1 while I made a cut along the fistulous sore, which caused him
2 to be senseless for the following thirty-six hours, and to suffer
3 with severe fever. My assiduous attendance accelerated the
4 radical cure of the fistula, his strength visibly increased, and
5 after a few months he regained his original plumpness,
6 and, six years afterwards, when General Allard and his
7 family arrived at Bordeaux, where I then was, I was astonished
8 at Achilles’ healthy appearance. On his returning to Lahore
9 a few years afterwards, in company with Benjamin Allard,
10 who went to take possession of the estates of his deceased brother,
11 and to whom he officiated as interpreter in the Indian language,
12 he fell sick, and died under the treatment of the native physicians,
13 I was much grieved at the unexpected intelligence of his death,
14 and paid him the last honours, by attending his remains to the
15 grave. To encourage the suppuration of the opened fistula, I
16 employed a mild, stimulating remedy, namely, cantliarides in-
17 fused in honey, on lint, twice a day, applied to the wound,
18 by which it was soon cured. At the recommendation of
19 General Allard, shortly afterwards, Rajah Suchet Sing, the
20 younger brother of the minister, requested me to accompany him
21 into the mountains, to attend him there professionally, to which
22 I readily agreed, as, in consequence of my recent illness, I was
23 very weak, and the summer heat of Lahore was intolerable.
24 Besides that, my friends, the generals, advised me to accept the
25 offer on account of the great influence the young Rajah Saheb
26 possessed as one of the first personages at the court, and as
27 by curing him I should establish my reputation.
28 Although my post was at that time not fixed, and conse-
29 quently I did not depend on, nor was I subject to any one,
30 I nevertheless imagined that my departure for the mountains
31 had met with the consent of Runjeet Sing. But it was not so.
32 The young Rajah, who had a secret disease, had induced me
33 privately to accompany him, whilst Runjeet Sing, in my four
34 months’ absence, inquired after me several times of General
35 Avitabile, who had first introduced me to him. It was, probably,
36 for that reason that he detained me for nine months without giving
37 me my dismissal, or appointing me to any office. General Allard