? Briefly, then:—in a
fatal hour I consented to a hostile meeting with Mr.
Julius Ellingbourne this morning, and the result is,
that my antagonist at this moment lies mortally
wounded at his lodgings, in the Astor House. That
I am in the toils of a most foul and deep-laid conspiracy
against my character; that this rash meeting
has, in its consequences, severed every hope I
might otherwise have entertained of exculpating
myself in the opinion of the world; that I have
been goaded on by some fiend or fiends in human
shape, who have too successfully accomplished my
ruin: and that life will, hereafter, be a curse rather
than a blessing, are truths which admit not of denial,
but will never, I fear, be susceptible of satisfactory
explanation. Farewell, then, my life, my love;
a long, a last farewell.

“My intention was to recommend you to forget
that such a wretch as myself ever crossed your path;

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but my hand refuses to trace the sentence, and my
too selfish heart hesitates to resign the fond wish,
that although for ever separated from your presence,
I may still continue to live in your recollection.

“Dearest, dearest lady, receive the last adieu of
your once happy lover,

“To Miss Julia Borrowdale.”

Having finished this epistle, Clifton despatched it
by his foster-father, with instructions if possible to deliver
it into the hands of the person to whom it was
addressed.

On arriving at Mr. Elwell's door, Miss Helen was
descending to the hall, and presuming, from the description,
that she was the person he sought, the
elder Clifton placed it in her hands, and after learning
from the lady that it was rightly delivered, he
left the house. Helen, on receiving the letter, repaired
to her room, and locking the door, pondered
deeply on the course she should pursue; and after
quieting her conscience with the hypocritical reflection
that she was securing Julia's happiness by exercising
a supervision over her correspondence with so
dangerous a person as Clifton, she broke the seal
and eagerly perused the contents of the billet.

Ascertaining that it afforded no clew either to the
writer's innocence or De Lyle's agency in defaming
his character, while it evidently favoured the conclusion
that Ellingbourne was his rival and

[figure description] Page 221.[end figure description]

slanderer, she re-sealed the letter and handed it to the servant
for Miss Borrowdale. Julia with no little trepidation
devoured its contents; and on realizing its
full import, swooned on the sofa on which she was
reclining, but, fortunately, recovered consciousness
before any person entered the room.

Her first impressions were, on reviving, that her
lover, by his own acknowledgment, was unworthy
of her regard; but, on again perusing the letter, his
solemn asseveration that he was the victim of an
odious conspiracy, satisfied her that the only crime
of which he was guilty was the death of Ellingbourne,
which, although in her estimation a grievous
offence against his fellow-man, yet, by the pernicious
customs of society, the meeting, she was
aware, could not have been declined, except at the
hazard of his being discarded from every respectable
and fashionable circle. The more she reflected on
the subject, the less did she blame her lover for his
rashness, and before the dinner hour arrived her love
had so far warped her judgment that it is questionable
whether, if our hero had stood in her presence,
she would not have pronounced her forgiveness of
all past offences, had the culprit promised reformation.

Near the hour of five o'clock De Lyle and Shafton
called at Clifton's temporary retreat in a carriage,
and the former handed him an evening paper, in
which he read the following paragraph:

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“Fatal Encounter.—Our readers will recollect
the article published in our yesterday's edition, headed
`Police Court—Capture extraordinary,' in
which the arrest and examination of a knot of gamblers
were stated, together with the fact that two
citizens, hitherto considered respectable, one a clerk
in an extensive mercantile establishment, and the
other a gentleman of fashion, were implicated. Although,
on that occasion, we were induced to suppress
the names of the parties, from respect to the
feelings of their friends, yet so public has the exposure
become, in consequence of the events which
have this morning transpired, that further concealment
is neither possible nor expedient. It is therefore
our duty, as public journalists, to state that the
person first alluded to is Mr. Sydney Clifton, a confidential
clerk in the counting-room of Messrs. De
Lyle, Howard & Co., and that Julius Ellingbourne,
Esquire, a gentleman so well and favourably known
in the fashionable world, is the latter. It now appears
that circumstances connected with the arrest
of the parties led to a hostile meeting at Hoboken,
early this morning, when Mr. Ellingbourne received
the ball of Clifton in his side, near the region of the
heart. From the extremely dangerous character of
the wound, it is not expected that the life of Mr.
Ellingbourne will be protracted many hours. Thus
the vice of gaming, in which this young man

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indulged, has at length been followed by the commission
of murder! What a warning does this fact
convey to the youth of our city to abstain from the
incipient stages of dissipation, in whose fatal vortex
honour, integrity, and even life, are frequently ingulfed.”

“SECOND POSTCRIPT!—4 P.M.

“We now learn, from the best authority, that the
wealthy and accomplished Mr. Ellingbourne has
this moment breathed his last. `Sic transit gloria
mundi!' ”

On perusing this fatal intelligence, Clifton, with a
heavy heart bade adieu to his kind foster parents,
and was soon seated in the cabin of the ship that
was to convey him to an asylum on the shores of
Europe.