University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.

The American forces had not been long established
in their winter quarters at Valley Forge, when famine
appeared among them, and nearly occasioned the entire
dissolution of the army. In the depth of an unusually
inclement winter, surrounded by a waste of snow,
poorly sheltered from the elements, insufficiently clad,
and worse fed, it is not to be wondered at that discontent
prevailed, from officers of high grade down to the
meanest subaltern. To add to their sufferings, sickness
had made greater ravages in their ranks than the sword
of the enemy. Their hospitals were filled with the
dead and the dying, and those who were required to
perform duty, moved like shadows through the garrison,
disease upon their cheeks, and their emaciated
bodies shivering as though every blast of wind would
congeal the nearly exhausted fountain of life, and as
they turned their eyes from the sickening scene, they
beheld little to revive and console the drooping spirit,
for nature herself was in a state of desolation. A succession
of reverses had rendered almost hopeless the

cause in which they had embarked their fortunes, and
among the master spirits there were to be found those,
whose minds, fired by ambition and embittered by envy,
instead of endeavouring to allay the prevailing discontent,
they promoted it to the extent of their power, and
thus committed a suicidal act upon their fair fame.

It has been stated that the encampment was built
upon the plan of a regular city, and that the huts were
constructed with logs, the interstices between which
were filled with clay and mortar. Captain Swain and
his friend M`Crea were quartered together, and in the
rear of the cabin the surgeon had erected another, which
he fitted up as a laboratory, where he made his philosophical
experiments towards the discovery of the arcanum
of prolonging human life, though hourly called upon to visit
death's doings. This cabin was strewed with crucibles,
retorts, receivers, and curiously constructed air-pumps,
which he had the temerity to experiment upon himself,
when at a loss for a patient possessed of a greater share
of courage and credulity than common sense. Countless
were the decoctions that he tasted, various were the
powders that he formed from the whole pharmacopœia
of nature, and he withstood the discharge of his electrical
battery like a true hero, until his frame had
wasted away to such a degree that he bore a more
striking resemblance to the anatomy suspended in the
case behind the door of his cabin than to a being of
this world. Truly has it been said that the hill of science
is hard to climb. It was the wonder of all how he managed
to sustain life in a place where death was daily
revelling, and the miracle was only to be accounted for
by presuming that the King of Terrors, as he took his
rounds, seeing him so often beside the sick bed of a
victim, mistook him for one of his own disciples labouring
in his vocation, and accordingly passed him by
without throwing his unerring dart.

A council had been called by the commander-in-chief
in order to adopt measures for the immediate relief

of the famishing army. Captain Swain, as he
returned from head-quarters, where he had been to
learn the decision of the council, was met by Jurian on
a similar errand.

“What have you learnt, sir; what is the result of
their deliberations?” demanded Jurian.

“It is said that general Howe has sent a strong detachment
to forage in the islands of the Delaware, and
the neighbourhood of Chester and Darby,” replied the
captain.

“And of course a detachment must be sent in that
direction to prevent it,” replied the other. “Well,
thank Providence, I am in health and ready for the expedition.”

“So it was at first determined, but your patriotism
will not be put to the test in that way,” said the captain.

“How so?”

“Because we are on the verge of starvation, and
instead of cutting off the supplies of the enemy, it is
necessary that our own magazines be first replenished,
for on examination it appears that they do not contain
a single day's provisions.”

“Great heavens! this will increase the discontent
which already prevails to a fearful extent throughout the
garrison.”

“I dread the consequences,” replied captain Swain,
“for unfortunately we have those among us who care
not what injury they do the cause, provided they can
blemish the name of Washington, and such are already
busy among the suffering soldiery.”

“What measures have been adopted in this emergency?”

“Foraging parties are to be despatched forthwith to
seize provisions to satisfy the present wants of the
army.”

“The measure is a harsh one, and cannot fail to be
unpopular.”

“True; but the exigencies of our situation compel

us to this step, and it is far better to commit this apparent
injustice, than to suffer the army to be dissolved,
upon which depends the emancipation of our country.”

