would support me: but the ill-fated acquaintance I formed led me
to those earthly hells--gambling houses; and then commenced
my villainies and deceptions to you. My losses were not large at
first; and the stories that were told me of gain made me hope
they would soon be recovered. At this period I received the
order to go to Vienna, and on settling at the hotel I found my
debts treble what I had expected. I was in consequence compelled
to leave the two carriages as a guarantee for part of the debt,
which I had not in my power to discharge. I had hoped such
success at Vienna as would enable me to state all to you; but
disappointment blasted every hope, and despair, on my return to
Paris, began to generate the fatal resolution which, at the
moment you read this, will have matured itself to consummation.
I feel that my reputation is blasted; no way left of re-imbursing
the money wasted, your confidence in me totally destroyed, and
nothing left to me but to see my wife and children, and die.
Affection for them holds me in existence a little longer. The
gaming table again presented itself to my imagination as the only
possible means of extricating myself. Count Montoni's 3000
francs, which I received before you came to Paris, furnished me
with the means--my death speaks the result! After robbery so
base as mine, I fear it will be of no use for me to solicit
your kindness for my wretched wife and forlorn family. Oh, Sir,
if you have pity on them and treat them kindly, and do not leave
them to perish in a foreign land, the consciousness of the act
will cheer you in your last moments, and God will reward you and
yours for it tenfold. Their sensibilities will not cause them to
need human aid. Thus I shall be threefold the murderer. I thank
you for the kindness you have rendered me; and I assure your
brother that he has, in this dreadful moment, my ardent wishes