piercing quality of her shrieks, never stumbled in the distinctness

or the order of her words. They were always ‘My husband, my

father, and my brother! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve! Hush!’ “This lasted twenty-six

hours from the time when I first saw her. I had come and gone

twice and was again sitting by her, when she began to falter. I did

what little could be done to assist that opportunity, and by-and-by

she sank into a lethargy, and lay like the dead.

“It was as if the wind and rain had lulled at last, after a long and

fearful storm. I released her arms, and called the woman to assist

me to compose her figure and the dress she had torn. It was then

that I knew her condition to be that of one in whom the first

expectations of being a mother have arisen; and it was then that I

lost the little hope I had had of her.

“‘Is she dead?’ asked the Marquis, whom I will still describe as

the elder brother, coming booted into the room from his horse.

“‘Not dead,’ said I; ‘but like to die.’

“‘What strength there is in these common bodies!’ he said,

looking down at her with some curiosity.

“‘There is prodigious strength,’ I answered him. ‘in sorrow and

despair.’

“He first laughed at my words, and then frowned at them. He

moved a chair with his foot near to mine, ordered the woman

away, and said in a subdued voice, ‘Doctor, finding my brother in

this difficulty with these hinds, I recommended that your aid

should be invited. Your reputation is high, and, as a young man

with your fortune to make, you are probably mindful of your

interest. The things that you see here, are things to be seen, and

not spoken of.’

“I listened to the patient’s breathing, and avoided answering.

“‘Do you honour me with your attention, Doctor?’

“‘Monsieur,’ said I, ‘in my profession, the communications of

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

patients are always received in confidence.’ I was guarded in my

answer, for I was troubled in my mind with what I had heard and

seen.

“Her breathing was so difficult to trace, that I carefully tried the

pulse and the heart. There was life, and no more. Looking round

as I resumed my seat, I found both the brothers intent upon me.

“I write with so much difficulty, the cold is so severe, I am so

fearful of being detected and consigned to an underground cell

and total darkness, that I must abridge this narrative. There is no

confusion or failure in my memory; it can recall, and could detail,

every word that was ever spoken between me and those brothers.

“She lingered for a week. Towards the last, I could understand

some few syllables that she said to me, by placing my ear close to

her lips. She asked me where she was, and I told her; who I was,

and I told her. It was in vain that I asked her for her family name.

She faintly shook her head upon the pillow, and kept her secret, as