epaired
by me. I am aware that the rupture of your engagement of
marriage to Mr. Horace Spotswood was caused chiefly by a
letter shown you by Lord Hurdly, and purporting to come
from an altogether trustworthy source--a man who was on the
spot and who was a personal friend of his. I was that man.
I was on the spot because I was sent there by Lord Hurdly
for the purpose of writing this letter. For reasons which I
need not enter into he had me in his power, and until one
of us shall be dead he can force me to do his will. If you
ever hold this letter in your hand and read these words we
shall both be dead, and by this letter I desire to make
reparation for a base and cruel wrong which I have helped
to inflict upon an honorable and high-minded gentleman. I
allude to the man who, when you read these words, will bear
the name and title of Lord Hurdly. The things I wrote of
him are in absolute contradiction to the truth, for a
nobler and more loyal heart never beat. You might well
discredit any assurance which comes by means of me, and I
do not ask to have my words accepted. All I expect to
accomplish is that you shall pay enough attention to my
statement to investigate the matter for yourself. He is
well known, and once your ears are open you will hear
enough to prove to you that he has been wronged. That I
have wronged him, though reluctantly and by reason of a
power I could not resist, is the saddest consciousness of
my life.

"That I may possibly by this letter do something, however
late, to repair this wrong is my chief consolation on
leaving the world. I shall carry with me into whatever life
I go an ineradicable resentment against the man who was
Lord Hurdly, and I leave behind me the most ardent and
admiring wishes of my heart for the man who, when you read
this, will bear the noble name and title which his
predecessor, if the truth about him could be known, has so
soiled with treachery in the furtherance of the most
indomitable egotism ever known in mortal man.

"In conclusion, I ask of your ladyship, as I do of all the
world, such gentle judgment as Christian hearts may find it
in them to accord to one whose sins, though many, were of
weakness rather than malice, and who did t