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.