The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-14

is determined to punish his wife, and 1t is the thought of vengeance that has kept him alive so long. Yes, he'll do what he says. and what a monstro-s s piece of injustice it will be!
 The Countess is right. Why should | she tell him which of the sons Is illigiti- mate? The Count would only denounce him before his brothers; whereas, if the Countess holds her tongue he may die or change his mind before he has an oppor- | tunity to commit this crime, for it is a | crime to disgrace a mother in the pres- | ence of her children and to reveal the horrible fact that one of them is illegiti- | mate. But how can this infamous plan be thwarted? A priest could do it if the Count had spark of religion in him. but. unfortunately, he doesn't believe in l anything.
 And to think that it was I who sent off those telegrams! Oh, if had only known then what I know now I'd never have sent them. It was a bad biunder Still. 1t wouldn't surprise me at all If the Counts exciting scene with his wife brought on another crisis, and in that case he will very probably die before the sons arrive.'
 T was pondering over this solution of the difficulty when was aroused by a As1N AAOSh ht tlG OOOT. ln0 next mo- ment servant who seemed frightened and anxious entered and told me that his master was in great agony. I shuddered when heard him. as we are all impelled | to do whenever events turn out exactly | as we have desired, even though we may immediately aftePward have good reason to De sorry that we ever expressed such desire. After all. what had happened was very commonplace. The sudden att tack. which had scared the valet, was | one of those fits so common in cases of chronic nephritis when the disease has reached it's limit. The exciting scene with the Countess was enough to bring on an attack of this kind, and the mo- ment I saw the Count I knew that he was in 8 bad way. Several servants around the bed were trying to hold him down, and it was no easy task, for he was in frightful convulsions. In a crisis of this kind I had often seen Trousseau relieve patient by pressing on both carotids alternately, and for ten minutes tried the same plan, but without any result. :, I "As bent over the Count his wife was kneeling at the foot of the bed and was praying. She then, in spite of her guilt, had not lost her faith in religion, and I wondered what she was asking God to do for her. Knowing that her husband could not recover in any case was she asking Him to take her husband before he had chance to carry out his terrible threat? Was she, on the other hand. im- ploring Him for strength to overcome this horrible longing for her husband's S death, or was she merely pleading that her present grief was at least some pen altv for her former wrongdoing did not ask myself these questions until much later, being obliged to give my en- tire attention to my patient, whose life, knew. could not be prolonged unless the convulsions were stopped. Com precision of the carotids had done no good and there only remained the heroic rem edy-bleeding.
 "At this critical moment my conscience awoke and I saw the grave problem be- fore me very clearly. I cannot explain to you what took place in my mind. but if there were any physician here he | would understand me at once. Each of you, however. has seen some great doc tor summoned to a consultation and sure ly you have noticed the marked change which took place in his countenancc while he was examining and questioning his patient. Some of you have also prob- ably seen a surgeon on the point of per- forming an operation: if so. you must have noticed a similar change in his face.
 This phenomenon may be noticed dur ing the really decisive moments of a physician's career, and it is accompanied by such a strain on the nerves that l have known distinguished physician ms who could not attend more than one con- sultatiion in day. and equally distin- guished surgeons who were invariably SC exhausted after performing an operation that they went to bed and slept for sev. eral hours. l tell you this so that you may have some idea of the conflict which was going on in me at that mo. ment
 ''The sick man was suffering terribly from those formidable spasms which made the ancients call epilepsy the sa- cred malady, so convinced were they that 1t was produced by some unknown power. which, for some strange purpose, took possession of the poor human body. That the Count was at deaths door knew. and, no matter how promptly I might act, I could not save him. The ut- most could hope for was that bleeding would stop the spasms He would then live for another day or possibly for two or three days. 'BA if I bleed him., I said to myself, he'll be able to revenge himself on his unfortunate wife I could not rid myself of this thought. Over and over again a voice within me repeat ed the words I have just uttered. Ought I to become an accomplice in crime by prolonging for a few hours a life which I knew was doomed, and by prolonging which I would cause infinite sorrow to five persons-to the Countess de Rocque- vile, whose heartbroken sobs still seemed to hear, and to the four sons who, knew. must be young men of en- terprise and ability, since two were in the army. another was likely to attain distinction as a dipIomatist and the youngest was a student in the Polytech- mic School?
 "'No,' continued the voice, you must not take any part in this hideous busi- ness. After all. perhaps bleeding would not do any good, and besides, you are not absolutely compelled to try 1t, for there are several physicians who have no faith in it. That may be- answered another voice. but what would you do if you were treating some ordinary person, some hospital patient, for example,? In spite of myself replied:-T would bleed him. for suddenly I remembered the grand old maxim-'Nec visa, nee audita. nee intellecta.' which TrOusseau had i'm pressed on me-
 Yes, was bound to act as though I had neither heard nor seen anything; was bound to treat the Count as I would have treated any ordinary patient in a l,ospital If was my dutv as anhvaicga T,