For a time my faculties were palsied, and I was made an
impotent spectator of the ruin that environed me. This pusillanimity
quickly gave way to resolutions and reflections better suited to the
exigencies of the time. The first impulse was to summon a physician; but it was evident that the
patient had been sinking by slow degrees to this state, and that the
last struggle had begun. Nothing remained but to watch her while
expiring, and perform for her, when dead, the rites of interment. The
survivor was capable of consolation and of succour. I went to her and
drew her gently into another apartment. The old man, tremulous and
wonder-struck, seemed anxious to perform some service. I directed him to
kindle a fire in Eliza's chamber. Meanwhile I persuaded my gentle friend
to remain in this chamber, and resign to me the performance of every
office which her sister's condition required. I sat beside the bed of
the dying till the mortal struggle was past. I perceived that the house had no inhabitant besides the two females and
the old man. I went in search of the latter, and found him crouched, as
before, at the kitchen-fire, smoking his pipe. I placed myself on the
same bench, and entered into conversation with him. I gathered from him that he had, for many years, been Mr. Hadwin's
servant. That lately he had cultivated a small farm in this
neighbourhood for his own advantage. Stopping one day in October, at the
tavern, he heard that his old master had lately been in the city, had
caught _the fever_, and after his return had died with it. The moment he
became sick, his servants fled from the house, and the neighbours
refused to approach it. The task of attending his sick-bed was allotted
to his daughters, and it was by their hands that his grave was dug and
his body covered with earth. The same terror of infection existed after
his death as before, and these hapless females were deserted by all
mankind. Old Caleb was no sooner informed of these particulars, than he hurried
to the house, and had since continued in their service. His heart was
kind, but it was easily seen that his skill extended only to execute the
directions of another. Grief for the death of Wallace and her father
preyed upon the health of the eldest daughter. The younger became her
nurse, and Caleb was always at hand to execute any orders the
performance of which was on a level with his understanding. Their
neighbours had not withheld their good offices, but they were still
terrified and estranged by the phantoms of pestilence. During the last week Susan had been too weak to rise from her bed; yet
such was the energy communicated by the tidings that Wallace was alive,
and had returned, that she leaped upon her feet and rushed down-stairs. How little did that man deserve so strenuous and immortal an affection! I would not allow myself to ponder on the sufferings of these women. I
endeavoured to think only of the best expedients for putting an end to
these calamities. After a moment's deliberation I determined to go to a
house at some miles' distance; the dwelling of one who, though not
exempt from the reigning panic, had shown more generosity towards these
unhappy girls than others. During my former abode in this district, I
had ascertained his character, and found him to be compassionate and
liberal. Overpowered by fatigue and watching, Eliza was no sooner relieved, by my
presence, of some portion of her cares, than she sunk into profound
slumber. I directed Caleb to watch the house till my return, which
should be before midnight, and then set out for the dwelling of Mr.
Ellis. The weather was temperate and moist, and rendered the footing of the
meadows extremely difficult. The ground, that had lately been frozen and
covered with snow, was now changed into gullies and pools, and this was
no time to be fastidious in the choice of paths. A brook, swelled by the
recent _thaw_, was likewise to be passed. The rail which I had formerly
placed over it by way of bridge had disappeared, and I was obliged to
wade through it. At length I approached the house to which I was going. At so late an hour, farmers and farmers' servants are usually abed, and
their threshold is intrusted to their watch-dogs. Two belonged to Mr.
Ellis, whose ferocity and vigilance were truly formidable to a stranger;
but I hoped that in me they would recognise an old acquaintance, and
suffer me to approach. In this I was not mistaken. Though my person
could not be distinctly seen by starlight, they seemed to scent me from
afar, and met me with a thousand caresses. Approaching the house, I perceived that its tenants were retired to
their repose. This I expected, and hastened to awaken Mr. Ellis, by
knocking briskly at the door. Presently he looked out of a window above,
and, in answer to his inquiries, in which impatience at being so
unseasonably disturbed was mingled with anxiety, I told him my name, and
entreated him to come down and allow me a few minutes' conversation. He
speedily dressed himself, and, opening the kitchen door, we seated
ourselves before the fire. My appearance was sufficiently adapted to excite his wonder; he had
heard of my elopement from the house of Mr. Hadwin, he was a stranger to
the motives that prompted my departure, and to the events that had
befallen me, and no interview was more distant from his expectations
than the present. His curiosity was written in his features, but this
was no time to gratify his curiosity. The end that I now had in view was
to procure accommodation for Eliza Hadwin in this man's house. For this
purpose it was my duty to describe, with simplicity and truth, the
inconveniences which at present surrounded her, and to relate all that
had happened since my arrival. I perceived that my tale excited his compassion, and I continued with
new zeal to paint to him the helplessness of this girl. The death of
her father and sister left her the property of this farm. Her sex and
age disqualified her for superintending the harvest-field and the
threshing-floor; and no expedient was left but to lease the land to
another, and, taking up her abode in the family of some kinsman or
friend, to subsist, as she might easily do, upon the rent. Meanwhile her
continuance in this house was equally useless and dangerous, and I
insinuated to my companion the propriety of immediately removing her to
his own. Some hesitation and reluctance appeared in him, which I immediately
ascribed to an absurd dread of infection. I endeavoured, by appealing to
his reason as well as to his pity, to conquer this dread. I pointed out
the true cause of the death of the elder daughter, and assured him the
youngest knew no indisposition but that which arose from distress. I
offered to save him from any hazard that might attend his approaching
the house, by accompanying her hither myself. All that her safety
required was that his doors should not be shut against her when she
presented herself before them.