"Then try with him mercury, sir," he said, "both externally and internally."
After saying which in a rapid manner, he turned as quickly, and proceeded in his rounds amongst the rest of the patients.
I was now salivated most desperately, after which I got a little better, and resolved, at all hazards, to try and rejoin my regiment, for I was utterly tired of the hospital life I had altogether so long led. "For Heaven's sake," I said, "let me go and die with my own regiment!"
With some little difficulty I got leave to go, and once again started, at my own expense, for Hythe, in Kent, by the coach. Before doing so, however, to my surprise, the medical man who had attended me under my father's roof, brought me in his bill, which was a pretty good one, amounting to sixty pounds! I thought this was pretty well for a poor soldier to be charged. Having still, however, enough left of my savings, I paid it; but I kept the bill, and afterwards shewed it to Dr. Scott, of the Rifles, who remarked—"It could not have been higher, Harris, if you had been a man possessing a thousand a year."
When I made my appearance in the barrack-square at Hythe, I was like one risen from the dead; for I had been so long missing from amongst the few I knew there, that I was almost forgotten. A hardy Scot, named Mc Pherson, was one of the first who recognised me.
"Eh, my certie," he said, "here's Harris come back. Why I thought, man, ye was gane amangst the lave o' them, but the deil will na kill ye, I think!"
The day after my arrival I was once more in hospital, and here I remained under Dr. Scott for twenty-eight weeks. Such was the Walcheren fever, and to this day I sometimes feel the remains of it in damp weather. From Hythe I was sent, amongst some other invalids, to Chelsea. Sixty of us marched together on this occasion. Many had lost their limbs, which, from wounds as well as disease, had been amputated; and altogether we did not make a very formidable appearance, being frequently obliged to be halted in the road to repair our strength, when the whole turn-out would be seen sitting or sprawling at full length by the way side.
This march took us ten days to accomplish, and when we halted at Pimlico, we were pretty well done up. We were billeted in the different public-houses in Chelsea. With others, I lodged at the Three Crowns, close beside the Bun House.
I remember we paraded in the Five Fields, then an open space, but now covered with elegant mansions, and become a part of London. Three thousand invalids mustered here every morning—a motley group, presenting a true picture of the toils of war. There were the lame, the halt, and the blind, the sick, and the sorry, all in a lump. With those who had lost their limbs, there was not much trouble, as they became pensioners; but others were, some of them, closely examined from day to day as to their eligibility for service. Amongst others I was examined by Dr. Lephan.
"What age are you, Rifleman?" he said.