Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
"You may take away the salt from under the shoulders," said the thin
yellow man; "circulation is coming back rapidly. Keep the hot water to
the feet, however, and bring me a little Madeira, Mr. Jones. We must
give it him by teaspoonfuls. Your friend, sir, will do," he continued,
speaking to Morley's travelling companion; "but we must be very
careful!--very careful, indeed! I knew a poor fellow once, who died,
when every one thought him quite recovered, merely from the people
imprudently raising him up in bed.--Pray do not move a muscle, sir!"
he added, seeing that the young gentleman himself was evidently
listening to all he said.
"You have had a very narrow escape, sir--a very narrow escape, indeed;
and the least thing may undo all we have done. I never knew, in my
life, a case of suspended animation, where a relapse did not prove
fatal.--Oh, the Madeira!--now, sir--a teaspoonful every five minutes!"
From all that Morley Ernstein saw and heard, he judged rightly that he
had undergone, and perhaps required, the treatment applied to persons
who are apparently drowned. He learned, moreover, in the course of the
evening, that, at the moment that he had received the severe blow on
the head, which had deprived him of sensation, the carriage had sunk
deep in the water, and that he would have infallibly perished had it
not been for the exertions of his fellow-traveller, who, not being
stunned as he was, had soon perceived that he remained under the
water, and had dragged him out, through the door of the broken
vehicle. He was quite insensible, however, when brought to land, and
remained so for nearly an hour, although every means of resuscitation
were skilfully employed.
The dangers of our poor friend were not by any means over when life
once more bounded freely in his bosom. The headache which he had felt,
on first recovering his senses, increased every minute; and ere the
next morning, violent fever and delirium had succeeded. For ten days
he hung between life and death; but the thin yellow man, whom he had
seen sitting by his bedside, was, in truth, a surgeon of great skill;
and the unwearied care and attention of his fellow-traveller, whose
whole interest in him was only that which could be excited by the
companionship of a few short hours, did as much as art to withdraw him
from this new danger.
When the young gentleman recovered sufficiently to comprehend what was
passing around him, he found another face by his bedside, better known
than that of any one near. His old servant, Adam Gray, had been
brought, it seemed, from the mansion to attend upon his young master,
at a period when very little hope was entertained of his recovery, and
for the four last days he had been employed in aiding the stranger in
his care of the patient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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