He had fancied himself a jackass, and had brayed for a week,
kicking the old nurse in the stomach, so as to double her up like a
hedgehog. He had taken it into his head that he was a pump; and, with
one arm held out as a spout, he had obliged the poor old nurse to work
the other up and down for hours together. At another time, he had an
idea that he was a woman in labour, and they were obliged to give him a
strong dose of calomel, and borrow a child of six years old from a
neighbour, to make him believe that he was delivered. He was perfectly
satisfied, although the child was born to him in cloth trousers, and a
jacket with three rows of sugar-loaf buttons. Aye, said he, it was those
buttons which hurt my side so much. In fact, there was a string of
strange conceptions of this kind that had accumulated, so as to drive my
poor sister almost mad; and sometimes his ideas would be attended with a
very heavy expense, as he would send for architects, make contracts,
&c., for building, supposing himself to have come to the title and
property of his brother. This, being the basis of his disease, occurred
frequently. I wrote to poor Ellen, giving her my best advice, and by
this time the brig was again ready for sea, and we expected to sail
immediately. I did not forget to write to O'Brien, but the distance
between us was so great that I knew I could not obtain his answer
probably for a year, and I felt a melancholy foreboding how much I
required his advice.
Our orders were to proceed to Portsmouth, and join a convoy collected
there, bound up the Baltic, under the charge of the _Acasta_ frigate,
and two other vessels.
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