th. It was
also decided to perform this severe operation all at one time and
without the use of chloroform. There were special difficulties on
account of the condition of Bessie's throat and the adjacent tissues
which seemed at the time to justify this decision; but the result was
disastrous, almost fatal. It was months before she rallied from the
shock of the acute and prolonged pain. When, three weeks after the
operation, she was at the lowest ebb and her condition very critical, it
was discovered that the spire of Chichester Cathedral was in imminent
danger and must shortly fall. Just that part of the palace in which her
room was situated was believed to be in danger of being crushed if the
spire fell, and it was absolutely necessary that she should be removed.
The Dean and Mrs. Hook made immediate preparations to receive her at
the Deanery, which was supposed to be out of danger. She was taken from
her bed on the 21st of February 1861, and carried to the safest room in
the palace, but before she could be removed from the house the spire
fell, collapsing like a house of cards, injuring no animate thing, and
doing little harm to any other part of the structure. Bessie was really
proud of that spire. It had been good and beautiful in life, and its
fall was the type of a peaceful and appropriate end. Chichester mourned
its loss; it was, as the local journal said, "the most symmetrical spire
in England, on which the eye of Her Majesty and her Royal Consort when
in the Isle of Wight must have sometimes rested with delight."

To the blind lady the cathedral and its beautiful spire had also been
very dear. But as she had been too ill for apprehension, so she was at
first spared the sharp pang of regret. Many months of prostration
followed the dental operation, and it was more than a year before she
was again restored to health. As soon as she could attend to letters,
she received frequent reports of the work in London. The underground
railway was in course of construction, and had blocked the Euston Road.
Trade was annihilated there, and the blind had lost all ready-money
custom. Debts were assuming ominous proportions, and Levy, upon whom the
whole strain and responsibility now fell, showed signs of failing
health.

Mrs. Powell wrote on the 7th of May 1861 from Palace Gardens, to give
Bessie an account of the Committee meeting. She said that:

Levy was in a weakly, nervous state, soon exhausted. He said it was