"When you receive these papers—the last intelligences I shall ever send you—I, the writer of them, shall be no more.
"A great disappointment, one which I have not the heart to endure, together with a return of my old trouble, for I have had three bleedings from the lungs within a month, have cured me of the taste of living, and, by a mere movement of the trigger, I end the game to-night.
"It is a fancy of mine to take my leave of this earthly stay surrounded by the little dear belongings of the one I love.
"There will be much talk back and forth concerning me. I pray you bespeak me, if you will, a brave, insolent, selfish, and unscrupulous man of many villainies, some wit and foresight, a disrespecter of humanity, athirst for power, and a hater of fools; but one who, at the end, was capable of a great love for a great woman.
"I send some verses, which are of my own making to-day. As Shakespeare says, 'Ill favored, but mine own,' and so good night—a long good night.
"TO NANCY STAIR
"I stand upon the threshold going out
Into the night.
The mists of old misdeeds crowd all about
And blind my sight.