As they moved along the narrow alley between the
huts, the doors of many of which were thrown open to
admit the feeble rays of the sun, their hearts sickened
as they heard the complaints of the half clothed and
emaciated inmates. The murmurs were loud, nor was
there any disposition to conceal the general discontent
that prevailed. Those who were sick offered up their
prayers for health, that they might quit the scene of
famine, while those who enjoyed comparative strength
threatened not to await the expiration of their term of
service, fearful of being speedily reduced to the condition
of their comrades. In the midst of these expressions
of discontent, a gaunt figure, seated at the door
of one of the cabins, was labouring hard to discipline
a most unharmonious voice to the movements of one of
those fine old continental airs, the effects of which are
only surpassed by the fabulous account of the influence
of the songs of the Thracian poet. True, they did not
make trees and rocks join in the mystic mazes of the
dance, but then they infused a new spirit into the bosom
of the most insensible, and awakened feelings that
otherwise might have slumbered through life. Our
vocalist began in a voice that might have been heard
half over the camp, for he evidently despised those
delicate touches that throw the soul of a modern amateur
into ecstasies.

“No meat, no soldier, is my maxim,” exclaimed
corporal Drone, who was shivering in the hut, with no
other covering than his tattered rifle shirt, “and you

may preach patriotism until you are hoarse, but you
will be bothered, I am thinking, to keep even an army
of shadows together without food.”

The singer continued, without making any reply, or
even noticing the interruption—

“Now where's the use, sergeant Talman, in bragging
of our victories?” continued the corporal. “Hang
me if I would give an Indian blanket, at this present
speaking, for the honour of the whole of them.” The
sergeant was too intent upon his song to be diverted
from it by the remarks of the corporal.

“A better fate than to live and be famished in such
a garrison as this,” muttered the corporal. Honest
Mauns did not even turn his head towards the malcontent,
but continued—

“Your huzza will be rather a feeble one, unless you
get something to eat speedily,” replied the corporal;

but Mauns proved that his lungs were still in good condition,
by shouting—

“There is one of the true descendants of Sven's
army,” said captain Swain, pointing at Talman. As he
finished his song, a soldier approached the cabin, without
stockings on, and little other covering than a blanket
thrown over his soldiers.

“Here comes one, let us see whether you can get
him to join in your huzzaing,” said the corporal.

“That he will,” replied Mauns, “as long as his
voice holds out, and when that fails, he will wave his
hand as a token that his heart is in the right place.”

“I wish I had a token that my bowels were in the
right place,” replied the corporal, “for by their growling
I should conclude they could not be in a worse one
than they are at present.”

“Your mouth is never silent but when it is filled,”
said the captain, approaching.

“It is very hard, captain,” replied Drone, “after all
my services at Brandywine, Paoli, and at Germantown,
to find that I am not a crust of bread the better. I am
willing to fight for my country, but curse me if I can
starve for it.”

“Is your condition worse than that of many thousands?”

“No sir, nor can I discover that my burden is the
lighter for their sharing in it. I came to fight with the
foe, and not with famine.”

“Famine drove you to the camp, corporal,” replied

the captain, “and we shall be the gainer if she hunts
you from it again;” then turning to the new comer, he
demanded what he wanted.

“I have been ordered on duty, sir, and having no
coat, have come to borrow the sergeant's.”

Mauns stripped off his coat in silence, and handing
it to the soldier, received his blanket in return, which
he wrapped round his gaunt figure, and resumed his
seat.

“You are a stout fellow,” said the captain, “and I
am glad to see that you keep up your spirits.”

“How the devil he manages it,” muttered the corporal,
“is a mystery to me, for we have not had a drop
of rum since Friday.”

“Silence, thou eternal raven,” cried the captain.

“Nor bread for three days,” continued the corporal,
“and that was as dry and mouldy as the bones of my
grandfather.”

“I wish the crust had been hard enough to choke
you,” replied Mauns.

“Nor meat since yesterday morning,” continued the
pertinacious corporal. “Our commissaries must think
that we have the stomachs of Nebuchadnezzar, and
can subsist on hay, for we are in a fair way to give the
experiment a trial before the grass grows.”

“Thou mutinous rascal, stop thy clamorous throat,
or I shall do it for you,” cried the captain.

“I wish you would, provided you do it with a piece
of bread and beef,” responded Drone. The captain
turned to the sentinel, who stood listening in silence—

“You hear this discontented fellow, who no doubt
has come among us because he could not subsist elsewhere.
There are, I fear, too many of the same description
in the camp, but do not suffer their complaints
to poison your mind, my brave fellow. True, this is a
trying hour, but all will be well in a few days; only
keep up your courage.”

“Yesterday, at noon, sir, I stood sentinel at head
quarters,” replied the soldier.

“And what did you see there?”

“The general at his dinner. The meat was as
coarse as that in my own cabin, and yet he ate it with
appetite, and returned thanks when he was done. I
have thought of it ever since, and damn me if I desert
him as long as there is as much as a corporal's guard
remaining.”

