eyes very bright, and she
talks incessantly. She would have come herself to seek you, but could
not rise; and when I told her I would come, she bid me be very quick;
but when I was coming down stairs, I heard her call me back for fear of
the rain and the thunder; I would not hear her, but ran as fast as I
could, hoping to reach Tent House. Why did you come back so soon?"

"To spare you half your journey, my brave little man," said I, hastening
on; for Jack's account of his mother made me uneasy. I perceived she
must be labouring under fever, and the blood ascending to her head. My
children followed me, and we soon reached the foot of our castle in
the air.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXIV.

We entered our apartment literally as if we had come out of the sea, and
I found my poor Elizabeth much agitated. "Heaven be praised!" said she;
"but where is Jack, that rash little fellow?"

"Here I am, mamma," said he, "as dry as when I left you. I have left my
dress below, that I might not terrify you; for if Mr. Fritz had had his
gun, I might have been shot as a _rhinoceros_, and not been here to tell
you my story."

The good mother then turned her thoughts on Fritz and me, and would not
suffer us to come near her till we had changed our drenched garments. To
oblige her, we retired to a little closet I had contrived between two
thick branches at the top of the staircase, which was used to contain
our chests of linen, our dresses, and our provisions. Our dress was soon
changed; we hung up the wet garments, and I returned to my companion,
who was suffering from her foot, but still more from a frightful
headache. She had a burning fever. I concluded that bleeding was
urgently needed, but commenced by assuaging her thirst with some
lemonade. I then opened my box of surgical instruments, and approached
the opening to the east which served us for a window, and which we
could close by means of a curtain, that was now entirely raised to give
air to our dear invalid, and to amuse my children, who were watching the
storm. The mighty waves that broke against the rocks, the vivid
lightning bursting through the castles of murky clouds, the majestic and
incessant rolling of the thunder, formed one of those enchanting
spectacles to which they had been from infancy accustomed. As in the
Swiss mountains we are liable to frightful storms, to which it is
necessary to familiarize oneself, as one cannot avoid the