"Christmas Eve, 1823, was a memorable night in the history of a certain wealthy family in New York. The night was dark and stormy, but the tempest which swept over the bay, and whitened the city's roofs with snow, was but a faint symbol of the tempest of human pas-sion-jealousy, covetousness, despair-then at work, in the breasts of a group of individuals, connected with the old and distinguished family of Van Huyden."