102 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



for months he had attracted the attention of the 

 whole country by his masterly examination and 

 cross-examination of witnesses in the famous 

 Beecher trial. The excessive mental labor was most 

 exhausting, and no man anywhere more needed or 

 more deserved the relaxation which nothing so well 

 as angling affords. He had, withal, on the very 

 eve of his departure, met with an accident which 

 compelled the use of a crutch, and which, for a 

 time, threatened to deprive him of the pleasure of 

 the trip and his friends the pleasure of his compan- 

 ionship. But, fortunately, he was able to start, 

 whereat he rejoiced more than when all men praised 

 him for his marvellous professional skill and genius. 

 Gen. ARTHUE was also an invalid. In spite of 

 his magnificent physique, sustained by a constitu- 

 tion perfected by the accumulated vigor of many 

 generations, he had reached the verge of complete 

 exhaustion by overwork and anxiety in the dis- 

 charge of his onerous and complicated official duties. 

 His great debility resulted in what very soon proved 

 to be a most malignant carbuncle, causing him 

 great suffering and his friends extreme uneasiness. 

 But while his physicians doubted the propriety of 

 his entering upon his purposed journey, he pre- 

 ferred rather to take the risk than to forego the 

 anticipated pleasure. So, with face poulticed and 

 bandaged as if he had been participating in the 



