Excerpt from Defiant Hearts At all events, the great lady did not want to die and she followed with touching docility the direc tions of her medical adviser. The doctor, expected to be ready at a moment's notice when summoned to the castle, could have no general practice. Be sides, in the little town there were already four other physicians who scarcely earned their daily bread. As to the remuneration for attendance and daily consultations at the ducal court, it was not dazzlingly large; her-serene Highness paid about seven hun dred and fifty dollars annually for herself and her entire household, but in addition to this her dear May had free lodging, so and so many cords of beech wood, and also several orders of the ducal house. But he was satisfied with this, since he knew well that he would have to wear out more than one pair of shoes to earn his salary as aplain practitioner. He valued home and fuel above income, and lived, honest and upright and happy, with his wife, who fully shared her husband's opinions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.