“Ill!” cried George, beginning to walk up and down the library, and clinching and unclinching his lists nervously. “My lord, it is my heart and soul that are ill. Can you think what it is to watch a general, brave but obstinate, and blind to the last degree, rushing upon disaster? Upon my soul, sir, those English officers think, I verily believe, that the Indians are formed into regiments and battalions, with a general staff and a commissary, and God knows what!” And George raved a while longer before he left to ride back to Winchester, with Billy riding after him. This outbreak was so unlike George, he looked so strange, his once ruddy face was so pallid at one moment and so violently flushed at another that the earl and Lance each felt an unspoken dread that his strong body might give way under the strain upon it. George galloped back into Winchester that night. Both his horse and Billy’s were dripping wet, and as he pulled his horse almost up on his haunches Billy said, in a queer voice: “Hi, Marse George, d’yar blood on yo’ bridle. You rid dat boss hard, sho’ nough!” “Hold your tongue!” shouted George, in a tone that Billy had never heard from him before; and then, in the next minute, he said, confusedly, “I did not mean to speak so, but my head is in a whirl; I think I must be ill.” And as he spoke he reeled in his saddle, and would have fallen had not Billy run forward and caught him. He staggered into the house where he had lodgings, and got into his bed, and by midnight he was raving with fever. Billy had sense enough to go for Dr. Craik, George’s old acquaintance, who had volunteered as surgeon to General Braddock’s staff. He was a bright-eyed, determined-looking man, still young, but skilled in his profession. By morning the fever was reduced, and Dr. Craik was giving orders about the treatment as he sat by George’s bedside, for the army was to resume its march that day. “Your attack is sharp,” said the doctor, “but you have an iron constitution, and with ordinary care you will soon be well.” George, pale and haggard, but without fever, listened to the doctor’s directions with a half-smile. The troops were already on the move; outside could be heard the steady tramp of feet, the thunder of horses’ hoofs, the roll of artillery-wagons, and the commotion of an army on the move. In a few moments the doctor left him, saying: “I think you will shortly be able to rejoin the army, Colonel Washington.” “I think so, too,” answered George. As soon as the doctor was out of the room George turned to Billy and said: “Help me on with my clothes, and as soon as the troops are well out of the town fetch the horses.”