"
The count was silent. The doctor resumed--
"I shall be grieved if his sorrows be of too delicate a nature to be
trusted with a man of honor; for in these cases, unless we have some
knowledge of the springs of the derangement, we lose time, and
perhaps entirely fail of a cure. Our discipline is addressed both to
the body and the mind of the patient."
Thaddeus perceived the necessity of compliance, and did so without
further hesitation.
"The calamities, sir, which have occasioned the disorder of my friend
need not be a secret: too many have shared them with him; his sorrows
have been public ones. You must have learnt by his language, Dr.
Cavendish, that he is a foreigner and a soldier. He held the rank of
general in the King of Poland's service. Since the period in which
his country fell, his wandering senses have approximated to what you
see."
Dr. Cavendish paused for a moment before he answered the count; then
fixing his eyes on the veteran, who was sitting at the other end of
the room, constructing the model of a fortified town, he said--
"All that we can do at present, sir, is to permit him to follow his
schemes without contradiction, meanwhile strengthening his system
with proper medicines, and lulling its irritation by gentle opiates.
We must proceed cautiously, and I trust in Heaven that success will
crown us at last.
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