ual who, in real life, was the
prototype of our story, to enjoy health, and strength, and domestic
felicity, and to discharge his duties with zeal and advantage in the
parish of Eccleshall; but, returning home after nightfall, from
attending a meeting of synod in Edinburgh, he caught a severe cold in
riding during a stormy night, which affected his lungs; and, ere long,
his indisposition assumed all the symptoms of pulmonary consumption.

Our tale of humble life now draws to a close. In the course of a few
months, the indisposition of Mr. Douglas assumed all the symptoms of
a settled consumption, which continued to present to his family and
friends the alternations of hope and of fear, that are the unfailing
companions of that subtle visitation. A sea voyage, native air, and all
other expedients suggested by skill or affection, were tried in vain;
and, in the fiftieth year of his age, the minister of Eccleshall
returned to the bosom of his family, with a full anticipation that the
distemper under which he lingered would, ere long, prove fatal. His
eyes sparkled with more than wonted lustre--his benevolent and
intelligent countenance glowed with the delicate hectic flush which so
often marks the progress of consumption--and the healthy, but not robust
frame of its victim, became emaciated and feeble. The fall of the year
179-, brought the chilling blasts of November to quench the flickering
spark of life in his bosom.

I was despatched one cold morning on the pony for Mr. Blythe, a
neighbouring clergyman and friend, to pay my father a visit. We rode
together from his manse to Eccleshall; and, on his arrival, he remained
alone with my father, engaged in those hallowed communings betwixt a
dying man and his spiritual comforter which it is unseemly and
sacrilegious in any case to disclose to mortal eyes. After a
considerable space thus spent, the whole family, including the servants,
were, by my father's directions, summoned to the side of his couch, in
the Red Room, where he reposed. When all were assembled, he intimated,
with composure and resignation, that he was conscious of the near
approach of death, and addressed a few sentences of admonition and
affection to them all; and, having done so, he requested Mr. Blythe to
unite with his household in prayer and praise--requesting that the last
hymn in the beautiful collection of sacred lyrics attached to our
national psalmody, might be sung. My father's pulpit psalm-book w