THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



cult to persuade him to have a blister on, but he had one at 

 last and went to bed and stayed there all day. He was in 

 bed the next day when Lord Henry Bentinck called to see 

 the young entry, but he jumped up and putting on three 

 flannel waistcoats went down to meet him and was on the 

 flags four hours. This was Wednesday (April 19th), and he 

 then took to his bed and never left it alive. Merry Ben 

 Morgan and some other hunting friends called at the kennel 

 and saw him, and the latter especially left with a very sad 

 presentiment on his mind. Will did not tell him, but from 

 the time he felt too ill to stay up he had the firmest belief he 

 could never rally, and tried to break it to his wife. Once 

 only when he felt a little better he remarked that he was 

 going to be spared, and what a happy summer they would 

 have when the boys came home from school, but this idea 

 soon passed away. The sure trust which had always sup- 

 ported him and coloured his whole life and conversation was 

 not found failing then, and days before he died he could 

 calmly assure those he loved best that the last struggle was 

 over and that he had no fear or even a wish to come back. 

 It was not until the Tuesday before his death that the most 

 fatal symptoms set in, and a gush .of pure blood from his 

 lungs told that some vessel had been suddenly ruptured. 

 From that hour he sank very rapidly. His Grace twice came 

 to see him — once from Sandbeck, in the early part of his 

 illness, and again on the Friday before he died, and ' My 

 kind Lord Duke ' was Will's last farewell to him, as he gave 

 him his parting assurance that his wife and family would be 

 duly cared for by him. The change was so rapid from 

 Saturday afternoon that he hardly spoke, but he was sensible 

 to the last and could speak an hour before his death, so as to 

 give his wife and children his blessing, and died just at day- 

 break on May morning. A post-mortem examination was 

 made upon him by two out of the three doctors at the Duke's 

 request, and the state of one lung, from what cause we know 

 not, was said to be far from satisfactory, so much so that he 

 might perhaps not have hunted another season. 



" Owing to the early day fixed for the funeral, Charles 



218 



