Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/31

 Rh no longer bound by conditions so rigorous. The nomination of his father as Governor of Poland gratified him exceedingly, so much the more as the appointment was received with general satisfaction by his countrymen.

He tried the water-cure again at Kissingen in 1856, but he remained so ill and debilitated that during a period of ten months he was only able to move about by the aid of crutches. He spent the following winter in Paris, and was advised by his attending physician there to try sea-bathing the ensuing summer.

But a heavy misfortune now fell upon him. Through the failure of the house Thurneissen, he lost not only a considerable portion of his own, but nearly the whole of his wife's property.

As the old general greatly longed to see his son and grandchildren once more around him, Sigismund determined to gratify the wishes of his father, although he was well aware that such a journey in his state of health would prove highly injurious to him. A new and deeper sorrow awaited him on his return to his native land: the death of his idolized daughter, Elizabeth. Utterly prostrated, he hastened to Heidelberg, to place himself under the advice of Dr. Chelius. He spent the remainder of that winter tortured by perpetual cramps and spasms. He also lost his beloved friend, Ary Scheffer. Dr. Walther, of Dresden, pronounced his lungs affected, and advised him to try Plombieres, from which trial, however, he derived no benefit. He also tried the springs at Ems, but with no better effect. He then returned to Dresden, to place himself under the immediate care of Dr. Walther: useless efforts! The skillful physician saw at once the rapid ravages of the deadly disease, and could only advise Italy or Algiers. Krasinski, not satisfied with the advice of one physician, went to Dr. Louis, in Paris, for additional consultation, but, too timid to tell him the whole truth, that physician gave him so much encouragement that he resovedresolved [sic] to remain in that city. A new method of medical treatment was essayed, but at its very commencement his heart was again wrung by severe affliction. A telegraphic dispatch announced that his father was lying at the point of death. In consequence of his utter exhaustion, he was 3*