period of his life, is what he has himself told us in the tale entitled "William Wilson,"

wherein he describes with great minuteness his recollections of his school-days in England, and gives a characteristic picture of the schoolhouse and its surroundings.

On his return to the United States, in the year 1822, he was placed for a few months at an academy at Richmond, and then was transferred to the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville. The students at Charlottesville were noted at that time for their reckless and dissolute manner of life, and young Poe was the most dissolute and reckless among them. Though extremely slight in person, and almost effeminate in his manner, he is represented to have been foremost in all

athletic sports and games; and there is good testimony to his having performed the almost impossible feat of swimming, for a wager, from Richmond to Warwick, a distance of seven miles, against a current of two or three knots an hour. Notwithstanding his dissolute habits and extravagance at the university, he excelled in his studies, was always at the head of his class, and would doubtless have graduated with honor, had he not been expelled on account of his profligacy and wild excesses.

His allowance of money had been liberal at the University, but he quitted it in debt; and when his indulgent friend refused to accept his drafts, to meet his gambling losses, Poe wrote him an abusive letter, and quitted the country with the design of offering his services

to the Greeks, who were then fighting for their emancipation from the Turks. But he never reached Greece, and all that is known of his carcer in Europe is, that he found himself in St. Petersburgh, in extreme destitution, where the American minister, Mr. Middleton, was called upon to save him from arrest, on account of an indiscretion. Through the kind offices of this gentleman the young adventurer was sent home to America; and, on his arrival at Richmond, Mr. Allan received him with kindness, forgave him his past misconduct, and procured him a cadetship in the United States Military Academy at West Point. nately for him, just before he left Richmond for his new appointment, Mrs. Allan, the wife of his benefactor, died. She had always

Unfortu

treated him with motherly affection, and he

had paid more deference to her than to any one else. At West Point he applied himself with great energy and success for awhile to his new course of studies; but the rigid discipline of that institution ill sorted with the irrepressible recklessness of his nature, and after ten months he was ignominiously expelled.

After leaving "the Point," he returned to Richmond, and was again kindly received and welcomed to his home by Mr. Allan. But there was a change in the house where the wayward boy had been a pet. There was a Mr. Allan had

new and a younger mistress.

taken a second wife-a lady much younger

than himself, and who was

the expelled cadet as a son.

disposed to treat

But he soon con

trived to quarrel with her, and was compelled to abandon the house of his adopted father, never to return. The cause of the quarrel which led to this final disruption between Poe and his generous patron has been variously stated; the family of Mr. Allan give a version of it which throws a dark shade on the character of the poet. But let it have been as it may, it must have been of a very grave nature, for, on the death of Mr. Allan, shortly after, in 1834, the name of his adopted son, who, it was supposed, would inherit nearly all his wealth, was not mentioned in his will.

On leaving the house of his benefactor for the last time, Poe was left without a friend, and thrown upon his own resources. He had published a volume of poems in Baltimore,