Lady Victoria Campbell

60 HOME FOE GOOD
It was a wise decision. The change was the more
complete to Lady Victoria, that she had never been
abroad, and her love of scenery, and the revelation
of what sunlight and flowers were in the land of
" Fair France," all aided and stimulated her complete
restoration to health.
For another reason, it was well that she was removed
from Scotland, for a heavy shadow was hanging over
the family at home.
The Duchess had been staying at Alnwick, and re-
turned alone to Inveraray in the month of December.
A bitter frost, accompanied by the usual fog in the
Clyde, disorganised the steamboat service, and the
Duchess landed late at Lochgoilhead. The carriage
sent for her returned, believing that she had not been
able to come, and the Duchess crossed the Pass to
Loch Fyne in an open carriage. The night was
intensely cold, and she arrived at the Castle after a
most trying journey.
The Duke was detained in London by public
business, and only the five daughters were at In-
veraray. The same evening the Duchess had a
paralytic seizure of great severity, and but for the
prompt measures taken by Dr. Macdonald, who was
then the medical officer in the town of Inveraray,
there would have been no recovery from the critical
condition of unconsciousness in which she was found
by one of her children.
It was a night never to be forgotten by any one of
those who lived through its wakeful hours. The time
seemed very long before the Duke could return, or Sir