Why should I go on to reproduce his grossness and trivialities?  All that he thought, at that hour, was even noble, though he could not clothe it otherwise than in the language of a brutal farce.  Presently he bade me call the doctor; and when that officer had come in, raised a little up in his bed, pointed first to himself and then to me, who stood weeping by his side, and several times repeated the expression, ‘Frinds—­frinds—­dam frinds.’

To my great surprise, the doctor appeared very much affected.  He nodded his little bob-wigged head at us, and said repeatedly, ’All right, Johnny—­me comprong.’

Then Goguelat shook hands with me, embraced me again, and I went out of the room sobbing like an infant.

How often have I not seen it, that the most unpardonable fellows make the happiest exits!  It is a fate we may well envy them.  Goguelat was detested in life; in the last three days, by his admirable staunchness and consideration, he won every heart; and when word went about the prison the same evening that he was no more, the voice of conversation became hushed as in a house of mourning.

For myself I was like a man distracted; I cannot think what ailed me:  when I awoke the following day, nothing remained of it; but that night I was filled with a gloomy fury of the nerves.  I had killed him; he had done his utmost to protect me; I had seen him with that awful smile.  And so illogical and useless is this sentiment of remorse, that I was ready, at a word or a look, to quarrel with somebody else.  I presume the disposition of my mind was imprinted on my face; and when, a little after, I overtook, saluted and addressed the doctor, he looked on me with commiseration and surprise.

I had asked him if it was true.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘the fellow’s gone.’

‘Did he suffer much?’ I asked.

‘Devil a bit; passed away like a lamb,’ said he.  He looked on me a little, and I saw his hand go to his fob.  ’Here, take that! no sense in fretting,’ he said, and, putting a silver two-penny-bit in my hand, he left me.

I should have had that twopenny framed to hang upon the wall, for it was the man’s one act of charity in all my knowledge of him.  Instead of that, I stood looking at it in my hand and laughed out bitterly, as I realised his mistake; then went to the ramparts, and flung it far into the air like blood money.  The night was falling; through an embrasure and across the gardened valley I saw the lamplighters hasting along Princes Street with ladder and lamp, and looked on moodily.  As I was so standing a hand was laid upon my shoulder, and I turned about.  It was Major Chevenix, dressed for the evening, and his neckcloth really admirably folded.  I never denied the man could dress.

‘Ah!’ said he, ‘I thought it was you, Champdivers.  So he’s gone?’

I nodded.

‘Come, come,’ said he, ’you must cheer up.  Of course it’s very distressing, very painful and all that.  But do you know, it ain’t such a bad thing either for you or me?  What with his death and your visit to him I am entirely reassured.’