You must excuse me for we think so at present. not writing more, as I am excessively weak. I have ate very little, and have been allowed to eat nothing nourishing for some time. Add to this, that I have had a good deal of medicine, and a blister on my side, and you will not wonder that I am much reduced. I can add no more at present, but that I am ever your friend and brother in the strongest bonds. The last letter he wrote, was to his father, though the painful event that so soon followed, was then little anticipated. My dear Father; Tennoch Side, December 27, 1826. Christmas is past, and I am afraid you will be expecting me. This is the reason, I suppose, that my many letters have produced no answers. The family do not go to Dysart; and, in my present circumstances, that has been a great blessing to me. I may venture to tell you, now that I am better, that I have had rather a serious illness,inflammation of the liver. I had been very weak for some time, loathing food, and oppressed with a pain in my arm and side, which I called rheumatism. Mrs. M. had the kindness to send for the Doctor of the regiment, who prescribed great abstinence; the blue pill to be taken every night; and, lastly, a large blister for the right side. It has pleased God to bless these means for the removal of the disease. Of course, I am very much reduced. I have been treated with as much keeper especially, who always dressed my blister, and watched me like a mother. I could not have looked for such kindness in a land of strangers. The Lord can raise up friends wherever we are; but I have had no christian to whom I could open my heart. But the Lord is here. With love to all, I am ever your affectionate Son. This letter was written when he must have been very ill, as he found it necessary to leave Colonel M.'s on the second or third of January, with a view to return home. He got as far as Glasgow; and, under the hospitable roof of Mr. Ewing, received that kind reception, which had invariably been shown him, from the first period of his acquaintance with that excellent family. The following letters, addressed by Mr. and Mrs. Ewing, to his father, are important, as they show the progress of the complaint, the means which were employed to arrest its progress, and the deep interest which they took in the amiable sufferer. "My dear Sir; "Glasgow, January 5, 1827. "I am sorry to inform you, that your son has come to us two days ago, rather in a poor state of health. I suppose he must have informed you, some weeks ago, of his having pain in his side, for which the regimental surgeon; (who seems a very respectable man,) ordered a course of mercury, that is now finished, but seems to have reduced our young friend to a state of great weakness. Nevertheless the Doctor says he sees no cause for alarm, as there is little or no fever in his pulse; but there is no getting him to follow advice in taking his food. This the Doctor thinks will prevent him from recovering strength till he can go home, which he thinks he may do, if he gets into the coach, and takes a little warm brandy and water once or twice on the road. At Tennoch Side, he became quite hypocondriac, and would eat nothing till it was out of season. We hoped he would have cheered up a little here, from conversation and nourishment; but I am sorry to say, we are disappointed. I think it my duty, therefore, to beg, that if possible; either you or his mother will come here in the beginning of the week, to endeavor to prevail with him to take nourishment, and to consult with his medical attendant what is best to be done. The Doctor declares he sees nothing but the flatulency of an empty stomach that should prevent him from eating. After all, I shall not be surprised if he propose going to-morrow by the coach, for he did so last night, but not till the places had been all taken. Yet, if he persist in neglecting his food, he cannot get better. I grieve to write thus, but we are quite at a loss, for we cannot urge him; and he does not appear to be at present a good judge in his own case. I am writing without his knowledge, for when I proposed it before, he refused to let me." "My dear Sir; "Glasgow, January 5, 1827. "Since writing to you in the forenoon, Mr. Ewing (who has been obliged to go to the Church Meeting) things I should write to go by the seven o'clock coach, by which you might expect your at all; and that though his pulse is down, we do not think him better, and feel at a loss how to manage him. The Doctor says he should not lie in bed, but we cannot persuade him to make any exertion. The Doctor says he must eat, and it is almost by compulsion, and never but when one of us in a manner insists and holds it to him, that he takes any thing. We hope, therefore, you will come, as the Doctor assures us he is quite able for the journey. We should feel it quite distressing to let him go alone, and shall feel very anxious till you come. At the same time let me assure you, we have not concealed any circumstance from you. The Doctor says his pulse is seventy-two only. He appears to me, as I have seen people, highly hysterical. We are sorry to give you all this anxiety, knowing what must be felt for such a son; but we feel it a matter of duty, and doing as we would be done by. Lieutenant Colonel Moreland called to-day with the Doctor,-all that family seem to have paid him uncommon attention." His father, it may be supposed, lost no time in proceeding to Glasgow; but before he could reach it, the most melancholy progress had been made by the fatal disease. Other medical aid had been called in, and that which had been supposed to be an affection of the liver, was discovered to be an affection of the brain, on which an effusion had taken place, which accounts for the comatose state in which he had been sinking for some days, till at last it had deprived him of all consciousness, and left no hope of a recovery. My esteemed friend, Mrs. Ewing, who watched his dying bed with a mother's anxiety, has furnish ed me with a full and interesting account of his last days, which, together with the additional information supplied by her valued relative Miss Cathcart, who also acted the part of a tender nurse, the reader I am sure, will be pleased to receive in their own words, although their letters contain a slight repetition in some particulars. "Glasgow, April 7, 1827. "After Colonel Moreland's family returned at the end of October, I think from Lord Roslynn's, young Urquhart was only one Sabbath with us, and then said he had been a good deal troubled with his stomach. When Dr. Marshman was here, I wrote to ask him to meet him at dinner. He wrote, I might guess his disappointment at not being able to come seven miles to see him, when he had gone to London to see Dr. Morrison. The surgeon of the cavalry told me he had had a threatening of inflammation of the liver, for which he had given him Dover's powders, and blue pill, but this Mr. Urquhart had mistaken for a course of mercury. He came in here on the Wednesday preceding the one on which he died, and seemed very weak and much worn out with the drive; but told me he was now quite free of pain or complaint, except weakness and sickness when he took food. He said he had been so very ill, that though he never was insensible, he had felt what he never had before, that he could not pronounce the words he wished to say. He appeared to me highly nervous, and till his illness took a more serious turn, I had the idea which the medical attendant confirmed, that it was a hysterical case, from weakness. Both the surgeon and himself thought he was able for the journey to |