Note 177 — BOOK THE THIRD 1812-1815

I have questioned persons who attended her medically. The duties and delicacies of their profession would, of course, prevent their acknowledging such facts, if ascertained by their professional attendance, even after her death; but the manner in which such a hint was received, the official tone of every answer given to my inquiries, the manifest embarrassment those inquiries occasioned, and the absence of all direct contradiction or disposition to explode the idea as absurd, confirmed me in my previous surmises. I have no doubt she was mad.—V.H.