His livid face was covered with sweat, and all the symptoms of approaching
death were manifested. He fell immediately backward, stiff and inanimate;
his eyes seemed to start from their sockets; horrible convulsions stamped
his features with unearthly contortions, like those forced from dead bodies
by a galvanic battery; a bloody foam inundated his lips, and the life of
this monster became extinct in the midst of one of his horrid visions, for
he muttered these words: "Night--dark! dark specters--brazen skeletons--
red-hot--twine around me their burning fingers--my flesh smokes--specter--
bloody--no! no--Cecily--fire--Cecily!" Such were the last words of Jacques
Ferrand.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE HOSPITAL.
It will be remembered that Fleur-de-Marie, saved by La Louve, had been
conveyed to the country house of Dr. Griffon, [Footnote: The name which I
have the honor to bear, which my father, grandfather, grand-uncle, and
great grandfather--one of the most learned men of the seventeenth
century--have rendered celebrated by works on theoretical and practical
medicine, would forbid me from any attack, or hasty reflection, concerning
physicians; even though the gravity of the subject upon which I treat, and
the just and deserved celebrity of the French Medical School, did not
prevent me. In Dr. Griffon I have only wished to personify one, otherwise
respectable, who allows himself to be carried away the ardor of art, and
led to make experiments which are a serious abuse medical power (if I may
express myself in this manner), forgetting that there is something more
sacred than Science--Humanity.
Pages:
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325