"Then you do not think that there is any chance of immediate dissolution?" demanded Lord Dewry.
"None, none whatever, my lord," replied the surgeon. "All hemorrhage has ceased long. First mortification will ensue, and then--"
"Spare me the description," said the peer; "but tell me, in case of its being necessary to transact any business of importance with this unfortunate gentleman, when do you think will be the moment in which it can best be done?"
"Why, I should say, in the beginning of the mortification," the surgeon replied. "All his faculties will be clear and active, and the great bodily pain which he is now suffering will have abated."
"Well then, Mr. Swainstone," rejoined Lord Dewry, "I shall trust you to give me notice of the precise moment at which you judge it expedient that this poor gentleman's declaration, on oath, regarding the transactions in which he has suffered, should be taken down. At the same time, let me caution you not to alarm him, or suffer him to be alarmed, by the thought of death; but keep his spirits up, as far as possible, till it shall become absolutely necessary to let him know that all hope is past."
Thus saying, the peer returned into the room of the wounded man; and the surgeon withdrew, wondering who Sir Roger Millington could be, towards whom the cold and proud Lord Dewry displayed so much courtesy and warm regard.
The peer, in the meantime, approached the bed of the sufferer with a more cheerful countenance; and assured him, in answer to some rather anxious questions, that the real opinion of the surgeon was more favourable than he had even expected. "I have given orders, too," added Lord Dewry, "that no more fanatics be admitted to you. There are a crowd of those weak fools about the country, who haunt sick-rooms; and very often, by depressing the mind and spirits, cause those persons to die who would otherwise have recovered."
"Oh, I'll not die for any of them," answered Sir Roger; "I'll live to have revenge on those gipsies. They marked me out especially; and I will live long enough to show that, though I was so badly hurt, I could mark them too, and remember them to their cost."
"Did you see Pharold, then, among them?" demanded the peer, eagerly. "Was it he who fired the shot?"
"I saw Pharold plainly," answered Sir Roger; "and can swear that he was among them. So can the man that held me up in his arms, after I was wounded; for he pointed him out to me, and I will swear to him anywhere."