FEVER. 
295 
prevailed, and ere I eould make up my mind to 
the effort of dressing, the fever was on me again. 
I do not mean to harass your feelings by any 
detailed account of what I passed through, and 
will dismiss the subject in a few sentences. It 
touches me deeply to call that time of trial into 
review; but I did not actually suffer so badly 
as you would be led to suppose from the circum- 
stance that I was so ill, with no human being 
to tend me. The worst time was when I came 
to myself after the delirium, about three in the 
afternoon, the hottest hour of the day, when the 
sun was pouring in on me through the spars, and I 
was unable to change my position, partly owing 
to weakness, partly because I had gradually 
drawn almost every article in the hut within my 
bed. The rats, which at first confined their 
revels to the darkness of night, got so bold in 
the unbroken stillness that even in the day-time 
they tried to gnaw through my bed-curtains, 
within which books and boots and food had to 
be secured. My pillows had got pressed into 
nothing for want of shaking up, and under them 
I managed to push the hag containing rice. Thus 
hampered, I lay under the beating rays with 
stifling palpitation, panting for breath, and in a 
confused excited state, which coolness and dark- 
