stmas, it was hailed on every side
with enthusiastic greeting. The first edition of six thousand copies was
sold the first day, and on the third of January 1844 he wrote to me that
"two thousand of the three printed for second and third editions are
already taken by the trade." But a very few weeks were to pass before
the darker side of the picture came. "Such a night as I have passed!" he
wrote to me on Saturday morning the 10th of February. "I really believed
I should never get up again, until I had passed through all the horrors
of a fever. I found the _Carol_ accounts awaiting me, and they were the
cause of it. The first six thousand copies show a profit of L230! And
the last four will yield as much more. I had set my heart and soul upon
a Thousand, clear. What a wonderful thing it is, that such a great
success should occasion me such intolerable anxiety and disappointment!
My year's bills, unpaid, are so terrific, that all the energy and
determination I can possibly exert will be required to clear me before I
go abroad; which, if next June come and find me alive, I shall do. Good
Heaven, if I had only taken heart a year ago! Do come soon, as I am very
anxious to talk with you. We can send round to Mac after you arrive, and
tell him to join us at Hampstead or elsewhere. I was so utterly knocked
down last night, that I came up to the contemplation of all these things
quite bold this morning. If I can let the house for this season, I will
be off to some seaside place as soon as a tenant offers. I am not
afraid, if I reduce my expenses; but if I do not, I shall be ruined past
all mortal hope of redemption."

The ultimate result was that his publishers were changed, and the
immediate result that his departure for Italy became a settled thing;
but a word may be said on these Carol accounts before mention is made of
his new publishing arrangements.[71] Want of judgment had been shown in
not adjusting the expenses of production with a more equable regard to
the selling price, but even as it was, before the close of the year, he
had received L726 from a sale of fifteen thousand copies; and the
difference between this and the amount realised by the same proportion
of the sale of the successor to the _Carol_, undoubtedly justified him
in the discontent now expressed. Of that second tale, as well as of the
third and fourth, more than double the numbers of the _Carol_ were at
once sold, and of course there was no complaint of an