Meantime, Alfred had a misgiving. The plausible doctor had now Squire Tollett"s ear, and Tollett was old, and something about him reminded the Oxonian of a trait his friend Horace had detected in old age:
"Vel quod res omnes timide gelide que ministrat.
Dilator, spe longus, iners," &c.
He knew there was another justice in the house, but he knew also he should not be allowed to get speech with him, if by cunning or force it could be prevented. He kept his door ajar. Presently Nurse Hannah came bustling along with an ap.r.o.nful of things, and let herself into a vacant room hard by. This Hannah was a young woman with a pretty and rather babyish face, diversified by a thick biceps muscle in her arm that a blacksmith need not have blushed for. And I suspect it was this masculine charm, and not her feminine features, that had won her the confidence of Baker and Co., and the respect of his female patients: big or little, excited or not excited, there was not one of them this bicipital baby-face could not pin by the wrists, and twist her helpless into a strong-room, or handcuff her unaided in a moment; and she did it, too, on slight provocation. Nurse Hannah seldom came into Alfred"s part of the house; but when she did meet him, she generally gave him a kind look in pa.s.sing; and he had resolved to speak to her, and try if he could touch her conscience, or move her pity. He saw what she was at, but was too politic to detect her openly and irritate her. He drew back a step, and said softly, "Nurse Hannah! Are you there?"
"Yes, I am here," said she sharply, and came out of the room hastily, and shut it. "What do you want, sir?"
Alfred clasped his hands together. "If you are a woman, have pity on me."
She was taken by surprise. "What can I do?" said she in some agitation.
"I am only a servant."
"At least tell me where I can find the Visiting Justice, before the keepers stop me."
"Hush! Speak lower," said Hannah. "You _have_ complained to one, haven"t you?"
"Yes, but he seems a feeble old fogy. Where is the other? Oh, pray tell me?"
"I mustn"t: I mustn"t In the noisy ward. There, run."
And run he did.
Alfred was lucky enough to get safe into the noisy ward without being intercepted. And then he encountered a sunburnt gentleman, under thirty, in a riding-coat, with a hunting-whip in his hand: it was Mr. Vane, a Tory squire and large landholder in the county.
Now, as Alfred entered at one door, Baker himself came in at the other, and they nearly met at Vane. But Alfred saluted him first, and begged respectfully for an interview.
"Certainly, sir," said Mr. Vane.
"Take care, sir; he is dangerous," whispered Baker. Instantly Mr. Vane"s countenance changed. But this time Alfred overheard the formula, and said quietly: "Don"t believe him, sir. I am not dangerous; I am as sane as any man in England. Pray examine me, and judge for yourself."
"Ah, that is his delusion," said Baker. "Come, Mr. Hardie, I allow you great liberties, but you abuse them. You really must not monopolise his Worship with your fancies. Consider, sir, you are not the only patient he has to examine."
Alfred"s heart sank: he turned a look of silent agony on Mr. Vane.
Mr. Vane, either touched by that look, or irritated by Baker"s pragmatical interference, or perhaps both, looked that person coolly in the face, and said sternly: "Be silent, sir; and let _the gentleman_ speak to me."
CHAPTER x.x.xIII
ALFRED thus encouraged told his story with forced calmness, and without a word too much. Indeed, so clear and telling was the narrative, and the logic so close, that incoherent patients one or two stole up and listened with wonder and a certain dreamy complacency; the bulk, however, held aloof apathetic: inextricably wrapped in fict.i.tious Autobiography.
His story told, Alfred offered the Dodds in evidence that the fourteen thousand pounds was no illusion, and referred to his sister and several friends as witnesses to his sanity, and said the letters he wrote were all stopped in the asylum: and why? That no honest man or woman might know where he was.
He ended by convincing Mr. Vane he was a sane and injured man, and his father a dark designing person.
