Good God! there is danger then! cried the Marquis, adding some bitter execrations against Theodore.--There certainly _is_ danger, replied the physician; a few hours may enable me to determine its degree. A few hours, Sir! interrupted the Marquis; a few hours! The physician entreated him to be more calm. Confusion! cried the Marquis: a man in health may, with great composure, entreat a dying man to be calm. Theodore will be broke upon the wheel for it, however. You mistake me, Sir, said the physician; if I believed you a dying man, or, indeed, _very_ near death, I should not have spoken as I did. But it is of consequence I should know how long the wound has been inflicted.--The Marquis's terror now began to subside, and he gave a circumstantial account of the affray with Theodore, representing that he had been basely used in an affair where his own conduct had been perfectly just and humane. The physician heard this relation with great coolness, and when it concluded without making any comment upon it, told the Marquis he would prescribe a medicine which he wished him to take immediately. The Marquis again alarmed by the gravity of his manner, entreated he would declare most seriously, whether he thought him in immediate danger. The physician hesitated, and the anxiety of the Marquis increased: It is of consequence, said he, that I should know my exact situation. The physician then said, that if he had any worldly affairs to settle, it would be as well to attend to them, for that it was impossible to say what might be the event. He then turned the discourse, and said he had just been with the young officer under arrest, who, he hoped, would not be removed at present, as such a procedure must endanger his life. The Marquis uttered a dreadful oath, and, cursing Theodore for having brought him to his present condition, said he should depart with the guard that very night. Against the cruelty of this sentence the physician ventured to expostulate; and endeavouring to awaken the Marquis to a sense of humanity, pleaded earnestly for Theodore. But these entreaties and arguments seemed, by displaying to the Marquis a part of his own character, to rouse his resentment and rekindle all the violence of his passions.