branch of the art; they stuff the skin of a conger
eel with powdered stone; then give the
obnoxious person a sly crack with it; and a rib or
backbone is broken with no contusion to mark
the external violence used. But Mr. Cooper and
his fellows do their work with the knee-joint: it
is round, and leaves no bruise. They subdue the
patient by walking up and down him on their
knees. If they don't jump on him, as well as
promenade him, the man's spirit is often the only
thing broken; if they do, the man is apt to be
broken bodily as well as mentally. Thus died
Mr. Sizer in 1854, and two others quite recently.
And how many more God only knows; we can't
count the stones at the bottom of a well.

Cooper then sprang furiously on Alfred, and
went kneeling up and down him. Cooper was a
heavy man, and his weight crushed and hurt the
victim's legs; but that was a trifle; as often as
he kneeled on Alfred's chest, the crushed one's
whole framework seemed giving way, and he
could scarcely breathe. Cooper warmed to his
work, and kneeled hard on Alfred's face. Then
Cooper jumped knees downwards on his face.
Then Cooper drew back and jumped savagely on
his chest. Then Alfred felt his last hour was
come: he writhed aside, and Cooper missed
him this time and overbalanced himself; the two
faces came together for a moment, and Alfred,
fighting for his life, caught Cooper with his
teeth by the middle of the nose, and bit clean
through the cartilage with a shrill snarl. Then
Cooper shrieked, and writhed, and whirled his
great arms like a windmill, punching at Alfred's
head. Now man is an animal at bottom, and a
wild animal at the very bottom. Alfred ground
his teeth together in bull-dog silence till they
quite met, and with his young strong neck and
his despair shook that great hulking fellow as a
terrier shakes a cat, still grinding his teeth together
in bull-dog silence. The men struck him,
shook him, in vain. At last they got hold of
his throat and choked him, and so parted the
furious creatures: but not before Mrs. Archbold
and nurses Jane and Hannah had rushed into the
room, drawn by Cooper's cries. The first thing
the new comers did was to scream in unison at
the sight that met them. On the bed lay Alfred
all but insensible, his linen and his pale face
spotted with his persecutor's blood. Upon him
kneeled the gory ruffian swearing oaths to set
the hair on end.

"I'll stop your biting for ever," said he, and
raised a ponderous fist: and in one moment more
Alfred would have been disfigured for life, but
Brown caught Cooper's arm, and Mrs. Archbold
said sharply to the nurses "Handcuffs!" and the
three women pinned him simultaneously, and,
taking him half by surprise, handcuffed him in a
moment with a strength, sharpness, skill, and
determination not to be found in women out of a
madhouse—luckily for the newspaper husbands.

The other keepers looked astounded at this
masterstroke; but, as no servant had ever
affronted Mrs. Archbold without being dismissed
directly, they took their cue and said, "We
advised him, ma'am, but he would not listen
to us."

"Cooper," said Mrs. Archbold as soon as she
recovered her breath, " you are not fit for your
place. To-morrow you go, or I go."

Cooper, cowed in a moment by the handcuffs,
began to whine and say that it was all Alfred's
fault. "Look at my nose."

But Mrs. Archbold was now carried away by
two passions instead of one, and they were
together too much for prudence; she took a handful
of glossy locks out of her bosom and shook
them in Cooper's face:

"You monster!" said she; "you should go,
for that, if you were my own brother."

The two young nurses assented loudly, and
turned and cackled at Cooper for cutting off such
lovely hair.

He shrugged his shoulders at them, and said
sulkily to Mrs. Archbold, "Oh, I didn't know.
Of course, if you have fallen in love with him, my
cake is burnt. 'Tisn't the first lunatic you have
taken for your fancy man."

At this brutal speech, all the more intolerable
for not being quite false, Mrs. Archbold turned
ashy pale and looked round for a weapon to
strike him dead; but found none so handy and
so deadly as her tongue.

"It's not the first you have tried to MURDER,"
said she. "I know all about that death in
Calton Retreat: you kept it dark before the coroner,
but it is not too late, I'll open the world's
eyes; I was only going to dismiss you, sir: but
you have insulted me. I'll hang you in reply."

Cooper turned very pale and was silent; his
tongue clove to the roof of his mouth.

But a feeble, unexpected, voice issued from the
bed and murmured cheerfully, though with some
difficulty, a single word:

"Justice!"

At an expression so out of place they all
started with surprise.

Alfred went on: "You are putting the saddle
on the wrong horse. The fault lies with those
villains Baker and Bailey. Cooper is only a
servant, you know, and obeys orders."

"What business had the wretch to cut your
hair off?" said Mrs. Archbold, turning on Alfred
with flashing eyes. Her blood once up, she was
ready to quarrel even with him for taking part
against himself.

"Because he was ordered to put on a blister,
and hair must come off before a blister can go
on," replied Alfred soberly.

"That is no excuse for him beating you and
trying to break your front teeth."

She didn't mind so much about his side ribs.

"No," replied Alfred. "But I hit him first.
And then I bit him, like an Irish savage: look at
the bloke's face! Dear Mrs. Archbold, you are
my best friend in this horrid place, and you have
beautiful eyes, and, talk of teeth, look at yours!
but you haven't much sense of justice: forgive
for saying so. Put the proposition into signs;