Sympathetic Theater

wounded hand, and by this action, the back of his hand was afflicted with a grave wound, just as his palm had already been injured. It seems, by Pollux, that a peculiar and most adverse configuration and constellation of the stars reigned in the heavens at that time, seeing that it willed that his blood be shed by the arms of his intimate friends—friends, I say, who, returning to themselves, would undoubtedly have hesitated not at all to shed their own blood and their very lives for the safety of their friend. Be that as it may, this involuntary profusion of blood brought this advantage: that it warded off and averted the blow which one had just intended for the other with all his might. For noticing Mr. Howel’s face completely covered with blood dripping from his raised hand, both ran to the aid of their friend. Having inspected his wounds, they bound them with a garter to keep the veins closed, from which blood was flowing in great abundance from the completely severed wounds. Then they led him to his house and summoned a surgeon, where he who was present first also performed the first apparatus of the cure. Regarding the second point, when the wound was to be uncovered on the following day, the Royal Surgeon was present, sent by His Majesty, who followed the aforementioned Mr. Howel with much favor.
I was living at that time near his house,