The mayor informed him that a carriage was at the door to convey him to his own house, where better care could be had.

It was explained that the patient had nothing to wear except his underclothing, and the mayor immediately procured him a suit of clothes and escorted him through a gaping crowd to the carriage, nor would he permit Paul to settle the hotel bill.
After an hour's drive the voyager was comfortably installed in a mansion, under the ministrations of a distinguished physician.

No one could have been better treated.

He afterward learned that his host, beside his official position, was a large landed proprietor, owning most of the village, and was a member of the great family of Gattoni de Meletti.
Reports that the man in the rubber dress had been attacked by the fever, spread all over Italy, and great numbers of people came from surrounding towns to see him and inquire as to his condition.

The fire fever with which Paul was attacked (febbre del fuoco), is peculiar to the districts along the lowlands of the Po, and he had been eighty-three consecutive hours in the water when it overcame him.
For more than a week the doctor was in close attendance and then Boyton was sufficiently restored to health to go about.