ost deeply implicated, as will at once
terminate both doubt and litigation. Of this, however, I have at present
no apprehensions; for Lucile and her husband are both too honorable to
assail the reputation of the dead, and too rich themselves to attempt to
pillage the living.

As it is my wish to be distinctly understood, and at the same time to be
exculpated from all blame for the part I myself acted in the drama, the
story must commence with my first acquaintance with Mademoiselle Lucile
Marmont.

In the spring of 1851, I embarked at New York for Panama, or rather
Chagres, on board the steamship "Ohio," Captain Schenck, on my way to
the then distant coast of California, attracted hither by the universal
desire to accumulate a rapid fortune, and return at the earliest
practicable period to my home, on the Atlantic seaboard.

There were many hundred such passengers on the same ship. But little
sociability prevailed, until after the steamer left Havana, where it was
then the custom to touch on the "outward bound," to obtain a fresh
supply of fuel and provisions. We were detained longer than customary at
Havana, and most of the passengers embraced the opportunity to visit
the Bishop's Garden and the tomb of Columbus.

One morning, somewhat earlier than usual, I was standing outside the
railing which incloses the monument of the great discoverer, and had
just transcribed in my note-book the following epitaph:

"O! Restos y Imagen
Del Grande Colon:
Mil siglos durad guardados
En lare Urna,
Y en la Remembranza
De Nuestra Nacion,"

when I was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream directly behind me. On
turning, I beheld a young lady whom I had seen but once before on the
steamer, leaning over the prostrate form of an elderly female, and
applying such restoratives as were at hand to resuscitate her, for she
had fainted. Seeing me, the daughter exclaimed, "_Oh, Monsieur! y-a-t-il
un medecin ici?_" I hastened to the side of the mother, and was about to
lift her from the pavement, when M. Marmont himself entered the
cathedral. I assisted him in placing his wife in a _volante_ then
passing, and she was safely conveyed to the hotel.

Having myself some knowledge of both French and Spanish, and able to
converse in either tongue, Lucile Marmont, then sixteen years of age,
and I, from that time forward, became close and confidential friends.

The steamer sailed the next day, and in due time