If you, sir, would do me the favour, at about twelve o'clock today, to make a short visit of inspection, I shall esteem it a great honour, as well as a great favour.
Believe me to be, sir, with the most profound respect, your most obedient and humble servant,
To Dr Popplejoy, &c.
O.D. FOGG
This note, as might be expected, brought old, purblind, superannuated Dr Popplejoy to the asylum, and Mr Fogg received him in due form, and with great gravity, saying, almost with tears in his eyes, 'My dear sir, the whole aim of my existence now is to endeavour to soften the rigours of the necessary confinement of the insane, and I wish this inspection of my establishment to be made by you in order that I may thus for a time stand clear with the world -with my own conscience I am of course always clear; and if your report be satisfactory about the treatment of the unhappy persons I have here, not the slightest breath of slander can touch me.'
'Oh, yes, yes,' said the garrulous old physician; 'I - I - very good -oh yes - eugh, eugh - I have a slight cough.'
'A very slight one, sir. Will you, first of all, take a look at one of the sleeping chambers of the insane?'
The doctor agreed, and Mr Fogg led him into a very comfortable sleeping-room, which the old gentleman declared was very satisfactory indeed, and when they returned to the apartment in which they had already been, Mr Fogg said, 'Well, then, sir, all we have to do is bring in the patients, one by one, to you as fast as we can, so as not to occupy more of your valuable time than necessary; and any questions you may ask will, no doubt, be answered and I, being by, can give you the heads of any case that may excite your especial notice.'
The old man was placed in a chair of state, reposing on some very comfortable cushions; and, take him altogether, he was so pleased with the ten guineas and the flattery of Mr Fogg, for nobody had given him a fee for the last fifteen years, that he was quite ready to be the foolish tool of the madhouse keeper in almost any way that he chose to dictate to him.
We need not pursue the examination of the various unfortunates who were brought before old Dr Popplejoy; it will suffice for us if we carry the reader through the examination of Tobias, who is our principal care, without, at the same time, detracting from the genial sympathy we must feel for all who, at that time, were subject to the tender mercies of Mr Fogg.
At about half-past twelve the door of Tobias's cell was opened by Mr Watson, who, walking in, laid hold of the boy by the collar, and said, 'Hark you, my lad! you are going before a physician, and the less you say the better. I speak to you for your own sake; you can do yourself no good, but you can do yourself a great deal of harm. You know we keep a cart-whip here. Come along.'
Tobias said not a word in answer to this piece of gratuitous advice, but he made up his mind that if the physician was not absolutely deaf, he should hear him.
Before, however, the unhappy boy was taken into the room where old Dr Popplejoy was waiting, he was washed and brushed down generally, so that he presented a much more respectable appearance than he would have done had he been ushered in in his soiled state, as he was taken from the dirty madhouse cell.
'Surely, surely,' thought Tobias, 'the extent of cool impudence can go no further than this; but I will speak to the physician, if my life should be sacrificed in so doing. Yes, of that I am determined.'
In another minute he was in the room, face to face with Mr Fogg and Dr Popplejoy.
'What - what? eugh! eugh!' coughed the old doctor; 'a boy, Mr Fogg, a mere boy. Dear me! O - I - eugh! eugh! eugh! My cough is a little troublesome, I think, today - eugh! eugh!'
'Yes, sir,' said Mr Fogg with a deep sigh, and making a pretence to dash a tear from his eye; 'here you have a mere boy. I am always affected when I look upon him, doctor. We were boys ourselves once, you know, and to think that the divine spark of intelligence has gone out in one so young, is enough to make any feeling heart throb with agony. This lad, though, sir, is only a monomaniac. He has a fancy that someone named Sweeney Todd is a murderer, and that he has discovered his bad practices. On all other subjects he is sane enough; but upon that, and upon his presumed freedom from mental derangement, he is furious.'
'It is false, sir, it is false!' said Tobias, stepping up. 'Oh, sir, if you are not one of the creatures of this horrible place, I beg that you will hear me, and let justice be done.'
'Oh, yes - I - I - eugh! Of course - I - eugh!'
'Sir, I am not mad, but I am placed here because I have become dangerous to the safety of criminal persons.'
'Oh, indeed! Ah - oh - yes.'
'I am a poor lad, sir, but I hate wickedness, and because I found out that Sweeney Todd is a murderer, I am placed here.'
'You hear him, sir,' said Fogg; 'just as I said.'
'Oh, yes, yes. Who is Sweeney Todd, Mr Fogg?'
'Oh, sir, there is no such person in the world.'
'Ah, I thought as much - I thought as much - a sad case, a very sad case indeed. Be calm, my little lad, and Mr Fogg will do all that can be done for you, I'm sure.
'Oh, how can you be as foolish, sir,' cried Tobias, 'as to be deceived by that man, who is making a mere instrument of you to cover his own villainy? What I say to you is true, and I am not mad!'
'I think, Dr Popplejoy,' said. Fogg with a smile, 'it would take rather a cleverer fellow than I am to make a fool of you; but you perceive, sir, that in a little while the boy would get quite furious, that he would. Shall I take him away?'
'Yes, yes - poor fellow.'
'Hear me - oh, hear me,' shrieked Tobias. 'Sir, on your deathbed you may repent this day's work - I am not mad - Sweeney Todd is a murderer - he is a barber in Fleet-street - I am not mad!'
'It's melancholy, sir, is it not?' said Fogg, as he again made an effort to wipe away a tear from his eye. 'It's very melancholy.'
'Oh! very, very.'
'Watson, take away poor Tobias Ragg, but take him very gently, and stay with him a little in his nice comfortable room, and try to soothe him; speak to him of his mother, Watson, and get him round if you can. Alas, poor child! my heart quite bleeds to see him. I am not fit exactly for this life, doctor, I ought to be made of sterner stuff, indeed I ought.'
* * * * *
'Well,' said Mr Watson, as he saluted poor Tobias with a furious kick outside the door, 'what a deal of good you have done!'
The boy's patience was exhausted; he had borne all that he could bear, and this last insult maddened him. He turned with the quickness of thought, and sprang at Mr Watson's throat.
So sudden was that attack, and so completely unprepared for it was that gentleman, that down he fell in the passage, with such a blow of his head against the stone floor that he was nearly insensible; and before anybody could get to his assistance, Tobias had pummelled and clawed his face, that there was scarcely a feature discernible, and one of his eyes seemed to be in fearful jeopardy.
The noise of this assault soon brought Mr Fogg to the spot, as well as old Dr Popplejoy, and the former tore Tobias from his victim, whom he seemed intent upon murdering.
XXIX. The Consultation of Colonel Jeffrey With the Magistrate
The advice which his friend had given to Colonel Jeffery was certainly the very best that could have been tendered to him; and, under the whole of these circumstances, it would have been something little short of absolute folly to have ventured into the shop of Sweeney Todd without