after his return home he was seized with a
shuddering, and complained of fever and rheumatic pains. "At eight
that evening," says Count Gamba, "I entered his room. He was lying on
a sofa restless and melancholy. He said to me, 'I suffer a great deal
of pain. I do not care for death, but these agonies I cannot bear.'"

The following day he rose at his accustomed hour,--transacted
business, and was even able to take his ride in the olive woods,
accompanied, as usual, by his long train of Suliotes. He complained,
however, of perpetual shudderings, and had no appetite. On his return
home he remarked to Fletcher that his saddle, he thought, had not
been perfectly dried since yesterday's wetting, and that he felt
himself the worse for it. This was the last time he ever crossed the
threshold alive. In the evening Mr. Finlay and Mr. Millingen called
upon him. "He was at first (says the latter gentleman) gayer than
usual; but on a sudden became pensive."

On the evening of the 11th his fever, which was pronounced to be
rheumatic, increased; and on the 12th he kept his bed all day,
complaining that he could not sleep, and taking no nourishment
whatever. The two following days, though the fever had apparently
diminished, he became still more weak, and suffered much from pains
in the head.

It was not till the 14th that his physician, Dr. Bruno, finding the
sudorifics which he had hitherto employed to be unavailing, began to
urge upon his patient the necessity of being bled. Of this, however,
Lord Byron would not hear. He had evidently but little reliance on
his medical attendant; and from the specimens this young man has
since given of his intellect to the world, it is, indeed,
lamentable,--supposing skill to have been, at this moment, of any
avail,--that a life so precious should have been intrusted to such
ordinary hands. "It was on this day, I think," says Count Gamba,
"that, as I was sitting near him, on his sofa, he said to me, 'I was
afraid I was losing my memory, and, in order to try, I attempted to
repeat some Latin verses with the English translation, which I have
not endeavoured to recollect since I was at school. I remembered them
all except the last word of one of the hexameters.'"

To the faithful Fletcher, the idea of his master's life being in
danger seems to have occurred some days before it struck either Count
Gamba or the physician. So little, according to his friend's
narrative, had such a suspicion crosse