Alexandria Gazette & Advertiser

MELANCHOLY EVENT.

Norfolk, Dec. 27—With the warmest sympathy for her respectable connexions, deeply wounded by so shocking an occurrence, we record the following facts:

Yesterday morning, the coroner of Norfolk county was called to hold an inquest over the body of Miss Martha N. Fields, a young lady of about 16 or 17 years of age, of truly amiable character, and of a most respectable family; who, in a fit of derangement had rushed into the river and drowned herself.

The subject of this awful catastrophe had, we learn, been long in a melancholy state of mind, produced as believed, by mortality in her family, and the protracted absence of a brother whom she tenderly loved. All the efforts of her friends, with whom she was a great favourite, were unavailing to dispel her habitual gloom. She frequently intimated to a young lady to whom she was much attached, that if she should be missing from her home, at any time, she might be found in the river near the house, and on the evening previous to the accomplishment of her desperate resolve, she expressed a wish that some one might be sent for to draw up her will, and offered some articles of her dress to her sister, observing that she should have no further use for them.

These indications of her purpose were regarded by her friends, only as creations of a disordered mind. Yesterday morning however, they were changed to awful reality. A short time before the dawning of day, she secretly left her chamber and plunged into the river, from which her corpse was taken a few hours after.

A gentleman who had risen early, for the purpose of killing some ducks that he understood were often seen near the shore about daylight, heard a rustling in the water, which he took to be that of a dog after the game, and accordingly whistled to call him off—the noise ceased for a moment, was heard a second time and then ceased entirely. When the family arose she was missing, and after diligent inquiry was traced to the fatal spot.