288 A Story of the Plague of Gibraltar. [MARCH, 



" Yes, Seymour/' said he, "the hand of the plague is upon me. I 

 feel it here and here," pressing his forehead and his chest ; " and God 

 be thanked for it ; for now I know that death was awaiting us both, 

 and would have baffled precautions. But I trust it may give me time to 

 redeem my promise to the court to live till two hours after gun-fire 

 and once more to see her are all I now desire." And before I could 

 reply he had dropped the curtain, and disappeared. 



I remained many hours within my tent, sunk in deep and most oppres- 

 sive thought. Alas, what a revolution had three days accomplished ! 

 I recalled the evening of the sixteenth, when I had looked on happy 

 countenances, and listened to projects of enjoyment that stretched into 

 far years. Now, they were all annihilated, and those who had projected 

 them, had done with the world and its concerns. 



I was roused from my meditation by a messenger, who came to in- 

 form me, that a signal had been made from Gibraltar for one of the 

 medical officers. It had been agreed upon, before the troops evacuated 

 the town, that if the medical assistance there should be found insufficient, 

 and if disease had not made its appearance in the camp, the medical 

 officers should be recalled by certain signals. I, accordingly, immedi- 

 ately left the encampment ; and having bribed the services of a boat, I 

 was soon landed upon the mole. 



It was now about seven in the evening; and it will be readily be- 

 lieved, that the instant it was in my power, I hastened to Mr. Lorn's 

 cottage. Ah ! with how different sensations from those to which I had 

 been accustomed, did I push open the garden-gate ! The sky was as 

 blue, and the sun as bright as ever, and yet an air of gloom seemed to 

 be there ; the flowers were all as beautiful, and smelled as sweet as 

 before, but their brightness and beauty were offensive. The door was 

 open, and I entered ; all the lower rooms were empty ; no one was 

 visible ; perhaps, said I within myself, all, all are victims, and the 

 house is tenantless, or tenanted only by the dead. I ascended to 

 Caroline's chamber, and as I approached the door, I was startled by the 

 sound of laughter ; but there was in it so unearthly a sound, and it was 

 in such jarring discord with the silence of death around, and the reign 

 of pestilence, that the deepest moan of suffering would have been more 

 grateful to my ears. I entered the chamber, prepared for horror, and 

 I found it ; there lay the dead, locked in the arms of the living, 

 there lay the victim of the plague, in the embrace of madness. 



" Ah !" said Courtenay, looking at me without shewing any surprise, 

 "you are come to see us then that's kind in you. I was just laughing 

 at the excellent trick we played ; he came for us, but I said we were 

 not at home, and he went away, and so we cheated the Plague/' and 

 Courtenay again broke into a peal of dreadful laughter. It was a hor- 

 rible scene. Caroline ah ! how changed lay, an insensible corpse, 

 upon the bed where she had died. Courtenay's one arm supported her 

 head ; he had raised himself upon his other elbow to look at me when 

 I entered, and now lay in convulsions of laughter. Yet, who could have 

 desired to see the fit of madness pass from him ? who could have de- 

 sired to see that maniac joy exchanged for the wailings of misery, the 

 horrors of reality, hopelessness, and despair ? I inwardly prayed that 

 reason might never return. 



Suddenly he checked his laughter, and turning towards me with a 

 grave countenance, " I will tell you/' said he, " a curious dream I had : 