Mr. Vane asked him whether he had any other revelations to make. Alfred replied, "Not on my own account, but for the sake of those afflicted persons who are here for life. Well, the beds want repaving; the vermin thinning; the instruments of torture want abolishing, instead of hiding for an hour or two when you happen to come: what do the patients gain by that? The madmen dare not complain to you, sir, because the last time one did complain to the justices (it was Mr. Petworth), they had no sooner pa.s.sed through the iron gate, than Cooper made an example of him; felled him with his fist, and walked up and down him on his knees, crying, "I"ll teach you to complain to the justices." But one or two gentlemanly madmen, who soon found out that I am not one of _them,_ have complained to _me_ that the attendants wash them too much like Hansom cabs, strip them naked, and mop them on the flag-stones, then fling on their clothes without drying them. They say, too, that the meat is tough and often putrid, the bread stale, the b.u.t.ter rancid, the vegetables stinted, since they can"t be adulterated. And as for sleep, it is hardly known; for the beds are so short your feet stick out; insects, without a name to ears polite, but highly odoriferous and profoundly carnivorous, bite you all night; and dogs howl eternally outside; and, when exhausted nature defies even these enemies of rest, then the doctor, who seems to be in the pay of Insanity, claps you on a blister by brute force, and so drives away sleep, Insanity"s cure, or hocuses you by brute force as he did me, and so steals your sleep, and tries to steal your reason, with his opium, henbane, morphia, and other tremendous brain-stealers. With such a potion, sir, administered by violence, he gave me in one night a bursting fever, headache, loss of sight, and bleeding at the nose; as Mrs. Archbold will tell you. Oh, look into these things, sir, in pity to those whom Heaven has afflicted: to me they are but strokes with a feather. I am a sane man torn from love and happiness, and confined among the mad; discomfort is nothing to me; comfort is nothing; you can do nothing for me but restore me to my dignity as a man, my liberty as a Briton, and the rights as a citizen I have been swindled out of by a fraudulent bankrupt and his tools, two venal doctors, who never saw me but for one five minutes, but came to me ready bribed at a guinea apiece, and so signed away my wits behind my back."
"Now, Mr. Baker," said Vane, "what do you say to all this?"
Baker smiled with admirable composure, and replied with crafty moderation, "He is a gentleman, and believes every word he says; but it is all his delusions. Why, to begin, sir, his father has nothing to do with putting him in here; nothing on earth. (Alfred started; then smiled incredulous.) And, in the next place, there are no instruments of restraint here, but two pair of handcuffs and two strait jackets, and these never hardly used; we trust to the padded rooms, you know. And, sir," said he, getting warm, which instantly affected his p.r.o.nunciations "if there"s a hinsect in the ouse, I"ll heat im."
Delusion is a big word, especially in a mad-house; it overpowers a visitor"s understanding. Mr. Vane was staggered. Alfred, whose eager eyes were never off his face, saw this with dismay, and feeling that, if he failed in the simpler matter, he should be sure to fail in establishing his sanity, he said with inward anxiety, though with outward calmness, "Suppose we test these delusions?"
"With all my heart," said Vane.
Baker"s countenance fell.
"Begin with the instruments of restraint. Find me them."
Baker"s countenance brightened up; he had no fear of their being found.
"I will," said Alfred: "please to follow me."
Baker grinned with antic.i.p.ated triumph.
Alfred led the way to a bedroom near his own; and asked Mr. Baker to unlock it. Baker had not the key; no more had Cooper. The latter was sent for it; he returned, saying the key was mislaid.
"That I expected," said Alfred. "Send for the kitchen poker, sir: I"ll soon unlock it."
"Fetch the kitchen poker," said Vane.
"Good gracious! sir," said Cooper; "he only wants that to knock all our brains out. You have no idea of his strength and ferocity."
"Well lied, Cooper," said Alfred ironically.
"Fetch _me_ the poker," said Vane.
Cooper went for it, and came back with the key instead.
The door was opened, and they all entered. Alfred looked under the bed.
The rest stood round it.
There was nothing to be seen but a year"s dust
Alfred was dumb-foundered, and a cold perspiration began to gather on his brow. He saw at once a false move would be fatal to him.
"Well, sir," said Vane grimly. "Where are they?"
Alfred caught sight of a small cupboard; he searched it; it was empty.
Baker and Cooper grinned at his delusion quietly, but so that Vane might see that formula. Alfred returned to the bed and shook it. Cooper and Baker left off grinning; Alfred"s quick eye caught this, and he shook the bed violently, furiously.
"Ah!" said Mr. Vane, "I hear a c.h.i.n.k."
"It is an iron bedstead and old," suggested Baker.