What must it be
when he starts up before her in his neglected and ferocious guise, and
armed with purposes perhaps as terrible as those which had formerly led
him to her secret chamber and her bedside? His meaning was obscurely conveyed. He talked of a deed for the
performance of which his malignant fate had reserved him, which was to
ensue their meeting, and which was to afford disastrous testimony of the
infatuation which had led me hither. Heaven grant that some means may suggest themselves to you of
intercepting his approach! Yet I know not what means can be conceived. Some miraculous chance may befriend you; yet this is scarcely to be
hoped. It is a visionary and fantastic base on which to rest our
security. I cannot forget that my unfortunate temerity has created this evil. Yet
who could foresee this consequence of my intelligence? I imagined that
Clithero was merely a victim of erroneous gratitude, a slave of the
errors of his education and the prejudices of his rank; that his
understanding was deluded by phantoms in the mask of virtue and duty,
and not, as you have strenuously maintained, utterly subverted. I shall not escape your censure, but I shall, likewise, gain your
compassion. I have erred, not through sinister or malignant intentions,
but from the impulse of misguided, indeed, but powerful, benevolence. Letter III. _To Edgar Huntly_. NEW YORK. EDGAR:--

After the fatigues of the day, I returned home. As I entered, my wife
was breaking the seal of a letter; but, on seeing me, she forbore, and
presented the letter to me. "I saw," said she, "by the superscription of this letter, who the writer
was. So, agreeably to your wishes, I proceeded to open it; but you have
come just time enough to save me the trouble." This letter was from you. It contained information relative to Clithero. See how imminent a chance it was that saved my wife from a knowledge of
its contents! It required all my efforts to hide my perturbation from
her and excuse myself from showing her the letter. I know better than you the character of Clithero, and the consequences
of a meeting between him and my wife. You may be sure that I would exert
myself to prevent a meeting. The method for me to pursue was extremely obvious. Clithero is a madman,
whose liberty is dangerous, and who requires to be fettered and
imprisoned as the most atrocious criminal. I hastened to the chief-magistrate, who is my friend, and, by proper
representations, obtained from him authority to seize Clithero wherever
I should meet with him, and effectually debar him from the perpetration
of new mischiefs. New York does not afford a place of confinement for lunatics as suitable
to his case as Pennsylvania. I was desirous of placing him as far as
possible from the place of my wife's residence. Fortunately, there was a
packet for Philadelphia on the point of setting out on her voyage. This
vessel I engaged to wait a day or two, for the purpose of conveying him
to Pennsylvania Hospital. Meanwhile, proper persons were stationed at
Powles Hook, and at the quays where the various stage-boats from Jersey
arrive. These precautions were effectual. Not many hours after the receipt of
your intelligence, this unfortunate man applied for a passage at
Elizabethtown, was seized the moment he set his foot on shore, and was
forthwith conveyed to the packet, which immediately set sail. I designed that all these proceedings should be concealed from the
women, but unfortunately neglected to take suitable measures for
hindering the letter, which you gave me reason to expect on the ensuing
day, from coming into their hands. It was delivered to my wife in my
absence, and opened immediately by her. You know what is, at present, her personal condition. You know what
strong reasons I had to prevent any danger or alarm from approaching
her. Terror could not assume a shape more ghastly than this. The effects
have been what might have been easily predicted. Her own life has been
imminently endangered, and an untimely birth has blasted my fondest
hope. Her infant, with whose future existence so many pleasures were
entwined, is dead. I assure you, Edgar, my philosophy has not found itself lightsome and
active under this burden. I find it hard to forbear commenting on your
rashness in no very mild terms. You acted in direct opposition to my
counsel and to the plainest dictates of propriety. Be more circumspect
and more obsequious for the future. You knew the liberty that would be taken of opening my letters; you knew
of my absence from home during the greatest part of the day, and the
likelihood, therefore, that your letters would fall into my wife's hands
before they came into mine. These considerations should have prompted
you to send them under cover to Whitworth or Harvey, with directions to
give them immediately to me. Some of these events happened in my absence; for I determined to
accompany the packet myself, and see the madman safely delivered to the
care of the hospital. I will not torture your sensibility by recounting the incidents of his
arrest and detention. You will imagine that his strong but perverted
reason exclaimed loudly against the injustice of his treatment. It was
easy for him to out-reason his antagonist, and nothing but force could
subdue his opposition. On me devolved the province of his jailer and his
tyrant,--a province which required a heart more steeled by spectacles of
suffering and the exercise of cruelty than mine had been. Scarcely had we passed the Narrows, when the lunatic, being suffered to
walk the deck, (as no apprehensions were entertained of his escape in
such circumstances,) threw himself overboard, with a seeming intention
to gain the shore. The boat was immediately manned; the fugitive was
pursued; but, at the moment when his flight was overtaken, he forced
himself beneath the surface, and was seen no more. With the life of this wretch, let our regrets and our forebodings
terminate. He has saved himself from evils for which no time would have
provided a remedy, from lingering for years in the noisome dungeon of a
hospital. Having no reason to continue my voyage, I put myself on board
a coasting-sloop, and regained this city in a few hours. I persuade
myself that my wife's indisposition will be temporary. It was impossible
to hide from her the death of Clithero, and its circumstances. May this