The anxiety of the
father, joined to some religious scruples on the
mother's part, had postponed inoculation, which
was then scarcely come into general use. The infection
caught like a quick-match, and ran like
wildfire through all those in the family who had
not previously had the disease. One of the General's
children, the second boy, died, and two of
the Ayas, or black female servants, had the same
fate. The hearts of the father and mother would
have been broken for the child they had lost, had
not their grief been suspended by anxiety for the
fate of those who lived, and who were confessed
to be in imminent danger. They were like persons
distracted, as the symptoms of the poor patients
seemed gradually to resemble more nearly
that of the child already lost.
While the parents were in this agony of apprehension,
the General's principal servant, a native
of Northumberland like himself, informed him one
morning that there was a young man from the
same county among the hospital doctors, who had
publicly blamed the mode of treatment observed
towards the patients, and spoken of another which
he had seen practised with eminent success.
``Some impudent quack,'' said the General,
``who would force himself into business by bold
assertions.
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