would
have escaped the notice of hundreds of those the world calls shrewd
observers. This fragment, for it was such, was followed, after a
fortnight, by a hastily written passage, announcing that Lord Lackington
had been seized with an attack resembling apoplexy, and for several
hours remained in great danger. She had detained the letter to give the
latest tidings before the post closed, and ultimately decided on not
despatching it till the next day. The following morning's communication
was a minute account of medical treatment, the bleedings, the
blisterings, the watchings, and the anxieties of a sick-bed, with all
the vacillating changes that mark the course of malady, concluding with
these words: "The doctors are not without hopes, but confess that their
confidence is rather based on the great strength and energy of his
constitution than upon any success that has attended their treatment,
from which I may say that up to this no benefit has accrued. So well
as I can interpret his utterance, he seems very anxious to see you, and
made an effort to write something to you, which, of course, he could not
accomplish. Come out here, therefore, as quickly as possible; the route
by Lucerne is, they tell me, the shortest and speediest. If I were to
give my own opinion, it would be that he is better and stronger than
yesterday; but I do not perceive the doctors disposed to take this
view." After this came a lengthened statement of medical hopes and
fears, balanced with all the subtle minuteness known to "the Faculty."
They explained to a nicety how if that poor watch were to stop it could
not possibly be from any fault of theirs, but either from some vice in
its original construction, or some organic change occasioned by
time. They demonstrated, in fact, that great as was their art, it was
occasionally baffled; but pointed with a proud humility to the onward
progress of science, in the calm assurance that, doubtless, we should
one day know all these things, and treat them as successfully as we
now do--I am afraid to say what. One thing, however, was sufficiently
clear,--Lord Lackington's case was as bad as possible, his recovery
almost hopeless. On the turn-down of the last page was the following,
written in evident haste, if not agitation: "In opening the letters
which have arrived since his illness, I am astonished to find many
referring to some suit, either meditated or actually instituted, against
our right to the title. Su