ABSTRACT
I found on the following morning, that Sir Sidney had passed a night of extreme danger: his fever augmented, and he refused every medicine which had been ordered by his physician. Miss Hanbury, on entering the saloon at breakfast, presented a countenance of sorrow; her eyes were dim with tears, and her cheek was pale for want of rest. Lady Aubrey made her excuses, and remained in my cousin’s chamber. I several times entreated permission to visit the invalid, and was as repeatedly informed, that the physician left positive orders for no person except my aunt to enter his apartment. The day passed in anxiety; – Sir Sidney had not slept during the last forty-eight hours. He talked and raved incessantly, resisted all the consolations of maternal solicitude, and at length became delirious. In this dreadful and increasing alarm, Lady Aubrey wished to procure a small quantity of laudanum, in hopes, by administering it, to tranquillize his senses. She suggested the idea to Miss Hanbury; it was by her communicated to me, and I hastened to find the phial of that subtle drug, which, in my despair, I had purchased at Bristol. It was still in my portmanteau, and I delivered it to Lady Aubrey, who instantly hastened with it to Sir Sidney’s chamber.
