The head keeper instantly showed him the
order and a copy of the certificates.

"Don't look at them, sir" cried Alfred; "they
are signed by men who were bribed to sign them.
For God's sake, sir, judge for yourself. Test my
memory, my judgment, by any question you
please. Use your own good sense; don't let
those venal rogues judge for you."

The gentleman turned cold directly.

"I could not take on me to interfere," said
he. The unsworn affidavits had overpowered his
senses. He retired with a frigid inclination.
Alfred wrung his handcuffed hands, and the
connecting chain rattled. The train moved on.

The men never complained: his conduct was
natural; and they knew their strength. At the
next station he tested a snob's humanity instead
of a gentleman's. He had heard they were more
tender hearted. The answer was a broad grin:
repeated at intervals.

Being called mad was pretty much the same
thing as being mad to a mind of this class: and
Alfred had admitted he was called mad.

At the next station he implored a silvery haired
old gentleman. Old age, he had heard, has known
griefs, and learned pity.

The keeper showed the certificates.

"Ah!" said Senex; "poor young man. Now
don't agitate yourself. It is all for your good.
Pray go quietly. Very painful, very painful."
And he hobbled away as fast as he could. It is
by shirking the painful some live to be silvery old.

Next he tried a policeman. Bobby listened to
him erect as a dart.

The certificates were shown him.

He eyed them and said sharply, "All right."
Nor could Alfred's entreaties and appeals to
common sense attract a word or even a look from
him. Alfred cried "Help! murder! If you are
Englishmen, if you are Christians, help me."

This soon drew a crowd round him, listening
to his fiery tale of wrong, and crying " Shame,
shame! Let him go." The keepers touched
their heads, winked, and got out and showed the
certificates; the crowd melted away like wax
before those two suns of evidence (unsworn).
The train moved on.

It was appalling. How could he ever get
free? Between his mind and that of his fellows
there lay a spiritual barrier more impassable than
the walls of fortified cities.

Yet, at the very next station, with characteristic
tenacity of purpose, he tried again; for he saw a
woman standing near, a buxom country woman
of forty. Then he remembered that the Naked
Eye was not yet an extinct institution among her
sex. He told her his tale, and implored her to
use her own eyes. She seemed struck, and did
eye him far more closely than the men had; and
told the keepers they ought to be ashamed of
themselves; he was no madman, for she had
seen madmen." They showed her the certificates.

"Oh, I am no scholar!" said she contemptuously;
"ye can't write my two eyes out of my
head."

The keeper whipped off Alfred's cap and showed
his shaven crown.

"La! so he is," said she, lowering her tone;
"dear heart, what a pity! And such a pretty
young gentleman." And after that all he could say
only drew the dew of patient pity to her eyes.

The train went on, and left her standing there,
a statue of negative clemency. Alfred lost heart.
He felt how impotent he was. " I shall die in a
madhouse," he said. He shivered in a corner,
hating man, and doubting God.

They reached Dr. Wycherley's early in the
morning. Alfred was shown into a nice clean
bedroom, and asked whether he would like to
bathe or sleep. " Oh, a bath," he said; and was
allowed to bathe himself. He had not been long
in the water when Dr. Wycherley's medical assistant
tapped at the door, and then entered without
further ceremony; a young gentleman with
a longish down on his chin, which, initiated early
in the secrets of physiology, he was too knowing
to shave off and so go to meet his trouble. He
came in looking like a machine, with a note-book
in his hand, and stood by the bath side dictating
notes to himself and jotting them down.

"Six contusions: two on the thorax, one on
the abdomen, two on the thighs, one near the
patella; turn, please." Alfred turned in the water.
"A slight dorsal abrasion; also of the wrists; a
severe excoriation of the ankle. Leg-lock, eh?"

"Yes."

"Iron leg-lock. Head shaved. Large blister.
Good! Any other injuries external or internal
under old system?"

"Yes, sir, confined as a madman though sane,
as you, I am sure, have the sense to see."

"Oh, never mind that; we are all sane here—
except the governor and I."

He whipped out, and entered the condition of
the new patient's body with jealous minuteness in
the case-book. As for his mind, he made no inquiry
into that; indeed he was little qualified for researches
of the kind.

At breakfast Alfred sat with a number of mad
ladies and gentlemen, who by firmness, kindness,
and routine, had been led into excellent habits:
the linen was clean and the food good. He made
an excellent meal, and set about escaping; with
this view he explored the place. Nobody interfered
with him; but plenty of eyes watched him.
The house was on the non-restraint system. He
soon found that this system was as bad for him
as it was good for the insane. Non-restraint
implied a great many attendants, and constant
vigilance. Moreover, the doors were strong, the
windows opened only eight inches, and that from
the top; their framework was iron, painted like
wood, &c. It was next to impossible to get into
the yard at night; and then it looked quite impossible
to get any further, for the house was
encompassed by high walls.

He resigned all hope of escape without connivance.
He sounded a keeper; the man fired
at the first word. " Come, none of that, sir;
you should know better than tempt a poor man."