The Heart

The sports and races of Royal Oak Day were to be held on the "New

Field" (so called), adjoining the plantation of Barry Upper Branch.

The stocks had been moved from their usual station to this place to

remind the people in the midst of their gayety that the displeasure

of the King was a thing to be dreaded, and that they were not their

own masters, even when they made merry.

On the morning of that day came my brother John's man-servant to

shave and dress me, and the physician to attend to my wounds. It was

a marvel that I was able to undergo the ordeal, and indeed, my

brother had striven hard to urge my wounds as a reason for my being

released. But such a naturally strong constitution had I, or else so

faithfully had the physician tended me, with such copious lettings

of blood and purges, that except for an exceeding weakness, I was

quite myself. Still I wondered, after I had been shaven and put into

my clothes, which hung somewhat loosely upon me, as I sat on a bench

by the window, however I was to reach the New Field.

It was a hot and close day, with all the heaviness of sweetness of

the spring settling upon the earth, and my knees had knocked

together when my brother's man-servant and the physician, one on

each side of me, led me from the bed to the bench.

So very weak was I that morning, after my feverish night, that,

although the physician had let a little more blood to counteract it,

I verily seemed almost to forget the stocks and what I was to

undergo of disgrace and ignominy, being principally glad that the

window was to the west, and that burning sun which had so fretted

me, shut out.

The physician, long since dead, and an old man at that date, was

exceeding silent, eyeing everybody with an anxious corrugation of

brows over sharp eyes, and he had always a nervous clutch of his

hands to accompany the glance, as if for lancets or the necks of

medicine-flasks, never leaving a patient, unless he had killed or

cured. He had visited me with as much faithfulness as if I had been

the governor, and yet with no kindness, and I know not to this day,

whether he was for or against the King, or bled both sides

impartially. He looked at me with no compassion, and I might, from

his manner, as well have been going to be set on a throne as in the

stocks, but he counted my pulse-beats, and then bled me.