328 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



to relate, in his case, the operation proved 

 unsuccessful, and had to be repeated again 

 and again. Four times in twelve months the 

 dreadful surgeon's knife was used upon this 

 poor sufferer. For a whole year he could do 

 no work at all. The modest savings of the 

 preceding years were spent upon the physicians 

 and the surgeons, and in the maintenance of 

 his household, while the pen of the bread- 

 winner was perforce resting. Before he was 

 able to take pen in hand again, he was reduced 

 to something approaching destitution. You 

 shall read directly how, when he recovered, hope 

 immediately returned, and he was once more 

 happy in the thought that now he could again 

 work, though it was to begin the world once 

 more. Alas ! the interval of hope was brief 

 indeed. Another, and a more mysterious dis- 

 ease attacked him. He felt an internal pain 

 constantly gnawing him ; he could not eat 

 without pain ; he grew daily weaker ; he was 

 at last no longer able to walk ; he could only 

 crawl. 



Henceforth his days and nights were a long 

 struggle against suffering, with a determina- 



