im. In an instant, I was close and firm in
the trembling clutch of the sick man, who, with a wild and confused
look, begged me not to sacrifice him to any attention to the cause
of this disturbance, which was produced by a servant in the house
habitually given, through fits of hysterics, to the utterance of these
screams. I put on an appearance of being satisfied with this statement;
but I fixed my eye relentlessly on him, as he still shook, from the
combined effects of his incipient disease, and his fear of my
investigating the cause of the scream. I proceeded to examine into the
nature of his complaint. The symptoms described by him, and detected by
my observation, satisfied me that he had been seized with an attack
of virulent typhus; and from the intensity of some of the
indications--particularly his languor and small pulse, his loss of
muscular strength, violent pains in the head, the inflammation of his
eyes, the strong throbbing of his temporal arteries, his laborious
respiration, parched tongue, and hot breath--I was convinced he had
before him the long sands of a rough and rapid race with death. At the
close of my investigation he looked anxiously and wistfully in my face,
and asked me what I conceived to be the nature of his complaint. I told
him at once, and with greater openness and readiness than I usually
practise, that I was very much afraid he was committed for a severe
course of virulent typhus. He felt the full force of an announcement
which, to those who have had any experience of this king of fevers,
cannot fail to carry terror in every syllable; and falling back on his
pillow, turned up his eye to heaven. At this moment, a succession of
screams, or rather yells, sounded through the house; but as I now saw
that I had a chance of saving the innocent sufferer, I pretended not to
regard the dreadful sounds, and purposely averted my eyes to escape the
inquiring, nervous look of the sick man. I gave him some directions,
promised to send some medicines, and took my leave.

As I shut the door, the waiting-maid, whom I had seen before, was
standing in the door of her mistress's apartment, and beckoned me in,
with a look of terror and secrecy. I was as anxious to visit her gentle
mistress as she was to call me. On entering, which I did slowly and
silently, to escape the ear of her husband, I found the unfortunate
creature in the most intense state of agony. The ground glass she had
swallowed, and a great part