At all events, whatever medical skill and domestic attention
could do for him was done, but with very little hopes of success.
The effect of the scene which the worn and invalid Earl had witnessed at
Sir Thomas Gourlay's were so exhausting to his weak frame that they left
very little strength behind them. Yet he complained of no particular
illness; all he felt was, an easy but general and certain decay of his
physical powers, leaving the mind and intellect strong and clear. On the
day following the scene in the baronet's house, we must present him to
the reader seated, as usual--for he could not be prevailed upon to keep
his bed--in his arm-chair, with the papers of the day before him. Near
him, on another seat, was Sir Edward Gourlay.
"Well, Sir Edward, the proofs, you say, have been all satisfactory."
"Perfectly so, my lord," replied the young baronet; "we did not allow
yesterday to close without making everything clear. We have this morning
had counsel's opinion upon it, and the proof is considered decisive.
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