"
He handed me an old French newspaper. The substance of what I
read there is still so firmly impressed on my memory that I am
certain of being able to repeat correctly at this distance of
time all the facts which it is necessary for me to communicate to
the reader.
The article began, I remember, with editorial remarks on the
great curiosity then felt in regard to the fatal duel between the
Count St. Lo and Mr. Stephen Monkton, an English gentleman. The
writer proceeded to dwell at great length on the extraordinary
secrecy in which the whole affair had been involved from first to
last, and to express a hope that the publication of a certain
manuscript, to which his introductory observations referred,
might lead to the production of fresh evidence from other and
better-informed quarters. The manuscript had been found among the
papers of Monsieur Foulon, Mr. Monkton's second, who had died at
Paris of a rapid decline shortly after returning to his home in
that city from the scene of the duel. The document was
unfinished, having been left incomplete at the very place where
the reader would most wish to find it continued. No reason could
be discovered for this, and no second manuscript bearing on the
all-important subject had been found, after the strictest search
among the papers left by the deceased.
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