The commissioner: or, de Lunatico inquirendo / With twenty-eight illustrations on steel by Phiz [i.e. H.K. Browne] [Anon].

  • George Payne Rainsford James
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The commissioner: or, de Lunatico inquirendo / With twenty-eight illustrations on steel by Phiz [i.e. H.K. Browne] [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    452 after a long ])aitsc lie added—“ I wonder wliat death is like ?—and then wliat’s to come alter?—It’s a strange thing, and does not do to think ol.” So he poured himself out anotlier glass of champagne and swallowed that too. A long pause then ensued, for in the mind of both there was more matter I'or musing than conversation. Still, thought—which is the solitude of tlie mind—was not pleasant to Lord CKitrun. He could not endure it, yet it pressed upon him ; and often when his lips moved to speak, the mind was hurried on u])on the course of reflection, like a boat carried by a strong stream beyond the place where those who guide it would wish to land. After some flve minutes, however, he poured himself out another glass of the same wine, and drank it almost unconsciously. “ 1 say, Tom,” he said at length, “suppose we do not do these things any more.” “ 1 think it will be far better not, my lord,” replied Tom Hamilton. “ I for my ])art am resolved to leave off a great many things—No more, I tliank you,” he added, as the peer held out the bottle towards him. Amongst other things, I will not get drunk any more.” “Drunk, Tom Hamilton!” exclaimed the peer; “I feel as if I could not get drunk, if I were to drink the cellar dry. I wish I could.—It’s one’s only resource at such a time a's this.” “ I have heard,” replied Tom Hamilton, “ that, as the old surgeon said just now, there are other resources, and better ones.” “ Ay, ay, ay !” cried the peer ; “ that’s for the future ; but what’s to be done for the present ? If one were to go on thinking, it would destroy one ;” and he applied himself to the bottle again. “It is very strange, Tom Hamilton,” continued the peer, “that I did not care half so much about poor Freddy’s death when I thought he was fairly shot in a duel, as I do now when I have seen him knocked down, like an ox by a butcher.—It is very strange, indeed!” “It is strange, my lord,” replied his companion; “but yet you know we are more accustomed to duels, and that sort of thing: we talk of them more, hear of them more, think of them more ; and that with which we are familiar, even if it be one of the shapes of death, loses a great part of its terrors—Besides, this was a horrible piece of business.” “ It was indeed,” said the i)eer. “ To be Tilled upon one’s wedding-day,” continued Tom Hamilton, “ at a merry dinner-party, by a maniac, whom one has driven mad by seducing his daughter I—It is very horrible!’’ “ Horrible indeed!” murmured the peer; and he took some more champagne. “ Do you know, ni}' lord,” said Mr. Hamilton, who thought the viscount was certainly drinking too much and too fast—“ Do you know, my lord, I think it would be bettor for you to go to bed, and try to sleep. There are a great many sad things to be done, which I can do for you; and if you endeavour to get a good night’s rest you may wake to-morrow with a mind less 0])pressed, and more equal to the discussion of business.”