The whole Island breathed freely once more, and was outspokenly grateful
to the courage and pertinacity which had lifted from it the cloud and
the reproach.
Some of them even had the grace to be not a little ashamed of their
previous doings, but ascribed the greater part of the blame to Tom's
widow and Peter Mauger.
But it was days before Stephen Gard took any interest in the matter,
past or present, or in anything whatsoever.
The Doctor's pad undoubtedly saved his life, but no amount of padding
could avert entirely the fiendish malignity of those merciless iron
flails.
He lay unconscious for eight-and-forty hours; and the Doctor--though he
never breathed a word of it, and prophesied complete recovery with the
utmost cheerfulness and apparent sincerity--had his own grim fears as to
what the effect of the whole hideous event might be on one who had
already suffered such undue strain of mind and body.
Fortunately, his fears proved groundless. On the third day, Gard
quietly opened his eyes on Nance, who had barely left his bedside since
the Senechal went down to La Closerie himself and brought her back with
him to Plaisance.
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