The soldier withdrew, and the corporal continued
muttering, until sergeant Talman rose from his seat,
and without opening his lips, deliberately took him by
the collar, and leading him to the door of the hut,
shoved him out of it, and then resumed his seat as
composedly as if nothing had occurred. Drone retired
muttering sedition, until he came to a hut in which
several malcontents were assembled, which he entered,
and added fuel to the fire that every hour threatened to
burst out with irrepressible fury.

Sergeant Talman was possessed of astonishing equanimity
of temper; he was seldom disconcerted, and he
would occasionally remark that a man can always attend
to business with greater coolness and comfort to himself
when he is not in a passion, and for his part he
could never discover the advantage in getting out of
humour. True, there is a tradition that on one occasion
he swore a tremendous Swedish oath, but what
the oath was no one remembers, and few understood
it at the time, but all agree that the sergeant's temper
was somewhat ruffled. The occasion was briefly this:
he had a favourite pipe, with a curiously fashioned
meerschaum bowl, as big as a tea-cup, which had descended
to him from his great grandfather, who smoked
it throughout the memorable siege of fort Casimer, and
Mauns set great store by it on this account. Jurian,
who, when a youngster, was fond of playing his pranks
upon the honest Swede, who took the roughest in good
part, for he loved the boy, one day got possession of

this relic of antiquity, while Mauns was taking an afternoon
nap, and filled the bowl with gunpowder. Mauns
was prone to gossip at the village inn with Aoki Shell,
at that period celebrated for his long shot on the Schuylkill,
and no sooner did he awake, than taking his pipe,
he repaired to the inn to hear the news, and become
as philosophical as the fumes of the `devil's weed'
could make him. A good story was broached, to
which Mauns listened with deep interest, and being a
man of few words, he usually called in the aid of his
pipe to supply an occasional hiatus in the conversation,
and substituted smoke for wind. It is no uncommon
occurrence to see two Dutchmen converse for hours
together by means of their pipes alone, and what is
more astonishing, provided they are good smokers, they
may rise quite as much edified as if their tongues had
been running like mill clappers the whole time.

Mauns never relished a long story so much as when
he had a meerschaum in his mouth; accordingly Aoki,
who was a very Arab in the way of fiction, no sooner
commenced, than our worthy began to fix his pipe, and
called for a coal of fire, aware that Aoki's story was
entitled to a patient hearing, and thus prepared he
could have set out the Arabian Nights without interruption,
other than that which might be occasioned by
knocking the ashes from his pipe, and replenishing it
with tobacco.

The fire being brought, and Talman having leisurely
examined his pipe, and finding it well filled with mundungus,
lighted it, and took his seat in silence among
the company assembled beneath the shade of the old
elm tree in front of the inn, and it must be confessed
he was the most philosophical looking character present.
Jurian was also a looker on, and vastly did he
admire the gravity of the Swede, which increased in
proportion to the interest of Aoki's story, and the density
of the cloud that encircled the brow of the smoker.

Aoki now began to probe the marrow of his narrative,

and while all were listening with intense curiosity,
the interest that honest Mauns felt was indicated alone
by two or three vigorous inspirations through his
friendly tube. Jurian, leaning against the tree, kept
his eyes fixed upon the interminable smoker, in anxious
expectation of the explosion. Aoki continued, and
Mauns smoked more vigorously than before, while the
boy chuckled to himself, `a whiff more like the last will
do the business.' The story drew towards a close, and
Mauns smoked harder and harder, and the boy laughed
outright at his earnestness, when lo! just as Aoki arrived
at the climax of his tale, his last words were lost
in the alarming explosion. Mauns bolted upright, and
stood aghast, and it is said to have been the only time
that he was ever frightened, or stood erect in his life,
but no sooner did he behold the damage done to his
meerschaum, that had withstood the racket of the Dutch
war, than he ripped out the terrible oath already referred
to, and which is said to have been the same that
his great grandfather muttered betwixt his teeth when
the fort of the Holy Trinity was surrendered. It had
descended as an heir loom with the pipe to Mauns, and
was only used by him on momentous occasions, but is
said never to have passed his lips after the destruction
of his family relic.

“Is that all?” methinks I hear the reader exclaim.

Not quite. The boy repaired the honest Swede's
loss with a pipe of tenfold value, but as there was no traditionary
history attached to it, it required all his philosophy
to reconcile him to the exchange, and he
discontinued smoking from that day.

