the horrors of despair, when they saw their little darling panting under
the rage of a loathsome pestilential malady, during the excessive heat of
the dog-days, and struggling for breath in the noxious atmosphere of a
confined cabin, where they scarce had room to turn on the most necessary
occasions. The eager curiosity with which the mother eyed the doctor's
looks as often as he visited the boy; the terror and trepidation of the
father, while he desired to know his opinion; in a word, the whole tenor
of their distress baffled all description.

"At length the physician, for the sake of his own character, was obliged
to be explicit; and, returning with the captain to the common walk, told
him, in my hearing, that the child could not possibly recover. This
sentence seemed to have petrified the unfortunate parent, who stood
motionless, and seemingly bereft of sense. I led him to my apartment,
where he sat a full hour in that state of stupefaction; then he began to
groan hideously, a shower of tears burst from his eyes, he threw himself
on the floor, and uttered the most piteous lamentation that ever was
heard. Meanwhile, Mrs. Norton being made acquainted with the doctor's
prognostic, visited Mrs. Clewline, and invited her to the lodge. Her
prophetic fears immediately took the alarm. 'What!' cried she, starting
up with a frantic wildness in her looks, 'then our case is desperate--I
shall lose my dear Tommy!--the poor prisoner will be released by the hand
of Heaven!--Death will convey him to the cold grave!' The dying innocent
hearing this exclamation, pronounced these words, 'Tommy won't leave you,
my dear mamma; if death comes to take Tommy, papa shall drive him away
with his sword.' This address deprived the wretched mother of all
resignation to the will of Providence. She tore her hair, dashed herself
on the pavement, shrieked aloud, and was carried off in a deplorable
state of distraction.