lattered by these opinions; and, what was worse, I could
not get them out of my head all night afterwards. Many things I had
never doubted about now kept puzzling and confounding me, and I began,
for the first time, to know the misery of the struggle between implicit
obedience and conviction.

CHAPTER XXVIII. SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES

I went to bed at night in all apparent health; save from the flurry and
excitement of an anxious mind, I was in no respect different from my
usual mood; and yet, when I awoke next morning, my head was distracted
with a racking pain, cramps were in all my limbs, and I could not turn
or even move without intense suffering. The long exposure to rain, while
my mind was in a condition of extreme excitement, had brought on
an attack of fever, and before evening set in, I was raving in wild
delirium. Every scene I had passed through, each eventful incident of my
life, came flashing in disjointed portions through my poor brain, and
I raved away of France, of Germany, of the dreadful days of terror,
and the fearful orgies of the 'Revolution.' Scenes of strife and
struggle--the terrible conflicts of the streets--all rose before me;
and the names of every blood-stained hero of France now mingled with the
obscure titles of Irish insurrection.

What narratives of my early life I may have given--what stories I may
have revealed of my strange career, I cannot tell; but the interest my
kind hosts took in me grew stronger every day. There was no care nor
kindness they did not lavish on me. Taking alternate nights to sit up
with me, they watched beside my bed like brothers. All that affection
could give they rendered me; and even from their narrow fortunes they
paid a physician, who came from a distant town to visit me. When I was
sufficiently recovered to leave my bed, and sit at the window, or stroll
slowly in the garden, I became aware of the full extent to which their
kindness had carried them, and in the precautions for secrecy I saw
the peril to which my presence exposed them. From an excess of delicacy
towards me, they did not allude to the subject, nor show the slightest
uneasiness about the matter; but day by day some little circumstance
would occur, some slight and trivial fact reveal the state of anxiety
they lived in.

They were averse, too, from all discussion of late events, and either
answered my questions vaguely or with a certain reserve; and when I
hinted at my hope of being soon a