“But wherein lies the moral?”

True, what is a story in the present age without a
moral, when all that is written and all that is done must
tend to the amelioration of mankind? Thrice happy
and disinterested age, in which every man labours to
improve the moral condition of his neighbour, without
feeling the slightest concern for his own. Would not

the work of reform be more effectually promoted if these
philanthropists would begin with themselves, and among
the various institutions for the suppression of vice and
immorality, establish one that might tend to diminish
pride, ambition, hypocrisy, and cant? But to return to
the moral of this episode. It goes to show that boys
were fond of crackers as far back as the middle of the
last century, and that they may not place them in a tobacco
pipe without doing a mischief; a lesson that the
mischievous rogues should bear in mind when celebrating
the fourth of July.

“Hang such a moral!”

Nay, sir, the lesson is calculated to do much good
if properly taken, and though there is not as much
point in it as we find in those admirable productions
issued by the various tract societies, still the subject
might be enlarged upon, and the irreverence of pinning
crackers to the skirts of our sober and staid citizens
illustrated, and in that case who would be bold enough
to take an exception, since there is many an orthodox
sermon wider from the purpose?

“Pshaw! get on with your story,” exclaims the critic.
“This digression destroys the unity of your design,
and if tried by the rules of Aristotle—”

Patience, most learned sir; I will get into the right
track again, and carry you as expeditiously to the place
of destination, as though you were on board a locomoter
or a steamer.

After sergeant Talman had ejected the corporal, captain
Swain and Jurian continued their way to their own
quarters, and the sergeant resumed his song. As they
moved along the line of huts, complaints saluted them
at almost every step, and numerous were the sickly and
nearly naked beings that crossed their path.

When they reached their hut, they found that M`Crea
had retired to his laboratory, where indeed he passed
the greater portion of his time in making his philosophical
experiments. The discovery of the secret of

prolonging animal life now engrossed his studies, for
he deemed it unnecessary to trouble himself about his
theory of gravity, as short rations had made more rapid
strides towards its consummation than all his scientific
researches; and he wisely concluded, that under existing
circumstances it would require all his art to keep body
and soul together.

Jurian, since his return to the American army, had
acquainted his benefactor with the necessity of rendering
him pecuniary assistance, but pride induced him to
withhold the knowledge of his degradation. Nor did
the benevolent old man press the point; it was sufficient
for him to know that his favourite required his aid, and
he pledged himself to render it, though in consequence
of the state of the times, the task was not an easy one
to accomplish. Still this assurance did not relieve the
mind of Jurian. He did not question that all he asked
would be granted, but there was an isolated thought
that seared his very soul; it clung to him with the tenacity
of fire; sleeping and waking it burnt on alike,
and there was little prospect of its progress being arrested
until it had consumed the fountain of life itself.

Captain Swain and our hero had been but a few minutes
seated in their quarters, and the worthy descendant
of the lord of Passaiung had scarcely commenced
one of his favourite reminiscences of Swedish history,
when he was interrupted by a violent explosion that
proceeded from the rear of the cabin.

“Heavens above us! what noise is that?” exclaimed
the captain.

“It comes from M`Crea's laboratory,” cried the
other, and hastened around the hut to ascertain the cause.
His apprehensions were realized, for volumes of dense
and offensive smoke were issuing from the mouth of the
laboratory of the infatuated chemist. Jurian rushed in,
and lying among the air-pumps and crucibles upon the
earth he found the unfortunate surgeon, and carried
him into the open air, where he made rather a ludicrous

appearance, his foxy wig being singed all over, and his
face bearing the complexion of that of a coal-heaver,
who like the miserable Kehama had been denied the
advantages of water.

A crowd of soldiers was soon attracted to the spot by
the report made by the explosion; among whom was a
young surgeon, who, seeing the situation of the chemist,
opened a vein, and he shortly after came to his senses,
when the first object that presented itself to his view
was the stream of blood flowing from his arm. He
looked wildly around him, while indignation was fast
kindling in his eye.

“What idiot has done this?” he cried, with a contemptuous
sneer.

“I did it, with the hope of relieving you,” said the
young surgeon.

“Of murdering me, you mean,” cried the enraged
chemist, “or how came you to think of letting blood
in such a case as this?”

“Really, sir, it is the daily and regular practice in
the service,” replied the other.

“And so, provided I am killed by rule, you conclude
I have no reason to complain.”

