A NIGHT OF EMOTIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 744, 24 March 1877, Page 3

A NIGHT OF EMOTIONS.

tf*fc : /*»3?s?rdSivthe £ Ejanbury News.') "When I was a student in one of the hospitals of London, a young ■;-i v;<JWoman belonging to one of the lower 'added to our ui pati'entst "She J was 'reiha'rkably pretty and interesting—this; together with ■'• thVstratfgenVss of'the case, roused .ijaijalLdur'syttipathibs. ! .o'Jj > 'wNdtwithstanding r our ; strenuous ' efforts,'we : found it impossible to save her from the jaws death. Her malady baffled many a ~ .... learned head,,and brought our curiLUtil.TuW -■- .I,J r.u j. /.jj f °, , f---.i-.rj--osity and wonder to" a very', highi pitch. —Her symptoms were so vari able, that soon after we-had ad/lALininisterled s w"hat we' Hoped were the proper remedies, and were secretly rejoicing at a supposed success, they ~v t change; and again y ;i!jleaye' t us'Jflo.uncleringin: a. sea of perr<; i.inplexitiea. 'Some of the 1 physicians •'■i ! '";i declared that she "was attacked with y an afflux i .fi. oJabldodto ;the heart, others anin- > '\< -terdal j abscess, the seat of 1 which V ''■ "could; not be discovered; A thousand! formed. 11 '. agreed; :.'.>>7 and all the .while the poor girl Wasi -< ; ; ■■•■ ; being/ dosed with drugs of all de-' ''' J'? ;Bat little; by little her , wasting,away amid intense i, Buffering. ■•( She was:very quiet and patient, which angelic resignation to ' -•'ap&ihful destiny made' us pity her sufferings all the more; ; •"< 'Here was> a powerful enigma to . I i/. :-aunriddle, 'and, many were the lucuj\i ligations tb© did and young heads had . together, which resulted in much unprofitable talk, severe headaches, i j; .... ;«K>re, a nd more perplexed brain. Meanwhile" the parents of the

young 'girl were notified of her r««-.... ■tJM'PEOacbing deatb. It is probable . 0 jtbatthey feared the doctors would ~.,;,'.c, make an, autppsy of the corpse were .'•■ in. ; ahe to die at the hospital, for they lost :ti -ir<■•■» Ono time in presenting themselves,

and insisted on removing the girl at once',' notwithstanding that Ave assured them such a procedure would conduce to a still quicker ending of her days. They turned a deaf ear to our councils. Two brothers of the young girl, who had come with the parents/ were extremely loud in their denunciationi not only of our treatment, but of our hospital.. They called, iis all assassins, and had it not been for our superior strength in numbers, without doubt, some !of us would-have suffered rough usage at their hands.

A young student, Merval by name, being enraged at their rude language, would have showered some vigorous blows on their heads, • not I, who was always a timely mediator, stepped between the antagonists, and. soothed them ■with n. little of my eloquence. Well, as it was, they left us, taking with them the poor-patient whom they intended; to convey to their homes, several leagues from London. The day subsequent to their departure, we learned, not to'our surprise, but on the contrary, that' the -girl had died on reaching homeland had been buried in the cemetry ab Wimbleton. This led to several sacred meetings among ourseh'es.. We became dangerous selecting as a password, the trisyllable, 'Autopsy.' . • . To be'more concise, two days succeeding the interment at Wimbleton, four studeuts aud a: good-natured Irishman, called Mike—the errand porter- at the. hospitul—had made very precautionary arrangements for the most solemn exhumation of a new corpse. [The reader cannot delay in comprehending what to corpse I allude.] Perhapsasuccint description of the respect we members of the nocturnal expedition might be gratifying, so let us to, work. . , ■

, First, there was Merval—Richard Merval —a good hearted sort of a chap, with good looks, tall figure, much talk—superior * gift of gab'—to speak more honestly, and with sufficient money to make a jolly student j secondly, Ernest Church, with looks between the good and the bad, small of figure, .but large in heart, with a small amount of talk, and insufficient money to make him as jolly a student as he aspired, to be) thirly, Alfred Cone, a pleasing .fellow, with plenty of wit, without much flesh or money—the heir of a crate j forthly, my humble self, with lots of modestyfl and j. with a ready hand when modest} 1- was to be forgotten; and, lastly, the above mentioned Mike, an honest specimen of the Hibernian race, with a proneness to look a rum bottle full in the mouth ; without intimidation, ' and with an undeniable prorieness :to do a considerable share of nothing and to keep.a flat palm; at the sight of gold or silver, and' to close that palm the moment those metals touched it.

