O, what was the world to you without her! Wasn't she the light of your eyes, and the sweet pulse of your loving heart! And did ever a girl love a father as she loved you, till the destroyer came across her--ay, the destroyer that left us as we now are, sunk in sorrow and misery that will never end in this world more! And now, what is she, and what has the destroyer made her?
O, when I think of how you sought after her you loved as you did, to take her life, and when I think of how she that loved you as she did was forced to fly from the hand that would pluck out your own heart sooner than injure a hair of her head--so long as she was innocent--O, when I think of all this, and look upon you lying there now, and all for the love you bore her, how can my heart bear it, and how can I live.

O, the destroyer, the villain! the devil! what has he wrought upon us! But, thank God, he is punished--the father's love punished him.

They are liars! you are no murderer.

The mother's heart within me tells me that you did what was right--you acted like a man, my husband.

God bless you, and make your soul happy for its love to Nannie.