“Killed, sir! you are now perfectly recovered, and
I apprehend—”

“You apprehend!” ejaculated M`Crea, eyeing the
young operator with utter contempt; “and who the
devil gave you a right to form an opinion of matters
that the accumulated wisdom of ages has not yet mastered.
We have come to a pretty pass, indeed, when
geese cackle of science before their backs are freed
from the egg-shell, and children in bibs and tuckers
boldly advance their opinions.”

“If I have erred, sir, all was done for the best,” replied
the young surgeon.

“And so you might have said had you killed me.
But what satisfaction is it to me to know that you inflict
the greatest injury with the best intentions?” Then

turning to captain Swain and Jurian, who supported
him, he desired to be conducted to his quarters. As he
was hobbling off, assisted by his friends, he paused, and
looking back upon the unlucky operator said, “Young
man, I bear you no malice, but freely forgive you
this act of thoughtlessness, which has shortened my
life at least fifty years.”

The group of soldiers stared at each other in astonishment,
and considered the chemist mad.

“I perceive that the days of the patriarchs have not
yet been stricken from your calendar,” replied Jurian.
M`Crea glanced his eyes upon him; there was something
like a horrid grin upon his countenance, which
might have been intended for a benevolent smile, but
was spoilt in the making by the effect of his burnt wig,
and the smoke which begrimed his wrinkled face from
the chin to the forehead.

A bucket of water was brought into the hut, and the
woful countenance of M`Crea was in some measure
restored to its original complexion, but he remained
silent and evidently chagrined at the unfortunate termination
of his experiment. Captain Swain shook the
crisped locks from the wig, which now bore some resemblance
to the back of a sheep too closely shorn,
and replaced it upon the bald head of the surgeon, who
witnessed the operation in silence and with a rueful
countenance.

“You appear dejected,” said Jurian; “I trust you
have not been seriously injured by the accident?”

“More so than an ordinary observer would imagine,”
replied M`Crea, gravely.

“In what part are you wounded? I see no external
marks of injury.”

“In my reputation:—I had accomplished the labour
of my life—I should have satisfied an incredulous world
of the truth of my theory, and have lived forever.”

“That is rather a longer period than any man need

bargain for,” replied Jurian; “so you may bless your
stars that the accident has made you a mortal again.”

“My life might have been limited, but my fame
would have lasted to the end of time,” said the chemist,
without raising his eyes. “I had consummated the
study of my life; I had brought to a focus the rays of
human knowledge: but the heat was too intense, and—”
the chemist paused—

“It all ended in smoke,” added the captain.

“There was but one grain more of azote to have
been infused into the crucible,” continued the chemist,
“and the elixir would have been perfected, and my
name descended to after ages with those of Kelly and
Dee.”

“I don't know as to that,” observed the captain,
drily, “but it was near being the means of your paying
those worthies a visit rather unexpectedly.”

“Captain Swain, Horace tells us, `magna movet
stomacho fastidia,' and my stomach already revolts at
thy miserable attempts at humour. Jam desine, jam
desine.” Then turning to Jurian, he said, “Prithee,
boy, go into my laboratory, and fetch the crucible I had
upon the furnace.”

“Impossible, sir! It has been fractured into at least
a thousand pieces.”

“Each of which is worth its weight in gold,” continued
the chemist. “It cannot be otherwise, for transmutation
must have taken place before the unfortunate
explosion.”

“Perhaps so; but a very expeditious change from
gold to crockery ware must also have succeeded, if
this is a part of the crucible,” replied Jurian, picking
from the floor of the hut a piece of the pot, which having
lodged in M`Crea's apparel, had been carried into
the hut. The chemist seized it eagerly, and after
examining it closely, said—

“Oh! the blindness of ignorance, and the vanity of all
human projects. One instant longer, and I should have

made the greatest discovery the sun ever shone upon,
and now this little piece of earth is all that remains,
after the labour and study of many years.” Saying
which, he carefully put the piece of crucible into his
pocket.

“A melancholy reflection, sir, and might have been
made by the bier of Alexander the Great or Julius Cæ
sar, with the same propriety as upon this occasion.”

“True, boy; even I, in despite of the influence of
science, feel that I am but a piece of earth, and that to
earth I must return; and I fear my day is not far distant,”
replied M`Crea, in a solemn voice, his countenance
increasing in longitude as he proceeded. “Oh! the
curse of ignorance; why did you suffer that villanous
farrier to bleed me?”

“What serious injury do you apprehend from the
loss of a few ounces of blood?”

