Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone Wilkie Collins

Extracted from a Family PaperI address these lines-written in India-to my relatives in England. My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle. The reserve which I have hitherto maintained inthis matter has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion Icannot consent to forfeit. I request them to suspend their decision until they have readmy narrative. And I declare, on my word of honour, that what I am now about to write is, strictly and literally, the truth. The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great public eventin which we were both concerned-the storming of Seringapatam, under General Baird, on the 4th of May, 1799. In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must revert for a momentto the period before the assault, and to the stories current in our camp of the treasure injewels and gold stored up in the Palace of Seringapat