and at this point of our story we will divulge somewhat of his
history.

Henry Lang had been in years past a man well-to-do in the world; he
was once a merchant respected for his strict integrity and
punctuality in business affairs; but by a false step, a making haste
to be rich, he was ruined. The great land speculation of '37 and
thereabout was the chief, and in fact the only cause of his
misfortune. On one day he could boast of his thousands, and no paper
held better credit than that signed or endorsed by him. The next,
the bubble broke, his fortune was scattered, his riches took to
themselves wings and flew away, his creditors, like vultures,
flocked around and speedily devoured what little remained of his
once large possessions. He was a man easily affected by such
occurrences, and they deeply wounded his sensitive feelings. What
should he do? He looked around upon those who once professedly loved
him; but no hand was extended, no heart sympathized with him in the
hour of trouble. He left his country, and with it a wife and one
child, a daughter, lovely, if not in personal appearance, in highly
virtuous and intellectual qualities, which, after all, will be
admitted to be of more value than that which time withers and
sickness destroys.

With a sad heart Mr. Lang left these and the spot of earth around
which many fond recollections clustered. After twenty months of
tedious wanderings, he returned, but he was a changed man; his
ambitious spirit had been crushed, all his hopes: had departed, and
he gave himself up to the fanciful freaks of a disordered mind.
Defeated in his honest endeavors to obtain a livelihood, he was now
seeking out dishonest ways and means to retrieve his fallen fortune.