TUESDAY NIGHT. 481 



be brought him. The good-night kiss followed, and she 

 retired to slumbers which were probably the deeper on 

 account of the excitement and fatigue, the anxieties 

 and consolations, of the preceding day. Miller went 

 up-stairs to his study. At the appointed hour he took 

 the bath, but, alas ! his intense repugnance to physic 

 prevailed over him, and the dose of prescribed medicine 

 was left untouched. From his study he went into his 

 sleeping-room and lay down upon his bed. 



At what hour can never be ascertained, but either 

 in the dead of night or in the grey dawn of morning, he 

 arose from the bed and half dressed himself. Then the 

 trance of paroxysmal horror again came over him, and 

 the maniacal persuasion which had for days been 

 haunting him drove him mad. He rushed to the table, 

 and, on a folio sheet of paper, on the centre of the page, 

 traced the following lines : 



'DEAREST LYDIA, 



' My brain burns. I must have walked ; and 

 a fearful dream rises upon me. I cannot bear the 

 horrible thought. God and Father of the Lord Jesus 

 Christ, have mercy upon me. Dearest Lydia, dear 

 children, farewell. My brain burns as the recollection 

 grows. My dear, dear wife, farewell. 



' HUGH MILLER.' 



The iron resolution and courage of the man appeared 

 even in the maniac. He wore a thick woven seaman's 

 jacket over his chest. This he raised on the left above 

 the heart, and, applying the muzzle of his revolver, fired. 

 The ball perforated the left lung, grazed the heart, cut 

 through the pulmonary artery at its root, and lodged in 

 the rib on the right side. The pistol slipped from his 

 hand into the bath which stood close by, and he fell 



VOL. II. 31 



