’"I am straying away from my subject.  Let me return to the sick lord.

’"Up to the 20th, then, things went well enough.  I was quite unprepared for the disastrous change that showed itself, when I paid Lord Montbarry my morning visit on the 21st.  He had relapsed, and seriously relapsed.  Examining him to discover the cause, I found symptoms of pneumonia—­that is to say, in unmedical language, inflammation of the substance of the lungs.  He breathed with difficulty, and was only partially able to relieve himself by coughing.  I made the strictest inquiries, and was assured that his medicine had been administered as carefully as usual, and that he had not been exposed to any changes of temperature.  It was with great reluctance that I added to Lady Montbarry’s distress; but I felt bound, when she suggested a consultation with another physician, to own that I too thought there was really need for it.

’"Her ladyship instructed me to spare no expense, and to get the best medical opinion in Italy.  The best opinion was happily within our reach.  The first and foremost of Italian physicians is Torello of Padua.  I sent a special messenger for the great man.  He arrived on the evening of the 21st, and confirmed my opinion that pneumonia had set in, and that our patient’s life was in danger.  I told him what my treatment of the case had been, and he approved of it in every particular.  He made some valuable suggestions, and (at Lady Montbarry’s express request) he consented to defer his return to Padua until the following morning.

’"We both saw the patient at intervals in the course of the night.  The disease, steadily advancing, set our utmost resistance at defiance.  In the morning Doctor Torello took his leave.  ’I can be of no further use,’ he said to me.  ’The man is past all help—­and he ought to know it.’

’"Later in the day I warned my lord, as gently as I could, that his time had come.  I am informed that there are serious reasons for my stating what passed between us on this occasion, in detail, and without any reserve.  I comply with the request.

’"Lord Montbarry received the intelligence of his approaching death with becoming composure, but with a certain doubt.  He signed to me to put my ear to his mouth.  He whispered faintly, ‘Are you sure?’ It was no time to deceive him; I said, ‘Positively sure.’  He waited a little, gasping for breath, and then he whispered again, ‘Feel under my pillow.’  I found under his pillow a letter, sealed and stamped, ready for the post.  His next words were just audible and no more—­’Post it yourself.’  I answered, of course, that I would do so—­and I did post the letter with my own hand.  I looked at the address.  It was directed to a lady in London.  The street I cannot remember.  The name I can perfectly recall:  it was an Italian name—­’Mrs. Ferrari.’

’"That night my lord nearly died of asphyxia.  I got him through it for the time; and his eyes showed that he understood me when I told him, the next morning, that I had posted the letter.  This was his last effort of consciousness.  When I saw him again he was sunk in apathy.  He lingered in a state of insensibility, supported by stimulants, until the 25th, and died (unconscious to the last) on the evening of that day.