Graham continued his journey to Strasbourg. On arriving there he felt
very unwell. Strong though his frame was, the anguish and self-struggle
through which he had passed since the day he had received in London Mrs.
Morley's letter, till that on which he had finally resolved on his course
of conduct at Paris, and the shock which had annihilated his hopes in
Isaura's rejection, had combined to exhaust its endurance, and fever had
already commenced when he took his place in the coupe. If there be a
thing which a man should not do when his system is undermined, and his
pulse between 90 and 100, it is to travel all night by a railway express.
Nevertheless, as the Englishman's will was yet stronger than his frame,
he would not give himself more than an hour's rest, and again started for
Berlin. Long before he got to Berlin, the will failed him--as well as
the frame. He was lifted out of the carriage, taken to a hotel in a
small German town, and six hours afterwards he was delirious. It was
fortunate for him that under such circumstances plenty of money and
Scott's circular-notes for some hundreds were found in his pocketbook,
so that he did not fail to receive attentive nursing and skilful medical
treatment. There, for the present, I must leave him--leave him for how
long? But any village apothecary could say that fever such as his must
run its course. He was still in bed, and very dimly--and that but at
times--conscious, when the German armies were gathering round the penfold
of Sedan.