He came back, however, and inquired how long a time I had been afflicted with that horrible cough, reflecting sharply upon the physician for not coming to see me that very evening. “You are ill of a horse fever,” he added, “I know it well; you will stand in need of a straw bed, but we cannot give you one till the doctor has ordered it.”
He retired, locked the door, and I threw myself upon the hard boards, with considerable fever and pain in my chest, but less irritable, less at enmity with mankind, and less alienated from God.
CHAPTER LX.
In the evening came the superintendent, attended by Schiller, another captain, and two soldiers, to make the usual search. Three of these inquisitions were ordered each day, at morning, noon, and midnight. Every corner of the prison was examined, and each article of the most trivial kind. The inferior officers then left, and the superintendent remained a little time to converse with me.
The first time I saw this troop of jailers approach, a strange thought came into my head. Being unacquainted with their habits of search, and half delirious with fever, it struck me that they were come to take my life, and seizing my great chain I resolved to sell it dearly by knocking the first upon the head that offered to molest me.
“What mean you?” exclaimed the superintendent; “we are not going to hurt you. It is merely a formal visit to ascertain that all is in proper order in the prisons.”
I hesitated, but when I saw Schiller advance and stretch forth his hand with a kind, paternal look, I dropped the chain and took his proffered hand. “Lord! how it burns,” he said, turning towards the superintendent; “he ought at least to have a straw bed;” and he said this in so truly compassionate a tone as quite to win my heart. The superintendent then felt my pulse, and spoke some consolatory words: he was a man of gentlemanly manners, but dared not for his life express any opinion upon the subject.
“It is all a reign of terror here,” said he, “even as regards myself. Should I not execute my orders to the rigour of the letter, you would no longer see me here.” Schiller made a long face, and I could have wagered he said within himself, “But if I were at the head, like you, I would not carry my apprehensions so very far; for to give an opinion on a matter of such evident necessity, and so innocuous to government, would never be esteemed a mighty fault.”
When left alone, I felt my heart, so long incapable of any deep sense of religion, stirred within me, and knelt down to pray. I besought a blessing upon the head of old Schiller, and appealing to God, asked that he would so move the hearts of those around me, as to permit me to become attached to them, and no longer suffer me to hate my fellow-beings, humbly accepting all that was to be inflicted upon me from His hand.
About midnight I heard people passing along the gallery. Keys were sounding, and soon the door opened; it was the captain and his guards on search.