The mind of Mrs. Trunnion was not a little disturbed by these alarms,
which, in her opinion, portended the death of some principal person
in the family; she redoubled her religious exercises, and fortified
her spirits with fresh potations; nay, she began to take notice
that Mr. Trunnion's constitution was very much broken, and seemed
dissatisfied when people observed that they never saw him look
better. Her frequent visits to the closet, where all her consolation
was deposited, inspired the confederates with a device which had
like to have been attended with tragical consequences. They found
an opportunity to infuse jalap in one of her case-bottles; and
she took so largely of this medicine, that her constitution had
well nigh sunk under the violence of its effect. She suffered a
succession of fainting fits that reduced her to the brink of the
grave, in spite of all the remedies that were administered by a
physician, who was called in the beginning of her disorder.
After having examined the symptoms, he declared that the patient
had been poisoned with arsenic, and prescribed only draughts and
lubricating injections, to defend the coats of the stomach and
intestines from the vellicating particles of that pernicious mineral;
at the same time hinting, with a look of infinite sagacity, that
it was not difficult to divine the whole mystery.
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