Time rolled on, and his former partner
being dead, he was, from his volatile and thoughtless disposition,
again plunged in difficulties, and imprisoned for debt. The circumstance
became known to her at whose shrine in early life he had vowed eternal
devotion: with a still fond recollection of him, who alone had ever
shared her heart, she hastened to the spot, and, being now a wealthy
spinster, paid all his debts and released him from durance. Gratitude
and love both pointed out the course for the obliged M. c. to pursue;
but, alas! there is nothing certain in the anticipations of complete
happiness in this life. The lady fell suddenly sick, and died on the
very day they were to have been married, leaving him sole executor of
her property. The calamitous event made such a deep impression upon a
feeling mind, already shaken by trouble and disease, that finding his
prospects of bliss again blighted without a chance of recovery, he fell
into a state of despondency, and was, within a week, laid a corpse by
the side of his first love. At the post-office,--purposely placed out of
the way by the sagacious Chelts to give strangers the trouble of making
inquiries,--I received the following whim from the same witty pen who
wrote me, anonymously, an inauguration ode to commence my second volume
with.
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