Thus for the second time in our lives were we honored by being made the special objects of espial, connected in the respectable mind with criminal courts, jails and all sorts of ill odors and combinations of the unutterable. However, as we had nothing on our consciences, I believe we rather enjoyed our detectives, aside from a slight indignant sense of insult. We certainly took a mischievous pleasure in the hunt. There were undoubtedly those who considered it to their interest to keep the prince in Japan, but when the king’s commands were fully understood, no further difficulty was made, and the long-desired end was gained, as far as a departure for America was concerned, but as through influence beyond our control, and without our knowledge till later, a Romanist interpreter was sent with him, the plans and hopes for his royal highness in America were destined to disappointment. In the following summer sickness entered our home, a debilitating fever which would not yield to treatment kept my husband week after week confined to his bed. His strength of course steadily failed, he became extremely emaciated and unable to retain nourishment in any form. We were at the river Han, in a house on a bluff, where we usually spend the hot and rainy season; but it was several miles distant from the city, advisers and remedies. It was lonely work, not knowing what turn the disease might take, with friends and helpers so far away. At length, one night my trials seemed to reach a climax. The rain poured down, more like a foe with iron blows besieging a fort than water from the clouds. The wind blew with almost hurricane fury and the lightning was constantly accompanied by terrific claps of thunder. My husband was too ill to notice and in a heavy stupor. Soon, however, the poor thatched roof began leaking like a sieve, while water flowed in around the window and door casements. The invalid lay in a heavy bed, extremely difficult at any time to move, still more so with his weight and the necessity of moving it as gently as possible. Our cousin, a lady of no great size or strength, and I managed by exerting all our combined force to shove the lumbering piece of furniture to a place where water did not drip on it and the invalid; and then ran to find pieces of sacking, bath towels, sheets, waterproofs, etc., to soak up the flood that was constantly pouring in everywhere and dripping through from the second floor to the first.