"JOHN NICHOLAS."
Yes, thought I, that is all very well; but what of yesterday after five o'clock, and what of this morning?
* * * * *
As I went to His Majesty's lodgings an hour afterwards I heard the bells from the churches beginning to peal, to call the folks to give thanks; yet the faces within the Palace were very different. When I went up into the great antechamber, the physicians were just dispersing; and, by good fortune I was at hand when my Lord Keeper North questioned Sir Charles Scarburgh as he went back to His Majesty's chamber.
"Well?" said he, very short. "What do you say to-day?"
"My Lord!" said Sir Charles, "we conclude that His Majesty hath an intermittent fever."
"And what the devil of that?" asked my Lord. "Could anything be worse?"
(There was a little group round them by now; and I could see one of the
Bishops listening a little way off.)
"My Lord," said the other, "at least we know now what to do."
"And what is that?" snapped my Lord who seemed in a very ill humour.