The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

498 WAVERLEY NOVELS
of Richard Middlemas seemed to be on the point of becoming unsettled.
He felt an insane desire to imitate and reply to the groans, oaths, and ri.
baldry, which, as soon as the superintendent quitted the hospital, echoed
around him. He longed, though he struggled against the impulse, to vie
in curses with the reprobate, and in screams with the maniac. But his
tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, his mouth itself seemed choked with
ashes; there came upon him a dimness of sight, a rushing sound in hiz
ears, and the powers of life were for a time suspended.
A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the common weal.
POPE'S Homer.
As Middlemas returned to his senses, he was sensible that his blood felt
more cool: that the feverish throb of his pulsation was diminished; that
the ligatures on his person were removed, and his lungs performed their
functions more freely. One assistant was binding up a vein, from which a
considerable quantity of blood had been taken; another, who had just
washed the face of the patient, was holding aromatic vinegar to his nostrils. As he began to open his -eyes, the person who had just completed
the bandage, said in Latin, but in a very low tone, and without raising his
head, " Annon sis Ricardus ille Middlemas, ex civitate Middlemassiense?
Responde in lingua Latina."
"Sum ille miserrimus," replied Richard, again shutting his eyes; for,
strange as it may seem, the voice of his comrade Adam Hartley, though his
presence might be of so much consequence in this emergency, conveyed a
pang to his wounded pride. He was conscious of unkindly, if not hostile,
feelings towards his old companion; he remembered the tone of superiority
which he used to assume over him, and thus to lie stretched at his feet, and
in a manner at his mercy, aggravated his distress, by the feelings of the
dying chieftain, "Earl Percy sees my fall." This was, however, too unreasonable an emotion to subsist above a minute. In the next, he availed himself of the Latin language, with which both were familiar, (for in that time
the medical studies at the celebrated University of Edinburgh were, in a
great measure, conducted in Latin,) to tell in a few words his own folly,
and the villany of Hillary.
" I must be gone instantly," said Hartley-" Take courage-I trust to be
able to assist you. In the meantime, take food and physic from none but
my servant, who you see holds the'sponge in his hand. You are in a place
where a man's life has been taken for the sake of his gold sleeve-buttons."
" Stay yet a moment," said Middlemas-" Let me remove this temptation
from my dangerous neighbours."
He drew a small packet from his under waistcoat, and put it into Hartley's hands.
" If I die," he said, "be my heir. You deserve her better than I."
All answer was prevented by the hoarse voice of Seelencooper.
"Well, Doctor, will you carry through your patient?"
" Symptoms are dubious yet," said the Doctor-" That was an alarming
swoon. You must have him carried into the private ward, and my young
man shall attend him.
"Why, if you command it, Doctor, needs must;-but I can tell you there