Passages from the diary of a late physician / with notes and illustrations by the editor.

Samuel Warren

Date:: 1835

Credit: Passages from the diary of a late physician / with notes and illustrations by the editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$made me no reply—but moaned— Oh! Henry, Henry, Henry! —I would to God you had never been born!—Why are you thus breaking the heart that always loved you so fondly ! She shook her head, and the tears trembled through her closed evelids. Miss Beauchamp, dressed in black, sat at the foot of the bed, speechless, her head leaning against the bedpost, and her pale face directed towards her aunt. How are you, my dear Miss Beauchamp? inquired I. She made me no answer, but continued looking at her aunt. My sweet love! said her mother, drawing her chair to her, and proffering her a little wine and water, Doctor is speaking to you. He asks you how you are? Miss Beauchamp looked at me, and pressed her white hand upon her heart, without speaking. Her mother looked at me, significantly, as if she begged I would not ask her daughter any more questions, for it was evident she could not bear them. I saw several slips of paper lying on a vacant chair beside the bed. They were the hourly billets from the Old Bailey. One of them was,— 12 o'clock, 0. B. IN'ot quite so encouraging. Our counsel can't make much impression in cross-examination. Judge seems rather turning against prisoner. 1 o'clock, 0. B. Nothing particular since last note. Prisoner very calm and firm. 2 o'clock, 0. B. Still going as in last. *' 5 o'clock, 0. B. Mr Beauchamp just read his defence. ]\Iade liivourable impression on the court. 3Iany in tears. Acknowledg- ed himself ruined by play. General impression, prisoner victim of conspiracy. Such were the hourly annunciations of the progress of the trials forwarded by the attorney, in whose handwriting each of them was. The palsying suspense in which the intervals between the receipt of each had passed, and the trepidation with which they were opened and read, no one daring scarcely to touch them but Mr , the medical attendant, cannot be described. Mr M informed me that Mrs Beauchamp had been wandering dehriously, more or less, all day, and that the slightest noise in the street, like hurrying foot- steps, spread dismay through the room, and nearly drove the two principal sufferers frantic. Miss Beauchamp, I found, had been twice in terrible hysterics, but, with marvellous self-possession, calmly left the room when she felt them coming on, and retired to the farthest ])art of the house. While 3Ir 31 and I were con- versing in a low whisper near the fire-place, a heavy, but muffled knock at the street door, announced the arrival of another express$

Passages from the diary of a late physician / with notes and illustrations by the editor.

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