Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-02-20

IretZerS. i 0nQer is MS hrm-cnalr with
its leather tassels, his table with its con!
voluted legs, and upon il, by the flicker
ing lamp, his own CodeT, open at page
107.
"What ails me2" murmurs the doctor.
What ails thee2 Why, thou art palsied
with fright. Thy eyeballs start from
their sockets. Thy body contracts and
dwindles in size. An icy sweat chills
thy skin, on which nameless horrorS
seem to creep.
Quick, or the lamp, for want of oil,
will go cut, and the sick man die. AY,
the bed is there-his own, with its pill.
lows aud baldachin-a bed as long as ID
is broad, and the closed curtains with
their large inwrought flowers. Can this
indeed be the bed of a poor cracknel.
maker9 Trembling, the doctor draws
near, pulls the curtains aside, and peers
within.
There, outstretched on his dying bed
lies the sick man, with his head outsid,
the counterpane Shd motionless, like one
about to breathe his last. The doctor
bends forwar d
All! what ghastls scream is that
which rends the air, and is taken up by
the dog outside with his sinister howl
ing2 1t is not Wort Kartif the crack
nel-maker, who is the dying man, but
he, the doctor, DR.. Trifulgas himself =
he who is smitten down with brain
fever-he, and no other. Full we'll he
knows the symptoms. 1t is cerebral
apoplexy, with sudden accumulation of
serosity in the cavities of the brain, and
partial paralysis of the body on the side
opposite that where the lesion exists.
Ay, it was for him assistance was be-
sought, that one hundred that one hun
dred and twenty fretzers were paid ! He
who, in the hardness of his heart, had
refused to attend the poor cracknel-
makerl 1t is he now that is dying.
DR.. Trifulgas raved like maniac.
The symptoms increased every minute.
Not only we're all the functions of rela-
tion dead in him, but the beatings of his
heart were nearly gone, like the breath
of his lungs. Yet he had not lost all
consciousness of his desperate strait.
What shall he do? Diminish the
mass of the blood by bleeding 2
There must be no hesitation, or DR.,
Trifulgas is dead man. Phle-
botomy was still practiccd in Volsinia,
and there, as here, the doctors rescued
from apoplexy all those who were not to
die from its effects.
DR.. Trifulgas seized his case of instru-
ments, took his lancet, and punctured
veins on his duplicate self. No blood,
however, spurted from the wound. He
rubbed with all his might the chest of
the dying one, but he found that the pull
sations of his own heart diminished; he
burnt the others feet with hot bricks,
but felt his own feet growing cold.
Suddenly his duplicate starts up in his
bed, struggles wildly in the last throes
of suspended breathing, rattle is heard
in his throat, and DR.. Trifulgas, with all
his science, falls back dead in his own
arms.
= x
The following morning a corpse was
found in the house known as the Six
Four-that of DR.. Trifulgas. He was
placed in a coffin and conveyed, in great
pomp, to the cemetery of Luktrop, after
the manner Of the many he had already
sent there.
AS for old Hurzof, I am told the faith
full beast may still be seen, with his Ian
tern relighted, securing the heath and
bowling for his lost master. If this be
true or not, cannot say. Yet so many
strange things do occur in this Volsinian
country, especially round about Luktrop
that I see no reason to doubt the state
ment. At any rate, let me ask of you
once more not to look for this town of
Luktrop on the map. The best geo
graphers are still uncertain as to its exact
position in latitude-and even longitude.
Paris Figaro, translated f0r The Argo,
ndut