must have been
vain, and the hemorrhage must have drained your life veins, but for the
bandages, the cautery, and the styptics applied by the good monks, and
the poor services of your humble vassal, Henbane Dwining."

"Peace," exclaimed the patient, "with thy ill omened voice and worse
omened name! Methinks, as thou mentionest the tortures I have undergone,
my tingling nerves stretch and contract themselves as if they still
actuated the fingers that once could clutch a dagger."

"That," explained the leech, "may it please your knighthood, is a
phenomenon well known to our profession. There have been those among
the ancient sages who have thought that there still remained a sympathy
between the severed nerves and those belonging to the amputated
limb; and that the several fingers are seen to quiver and strain, as
corresponding with the impulse which proceeds from their sympathy with
the energies of the living system. Could we recover the hand from the
Cross, or from the custody of the Black Douglas, I would be pleased to
observe this wonderful operation of occult sympathies. But, I fear me,
one might as safely go to wrest the joint from the talons of an hungry
eagle."

"And thou mayst as safely break thy malignant jests on a wounded lion as
on John of Ramorny," said the knight, raising himself in uncontrollable
indignation. "Caitiff, proceed to thy duty; and remember, that if my
hand can no longer clasp a dagger, I can command an hundred."

"The sight of one drawn and brandished in anger were sufficient," said
Dwining, "to consume the vital powers of your chirurgeon. But who then,"
he added in a tone partly insinuating, partly jeering--"who would then
relieve the fiery and scorching pain which my patron now suffers, and
which renders him exasperated even with his poor servant for quoting the
rules of healing, so contemptible, doubtless, compared with the power of
inflicting wounds?"

Then, as daring no longer to trifle with the mood of his dangerous
patient, the leech addressed himself seriously to salving the wound,
and applied a fragrant balm, the odour of which was diffused through the
apartment, while it communicated a refreshing coolness, instead of the
burning heat--a change so gratifying to the fevered patient, that, as
he had before groaned with agony, he could not now help sighing for
pleasure, as he sank back on his couch to enjoy the ease which the
dressing bestowed.

"Your knightly lordship now knows w