Ottawa, Sunday, 17th May 1891

...You remember, dear friend, that when I left home, for some days I complained of feeling unwell. When I arrived here, I had to launch at once into the turmoil, & though I perceived my strength all the time slowly giving way, I tried hard to pull through, without losing an hour's time, but on the Saturday - 15 days last evening - I had to take to bed, & since that time up to two days ago, my chest has been incessantly torn open by a perpetual cough. Intense physical pain, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, soon reduced me to a condition of great weakness. This of itself was comparative comfort, & this was my condition in the morning, but the afternoon invariably brought me to rest; following by intense weakness....

Charles Fisher (ed.), Dearest Émilie The Love-Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier to Madame Émilie Lavergne, (NC Press: 1989).