Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

AN AGONISING ALAUM. 281
criminal writhed and moaned out of sight behind. The
following letter shows Wilson's state of mind :
John Wilson to W. Blackwood.
This is the third prosecution threatened against articles of
mine within three summers ; and it is really time, both on my
own account and yours, that the little 1 write for the Magazine
should be less. Of the distress of mind such things cause
me, it would be vain to speak. But let that be a topic for
another day. An Irish Jackass he is assuredly, and an action
will prove him one. I really do not know what advice to give.
To give my name in this case is impossible.
Had not my feelings been necessarily, owing to other things
in the 'Noctes,' of the most agonising kind, I should have
come forward instantly, as I did before in Hunt's case; but
as it was, death to my honour and happiness would have been
the instant consequence, owing to several circumstances which
1 will communicate when I see you.
One distressing thing after another occurs to
week ago a shocking accident happened on the
me.
lake.
About a
A boat
was upset, and a fine youth, a friend of ours, drowned ;
—
and my
boys' tutor got ashore with difficulty. He had violated my
orders in being there at all, and it was twenty to one that he
had taken John and Blair with him !
This event has caused
great misery to many here, and Mrs Wilson has been for two
days almost distracted.
Here the pathetic mixture of troubles within and
without, remorse of mind and illness of body, and the
incident of the half-drowned tutor, adding another dis-
traction with exasperating perversity, bring in a halfcomic
element : but the next is tragedy indeed, and
shows an almost despairing collapse of every faculty :
John Wilson to W. Blackwood.
I would fain write you a long letter; but long or short, of
this be assured, that it is most kind, as every word uttered by
me to you has ever been and ever will be. For I am your
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