Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was far from
being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been passed, he had
been gradually improving. The kind doctor had got leave to go up to
London with us, and talk over the case with L---, and he hoped
Clarence might be able to bear the journey by the next afternoon.
Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since the
short visit when we had idolised the big overgrown midshipman, whom
Clarence exhibited to our respectful and distant admiration nearly
twenty years ago. My mother used to call him a gentlemanly lad, and
that was just what he was still, with a singularly soft gentle
manner, gallant officer and post-captain as he was. He cheered me
much, for he made no doubt of Clarence's ultimate recovery, and he
added that he had found the dear fellow so valued and valuable, so
useful in all good works, and so much respected by all the English
residents, 'that really,' said the captain, 'I did not know whether
to deplore that the service should have lost such a man, or whether
to think it had been a good thing for him, though not for us, that--
that he got into such a scrape.'
I said something of our thanks.
'To tell you the truth,' said Coles, 'I had my doubts whether it had
not been a cruel act, for he had a terrible turn after we got him on
board, and all the sounds of a Queen's ship revived the past
associations, and always of a painful kind in his delirium, till at
last, just as I gave him up, the whole character of his fancies
seemed to change, and from that time he has been gaining every day.
Pages:
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385