Publisher's Synopsis
"To John P. Gilmore, Jefferson City, Missouri, U.S.A. "MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW, -For years you have believed me dead, and I have made no effort to disturb that belief. "I am dying now, alone in Paris, far from my beloved country; unjustly degraded, dishonoured and defamed. This letter and its enclosure will not be despatched until the grave has closed over me. "To you I owe a debt of deep gratitude. You have taken and cared for my darling child, Christabel; you have stood between her and the world, and have spared her from the knowledge and burden of her father's unmerited shame. You can yet do something more-give her your name, so that mine with its disgrace may be forgotten; unless-it is a wild thought that has come to me in my last hours, the offspring of my hopeless melancholy-unless she should ever prove to have the strength, the courage, the wit and the will to essay that which I have endeavoured fruitlessly-the clearance of my name and honour.
