1832.] [ 281 ] 



' A STORY OF TIIK PLAGUE OF GIBRALTAR. 







THE spots that are canopied by the serenest skies, where the air is the 

 purest to the vision, and the most genial to the feelings, where nature, 

 too, has been most lavish of her charms, are those where the visitations 

 of pestilence are the most frequent, and the most destructive ; coming, 

 as if in mockery of the judgment of man, to shew him, that spots which 

 seem to him the Edens of the world, are, like the Eden of old, gardens 

 where Death lies in ambush. This observation may well be applied to 

 Gibraltar : for where else shall we find a fairer sky, or more cloudless 

 atmosphere ; where, a spot of earth upon which nature has so outpoured 

 her riches, decorating the gigantic rocks with a thousand odoriferous 

 flowers; thus strangely mingling beauty and sublimity, and strewing 

 every acclivity with the broad-leaved and venerable fig-tree, the yellow- 

 tufted and fragrant acacia, the golden-speckled orange, and the bright- 

 blossomed geranium, that in its infinite varieties trails over the ground, 

 and hangs in every fissure. Yet plague and pestilence, in their most 

 horrid forms, have been visitors here ; and the elements of disease and 

 death have been borne on the same breeze that wafted the odours of a 

 thousand flowers. The disastrous story that I am about to narrate, is 

 connected with the memorable visitation of 18, and its details will 

 not, I think, possess less interest, because they belong not to the domi- 

 nion of fiction. 



I received a commission on the medical staff of Gibraltar the winter 

 before the plague broke out; and in the month of March, I arrived at 

 that celebrated station. The 2 regiment of infantry accompanied me 

 from England, and the officers were my messmates in the Thetis frigate, 

 during the voyage. Among their number was Edward Courtenay, with 

 whom singularly enough I had been on habits of the closest intimacy 

 ever since childhood, and who was, indeed, to me, as a younger brother. 

 He was a fine noble-minded fellow : his like I have never seen before or 

 since, and often as we sat on deck during the glorious evenings that set 

 over us as we sailed southward, we talked of the pranks of our youth ; 

 and imagined scenes of manifold enjoyment, during the four years that 

 it was. supposed we might be stationed at Gibraltar. " The brightest of 

 my anticipations," said Courtenay, " is the renewal of my acquaintance 

 with Caroline Lorn." Now this was the only anticipation that gave me 

 uneasiness ; I knew of the predeliction of my young friend for this fasci- 

 nating girl, before her father obtained a civil appointment in Gibraltar ; 

 and well aware of his enthusiastic turn of mind, I could not but fear the 

 influence which I foresaw a despotic passion might exert over his intel- 

 lect and his actions. 



We were soon domesticated in Gibraltar, and began to realize the 

 pleasant fancies we had pictured on our voyage ; and the bright antici- 

 pation of Courtenay was fully answered. Mr. Lorn, we found inhabit- 

 ing one of the sweetest of those little villas that dot the neighbourhood 

 of the town : it stood upon one of the south-western slopes which are 

 terminated by the mole, and was embowered in a thicket of sweet- 

 smelling and flowering shrubs. This was the daily resort of my friend, 

 and truly the household goddess was well worthy to receive his adora- 

 tions. Let me say a few words of Caroline Lorn. She was four years 

 younger than Courtenay ; he was twenty-two, Caroline was only 



M.M. New Scries* VOL. XIII. No. 75. U 



