"I had prepared them to send to you in case of my death. I am
not equal to further explanation now."
With trembling eagerness the grocer lowered the rope, and Leonard having
tied the packet to it, it was instantly drawn up. Notwithstanding his
anxiety to ascertain the fate of Amabel, Mr. Bloundel would not touch
the packet until he had guarded against the possibility of being
infected by it. Seizing it with a pair of tongs, he plunged it into a
pan containing a strong solution of vinegar and sulphur, which he had
always in readiness in the chamber, and when thoroughly saturated, laid
it in the sun to dry. On first opening the shutter to answer Leonard's
summons, he had flashed off a pistol, and he now thought to expel the
external air by setting fire to a ball composed of quick brimstone,
saltpetre, and yellow amber, which being placed on an iron plate,
speedily filled the room with a thick vapour, and prevented the entrance
of any obnoxious particles. These precautions taken, he again addressed
himself, while the packet was drying, to Leonard, whom he found gazing
anxiously at the window, and informed him that all his family had
hitherto escaped contagion.
"A special providence must have watched over you, sir," replied the
apprentice, "and I believe yours is the only family in the whole city
that has been so spared. I have reason to be grateful for my own
extraordinary preservation, and yet I would rather it had pleased Heaven
to take me away than leave me to my present misery.
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