1844-647- ^' A BROKEN AHM. 379 



that every victory over the former makes you stronger for the 

 next fight ; but beaten or victorious in your battles with illness, 

 you come off permanently weakened." 



Having gone to Eothesay to recruit, he writes from it on 

 August 26th, evidently with effort, for the letters are crooked 

 and unshapely. " My sword-arm or pen-arm is suffering from 

 a wicked rheumatism, which makes writing an unwelcome and 

 rather scrawly performance, therefore my words shall be few. . . . 

 In reply to your queries, let me say that my lungs are fairly 

 damaged in a new quarter, and a worrying cough proclaims this, 

 and adds to the trouble ; nor can such a state of body exist 

 without a sympathetic fever being lighted up, and vexing the 

 whole system. It is no new condition for me to be in, and I 

 have acquired a little experience in dealing with its annoyances. 

 There are two good symptoms : I eat like a man who has a 

 living body ; and I have a very composed spirit, unless when 

 fretted by the talk of others. To be alone, or only with Jessie, 

 as I am here, is the pleasantest condition of matters, according 

 to my present mood." Often had his hopes of improvement in 

 health been met by days and nights even more wearisome, being 

 allotted to him. So was it to be now. About a fortnight had 

 been spent in Eothesay, when one morning, seeing a strange fish 

 lying on the beach, he dropped down the low embankment 

 which separated him from it. Endeavouring to guard against the 

 fall which his lameness might have caused, he overstrained the 

 right arm, and broke the bone near the shoulder. Among 

 strangers, and in lodgings far from comfortable, the accident was 

 doubly distressing ; but his quiet calmness and gentle patience 

 failed not. Kindness was received from unexpected quarters, and 

 his friends, as usual, showed devoted love. One of them, Dr. John 

 Struthers, no sooner heard of the accident than he started for 

 Eothesay, to satisfy himself that the arm was properly set, and 

 having spent an hour, was obliged to return home. With 

 George the anxiety was to spare all possible distress to absent 

 friends. " I lay," he wrote afterwards, " through the long nights, 

 with a weary cough, a lost vacation, and a shattered frame, in- 

 tensely realizing how much sorrow Jessie, mother, and uncle, 

 were enduring for me." To his mother he dictated a letter the 



