nscious there was
something that moved them in their work of calumny not yet developed.
The mystery rendered me unhappy. I was anxious to know the cause of this
public opposition, and the more so, that I might satisfy the people
that the whole arose from influences akin to the vice I was labouring to
destroy. The secret was soon discovered, and I am now prepared to
satisfy the public mind that the attacks upon my present relation to
society have arisen from something more than an ignorant prejudice.
These hireling editors knew I had the materials to draw their portraits
at full length in all their moral hideousness; and they feared society
would be thrown into spasms at the sight, and they would be hurled from
their stations of trust by an enraged and insulted people. It has only
been necessary in one or two instances to give them a few hints of the
information I possessed, and they were hushed up INSTANTER.

A long time had elapsed since I heard from the mysterious stranger who
gave me the box,--long enough, I had supposed, to free me from
obligation of further restraint upon my curiosity. It had now been in my
possession several years, and I felt myself at liberty to examine its
contents. Having consulted with a few friends previously, I then made
known, in the fall of 1842, to Rev. John F. Wright--formerly of the
Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati--that I had such a box, and my
intentions. I likewise gave the same information to Arthur
Vance--formerly of Lawrenceburgh, Indiana--Mr. John Norton, of
Lexington, Kentucky--Thomas M. Gallay, of Wheeling, Virginia. I informed
each of them how I came by the box, and the unaccountable conduct of the
man who placed it in my hands. Having opened it, I found the same number
of parchments I had missed from the package, all blank in appearance. In
these was a note, which read as follows:

"THE PARCHMENTS, NOW IN THE HANDS OF THE POSSESSOR, CONTAIN MUCH SAD
INTELLIGENCE, AND CAN BE READ, PROVIDED THEY ARE HEATED. THEY ARE
EXPOSED BY A BROTHER OF THE BAND, A DOOMED MAN, ONE THE WORLD HAS KNOWN
TO ITS SORROW FOR FORTY YEARS. MAY THE OWNER AND HOLDER CONSIDER THE
DOOMED ONE A MOST KIND FRIEND FOR EVER!

"New Orleans, May 3d, 1832."

I soon hastened to ascertain the contents of the parchments, and found
the statement made correct.

CHAPTER XI.

The contents of these papers are such as almost stagger belief, even in
the most credulous. They not only go to prove the existe