able woman was at his bedside. In her brief intervals of
repose, her brother watched the sick man in her place. This brother
was, I must say, very good company, in the intervals when we had time
for a little talk. He dabbled in chemistry, down in the horrid
under-water vaults of the palace; and he wanted to show me some of his
experiments. I have enough of chemistry in writing prescriptions--and
I declined. He took it quite good-humouredly.

'"I am straying away from my subject. Let me return to the sick lord.

'"Up to the 20th, then, things went well enough. I was quite
unprepared for the disastrous change that showed itself, when I paid
Lord Montbarry my morning visit on the 21st. He had relapsed, and
seriously relapsed. Examining him to discover the cause, I found
symptoms of pneumonia--that is to say, in unmedical language,
inflammation of the substance of the lungs. He breathed with
difficulty, and was only partially able to relieve himself by coughing.
I made the strictest inquiries, and was assured that his medicine had
been administered as carefully as usual, and that he had not been
exposed to any changes of temperature. It was with great reluctance
that I added to Lady Montbarry's distress; but I felt bound, when she
suggested a consultation with another physician, to own that I too
thought there was really need for it.

'"Her ladyship instructed me to spare no expense, and to get the best
medical opinion in Italy. The best opinion was happily within our
reach. The first and foremost of Italian physicians is Torello of
Padua. I sent a special messenger for the great man. He arrived on
the evening of the 21st, and confirmed my opinion that pneumonia had
set in, and that our patient's life was in danger. I told him what my
treatment of the case had been, and he approved of it in every
particular. He made some valuable suggestions, and (at Lady
Montbarry's express request) he consented to defer his return to Padua
until the following morning.

'"We both saw the patient at intervals in the course of the night. The
disease, steadily advancing, set our utmost resistance at defiance. In
the morning Doctor Torello took his leave. 'I can be of no further
use,' he said to me. 'The man is past all help--and he ought to know
it.'

'"Later in the day I warned my lord, as gently as I could, that his
time had come. I am informed that there are serious reasons for my
stating what passed between us on this occasion, in d