: L Well;-1 "said our arrangements hacY been made with care.; ' S -We had received exact information as to* the spot where ! the grave would 'be' found. We crammed ourselves into a coach' we had hired for the occasion, having been careful to'provide ourr selves with a large sack to wrap the corpse in, and with the instruments •necessary' for unearthing |the: coffin and prying open the lid. \ MikehWl nestled j more appropriately jammed/ himself in one corner of the ;vehieie, with a bottle of rum under ; eaoh arm and a crowbar and the ; sack-between his long legs. There>he sat, looking the picture of darkness.- His courage had already began to fail him, and. the bottle alone was his source > -of comfort. However, as his libations became more copious; his spirits rose, arid he grew alarmingly defiant, braving all the .ghosts and skeletons in the world. We started at nine o'clock in the evening for. our disagreeable destination. The weather ..was unpleasant—now it rained,- : npw it cleared off a little ; showing us:a pale, sickly moon struggling through largey ragged clouds. . This guardian of the heavens seerbed to frown upon us a moment, then it would disap pear agai l, leaving us in total obscurity. . > Mike was noisy along jthe first part, of the route but when we neared the old Wimbledon Church, where our coach was to stop, his loquacity somewhat subsided and his previous defiant enthusiasm lost its fire—the coals had began 'to die out. -~ >•'

When our vehicle at length came to a standstill in a by-way approximate to the eeinetary, I must confess the rest of us had a very small share of. ardor left. Inside the coach all was as still as death. And Mike he was intoxicated! At all events, his mind was none top lucid j • . •; ; •:": The Wimbledon clock was striking midnight. 'Come, Mike,' I cried 'you must get out.' ' 'Out, sir, get out? Certainly. Did you spake, sir V 'Come, come, my man' I resumed, impatiently, ,' we have no time to lose.'

It's could your honors,' replied Mike, with a shiver. ' Indade an' it's cauld.'

1 gave him a thrust with the crowbar' wherepon he rubbed his shins and repeated his metorological observation, gave vent to one or two grunts, and began to snore, which we soon put a stop to by dragging him by main force from, the coach. When he felt the cold atmosphere

of the night he was either dead or frozen, .but; we did; not pause to listen to him further,- 1 and making him shoulder the crowbar and pushed him ahead of us, leaving* the, coachman in charge of the vehicle. We had not proceeded many yards when the Irishman shopped short, let.the crowbar and sack fall to the ground, and set up a most unearthly ko\vW

The hlood forsook our.iaces. ; ' Silence! '*■ silence !' whispered Mike, after, he had howled loud enough to rouse the whole neighbourhood. 'By me sowl, '"there somethin'here !'

We stopped and listened, but could distinguish no sound save that made by the bats which' were flying over pur heads. .-.'.-.■■...>

' 'Pon rne soul, 'pon me soul!' Mike, went on, ' I heard a noise by the.hedge. 'Oh! tli'en giritlemen, stop right here t— go, no further, and lave tho dead by themselves !' In response'l gave him a vigorpus kick, and made him pick up what he had dropped in liifj fright, and we resumed our.gloomy marchJ It had beguii to rain, which/added still moie to our wretchedness. -■■

Finally, after receiving many bruises in stumbling . over the innumerable stones that obstructed our path j -we reached the wall of the cemetery, which'wei had to scale. ': After a long argument" and great waste of breath, we induced the son of Hibernia to scale it. first, in order to make a sort of reconnaissance from the top. '"'!''; We soon had the pleasure of seeing him straddling the wall.- r.But he had scarcely attained his graceful position, when a flash of lightning, rent the sky, followed by ~a deafen-' ing peal of-thunder. ' -" ; {Concluded in our next )