CONSUMPTION. 69 



to visit me with a sore and heavy afflic- 

 tion. 



My wife had now for some time 

 shown symptoms of a complaint, com- 

 mon and so fatal in this climate, 

 that had already carried off an elder 

 brother and sister. I have every rea- 

 son to believe her death was accele- 

 rated by my reverse of fortune, but no- 

 thing, I was well assured, could arrest the 

 enemy that had made such rapid pro- 

 gress in the destruction of all the organs 

 which sustain vitality. 



I shall not dwell upon this sad epoch 

 of my life any more than to say, that 

 after living a little more than four 

 years in connubial felicity, I was left 

 with two children, the younger but 

 eighteen months old ; and after my 

 wife's remains were interred in the vault 

 my father had built, I had ample leisure 

 to contemplate my desolate condition. 