“It has confounded all my calculations; and now I
am nothing more than a blind mortal like yourself. I
had ascertained precisely the proportion of fluids and
solids in my system, and being possessed of this knowledge,
could have kept the machine in motion, until the
burthen of life became too heavy to be supported. But
the study of years has been subverted in an instant by
the thumb lancet of a villanous bleeder. But it is as
well perhaps as it is, since I have lived half a century
without having yet discovered the use of living.”

Smile not, courteous reader, at the infatuation of
M`Crea, nor rashly pronounce his pursuit idle when
compared with the various studies of his fellow man.
Look among those whom the world pronounces learned,
and how many do we find spending their lives in calculating
the degree of heat in a moonbeam, or the thickness
of a soap-bubble, and when they have discovered
a rule by which the point may be ascertained with accuracy,
they rest from their labours, satisfied that they
have lived for the benefit of mankind, and that fame
will inscribe their names in golden and imperishable

characters in the record of science, though learned
alone in such branches as give to wisdom the aspect
of folly.

Alice Grey was now seen slowly passing in front of
the hut, her head bent down, and the hood of her cloak
drawn over her face. Jurian could not conceal his
emotion at this unexpected apparition, and M`Crea exchanged
glances with captain Swain, that indicated his
surprise at seeing her there. Still no one accosted her,
and she passed on without turning her head either to
the right or left. Her step was slow but unfaltering,
and M`Crea stood at the door of the hut and looked
after her, until she turned into another alley of the encampment
and disappeared.

“What can possibly have brought that woman here,”
muttered the surgeon, “at this inclement season and
so far from her home? Something of moment must
have occurred.”

“I hear that her daughter Miriam has deserted her,”
replied the captain. M`Crea sighed, and Jurian changed
colour. “Unhappy woman, she began life in sorrow,
and in sorrow will it close.”

“Touch not on that string,” exclaimed M`Crea,
“or you awaken discord in my bosom more frightful
than the jubilee of fiends. Touch not on that.”

“Poor creature, she has more than paid the wages
of sin.”

“The wages of sin,” exclaimed M`Crea, “would be
as a reward compared to what she has suffered; for the
wages of sin is death, and she has endured through life
pangs more poignant than the agonies of dying. And
still she lives on without a prospect that they will ever
be mitigated in this world. So far from it, that grief
treads upon the heel of grief, and the last is the greatest.”

Jurian withdrew from the hut, and M`Crea seated
himself, and abruptly changed the conversation to a
subject less painful. Half an hour had scarcely elapsed,

when Alice was again seen slowly returning along the
narrow alley. Her mind was still absorbed in her feelings,
and she made no reply to the occasional salutations
of the soldiers in passing her, until she came in front
of M`Crea's hut, when she paused, and stood in the
door-way.

“Why are you here, Alice; what is it you would
have?” demanded M`Crea.

“Help for the dying; human aid to keep a wretched
being in this world who is anxious to flee to his God.”

“Where shall I find the sufferer?”

“In one of the out-houses belonging to the forge in
the valley, but hasten, or death will have afforded him
that relief which man has denied.”

“Who is he that has awakened the sympathies of
one more wretched than himself?”

“A fellow mortal; he needs no stronger claim.”

“What is his name?”

“Will charity stand by the couch of a wretch, and
withhold her aid until the name of the sufferer be
spoken? Sorrow and sickness plead more forcibly in
his behalf than the name by which he was known
among the prosperous. Shall I say you will come and
sooth the last hours of the dying?”

“I am ill myself, Alice, but will procure you medical
aid.”

“Medical aid when the soul is bound to its tenement
of clay by a spider's web!” replied Alice, in a tone of
bitter derision. “You were sent for, and you alone;
and have you the cruelty to deny the last wish of a
dying man?”

“I will see him.”

“It is well. I will tell him you are coming, and
though his soul had already spread its wings, those
words would arrest its flight until you come. Farewell.”

“Stay a few moments, and I will accompany you.”

“And wherefore should they who have been a curse
to each other in this world, walk side by side? Better

that they be separated as far as the earth can divide
them, when the fascination that led to crime has vanished,
and nothing save its bitter consequences remains.
Besides, I have that to do which must be done
alone; however, I shall meet you at the place appointed,
and partake of the poisoned chalice that we have
prepared together for our own lips.”

She turned from the door, and drawing her hood
over her face, pursued her way; and the surgeon, after
getting his apparel into better trim, for it had suffered
wofully in the recent explosion, furnished himself with
a lancet and medicines, and sallied forth to minister to
the dying man.