The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

16

ORMOND; OR,

daily receipts of his shop, of which an exact register w'as
kept. Craig had been so indiscreet as to preserve this
accusing record, and it was discovered in this depository.
He was the son of Mary Mansfield, and a native of Portsmouth. The history of the Wakefield family, specious
and complicated as it was, was entirely fictitious. The
letters had been forged, and the correspondence supported
by his own dexterity. Here was found the letter which
Mr. Dudley had written to his friend requesting him to
make certain inquiries at Wakefield, and which he imagined that he had delivered with his own hands to a trusty
bearer. Here was the original draught of the answer
he received. The manner in which this stratagem had
been accomplished came gradually to light. The letter
which was written to the Yorkshire traveller had been purloined, and another, with a similar superscription, in
which the hand of Dudley was exactly imitated, and containing only brief and general remarks, had been placed
in its stead. Craig must have suspected its contents,
and by this suspicion have been incited to the theft.
The answer which the Englishman had really written,
and which sufficiently corresponded with the forged letter,
had been intercepted by Craig, and furnished him a model
from which he might construct an answer adapted to his
own purposes.
This imposture had not been sustained for a trivial purpose. He had embezzled a large share of the stock, and
had employed the credit of the house to procure extensive remittances to be made to an agent at a distance, by
whom the property was effectually secured. Craig had
gone to participate these spoils, while the whole estate
of Mr. Dudley was insufficient to pay the demands that
were consequently made upon him.
It was his lot to fall into the grasp of men who squared
their actions by no other standard than law, and who esteemed every claim to be incontestably just that could
plead that sanction. They did not indeed throw him into
prison. When they had despoiled him of every remnant
of his property, they deemed themselves entitled to his
gratitude for leaving his person unmolested.