of the health. I believe the first
elements of all Scott's errors were in the milk of his consumptive
nurse, which all but killed him as an infant (L. i. 19)--and was without
doubt the cause of the teething fever that ended in his lameness (L. i.
20). Then came (if the reader cares to know what I mean by "Fors," let
him read the page carefully) the fearful accidents to his only sister,
and her death (L. i. 17); then the madness of his nurse, who planned his
own murder (21), then the stories continually told him of the executions
at Carlisle (24), his aunt's husband having seen them; issuing, he
himself scarcely knows how, in the unaccountable terror that came upon
him at the sight of statuary (31)--especially Jacob's ladder; then the
murder of Mrs. Swinton, and finally the nearly fatal bursting of the
blood vessel at Kelso, with the succeeding nervous illness
(65-67)--solaced, while he was being "bled and blistered till he had
scarcely a pulse left," by that history of the Knights of Malta--fondly
dwelt on and realized by actual modeling of their fortress, which
returned to his mind for the theme of its last effort in passing away.]

[Footnote 42: "Se dit par denigrement, d'un chretien qui ne croit pas
les dogmes de sa religion."--Fleming, vol. ii. p. 659.]

[Footnote 43: The novel alluded to is "The Mill on the Floss." See
below, p. 272, Sec. 108.--ED.]

[Footnote 44: "A son nom," properly. The sentence is one of Victor
Cherbuliez's, in "Prosper Randoce," which is full of other valuable
ones. See the old nurse's "ici bas les choses vont de travers, comme un
chien qui va a vepres," p. 93; and compare Prosper's treasures, "la
petite Venus, et le petit Christ d'ivoire," p. 121; also Madame
Brehanne's request for the divertissement of "quelque belle batterie a
coups de couteau" with Didier's answer. "Helas! madame, vous jouez de
malheur, ici dans la Drome, l'on se massacre aussi peu que possible," p.
33.]

[Footnote 45: Edgeworth's "Tales," (Hunter, 1827), "Harrington and
Ormond," vol. iii. p. 260.]

[Footnote 46: Alice of Salisbury, Alice Lee, Alice Bridgnorth.]

[Footnote 47: Scott's father was habitually ascetic. "I have heard his
son tell that it was common with him, if any one observed that the soup
was good, to taste it again, and say, 'Yes--it is too good, bairns,' and
dash a tumbler of cold water into his plate."--Lockhart's "Life" (Black,
Edinburgh, 1869), vol. i. p. 312. In other places I refer to this boo