Part 14 (2/2)
Our adventurer was no longer in doubt concerning the place to which he had been conveyed; and the more he reflected on his situation, the rin He could not conceive by whose means he had been iht-errantry, as a frolic which ht have very serious consequences, with respect to his future life and fortune
After mature deliberation, he resolved to de that every violent transport would be interpreted into an undeniable sy able to enerally more efficacious than all the flowers of elocution; but when he rose in the , he found his pockets had been carefully examined, and e, he inquired about these particulars, and was given to understand, that they were all safe deposited for his use, to be forthco at a proper season But, at present, as he should want nothing, he had no occasion for ht acquiesced in this declaration, and eat his breakfast in quiet
About eleven, he received a visit froreat sole, ”Well, sir, how d'ye do?--co is for the best--you are in very good hands, sir, I assure you; and I dare say will refuse nothing that ht conducive to the recovery of your health”
”Doctor,” said our hero, ”if it is not an ilad to know your opinion of my disorder”--”Oh! sir, as to that,” replied the physician, ”your disorder is a--kind of a--sir, 'tis very common in this country--a sort of a”----”Do you think my distemper is madness, doctor?”--”O Lord, sir,--not absolute madness--no--not madness--you have heard, no doubt, of what is called a weakness of the nerves, sir,--though that is a very inaccurate expression; for this phrase, denoting a morbid excess of sensation, see to the loose cohesion of those material particles which constitute the nervous substance, inasmuch as the quantity of every effect must be proportionable to its cause; now you'll please to take notice, sir, if the case were really what these words seem to ireat a degree of proximity, would be nervous; that is, endued with sensation
Sir, I shall order sos to keep you in due temperature; and you'll do very well--sir, your hu, he retired, and our adventurer could not but think it was very hard that one man should not dare to ask thereputed mad, while another should talk nonsense by the hour, and yet be estee Sir Launcelot so taed hiarden, under the eye of a servant who followed him at a distance Here he was saluted by a brother-prisoner, aeyes, a hook-nose, and a face covered with pier, without further ceree him with a chew of tobacco, or could spare hi he had not tasted brandy since he caht assured hian to ask so to the character of their landlord, which the stranger represented in very unfavourable colours He described hi the darkest scenes of villany He said his house was a repository of the rant iniquities That it contained fathers kidnapped by their children, wives confined by their husbands, gentlemen of fortune sequestered by their relations, and innocent persons immured by the malice of their adversaries He affirmed this was his own case; and asked if our hero had never heard of dick Distich, the poet and satirist ”Ben Bullock and I,” said he, ”were confident against the world in ar with 'Fair bloo youth'? We were sworn brothers, admired and praised, and quoted each other, sir We denounced war against all the world, actors, authors, and critics; and having drawn the sword, threay the scabbard--we pushed through thick and thin, hacked and hewed helter skelter, and becae as the Boeotian band of Thebes My friend Bullock, indeed, was once rolled in the kennel; but soon
He vig'rous rose, and fro I
”Here is a satire, which I wrote in an alehouse when I was drunk--I can prove it by the evidence of the landlord and his wife; I fancy you'll own I have soht to say with ere claht, having perused the papers, declared his opinion that the verses were tolerably good; but at the sanorant dunces several persons who had ith reputation, and were generally allowed to have genius; a circumstance that would detract more from his candour than could be allowed to his capacity
”D--n their genius!” cried the satirist, ”a pack of impertinent rascals!
I tell you, sir, Ben Bullock and I had determined to crush all that were not of our own party Besides, I said before, this piece ritten in drink”--”Was you drunk too when it was printed and published?”--”Yes, the printer shall make affidavit that I was never otherwise than drunk or maudlin, till my enemies, on pretence that my brain was turned, conveyed me to this infernal mansion”--
”They seeht, ”and have put thethe plea of insanity, your character enius, without an atority Of all those whom Pope lashed in his Dunciad, there was not one who did not richly deserve the imputation of dulness, and every one of them had provoked the satirist by a personal attack In this respect the English poet was enius; such as Quinault, Perrault, and the celebrated Lulli; for which reason every man of a liberal turn must, in spite of all his poetical enuous conduct cannot be forgiven in a writer of his superior genius, ill pardon it in you whose naed from obscurity?”
”Hark ye, friend,” replied the bard, ”keep your pardon and your counsel for those who ask it; or, if you will force them upon people, take one piece of advice in return If you don't like your present situation, apply for a committee without delay They'll find you too much of a fool to have the least tincture of madness; and you'll be released without further scruple In that case I shall rejoice in your deliverance; you will be freed from confinement, and I shall be happily deprived of your conversation”
So saying, he flew off at a tangent, and our knight could not help s at the peculiar virulence of his disposition Sir Launcelot then endeavoured to enter into conversation with his attendant, by asking how long Mr Distich had resided in the house; but he ht as well have addressed hinorance, or refused an answer to every question that was proposed He would not even disclose the name of his landlord, nor infor hination, he returned to his apartan to review, not without horror, the particulars of his fate ”How little reason,” said he to his enjoyed by the British subject, if he holds them on such a precarious tenure; if a man of rank and property may be thus kidnapped even in the midst of the capital; if he may be seized by ruffians, insulted, robbed, and conveyed to such a prison as this, from which there seeed with pen, ink, and paper, and appeal to istrates of my country, my letters would be intercepted by those who superintend hbourhood, lected as those of some unhappy lunatic under necessary correction Should I eht imbrue my hands in blood, and after all find it ih a number of successive doors, locks, bolts, and sentinels Should I endeavour to tan, and then I should be abridged of the little coainst the Bastile in France, and the Inquisition in Portugal; but I would ask, if either of these be in reality so dangerous or dreadful as a private land, under the direction of a ruffian? The Bastile is a state prison, the Inquisition is a spiritual tribunal; but both are under the direction of government It seldom, if ever, happens that a man entirely innocent is confined in either; or, if he should, he lays his account with a legal trial before established judges But, in England, the most innocent person upon earth is liable to be immured for life under the pretext of lunacy, sequestered from his wife, children, and friends, robbed of his fortune, deprived even of necessaries, and subjected to the most brutal treatment from a low-bred barbarian, who raises an ample fortune on thehis whole life, practise this horrid oppression, without question or control”
This uncomfortable reverie was interrupted by a very unexpected sound that seemed to issue from the other side of a thick party-wall It was a strain of vocal music, more plaintive than the ed turtle'sthan Philoh his ear it instantly pierced into his heart; for at once he recognised it to be the voice of his adored Aurelia Heavens! as the agitation of his soul, when he made this discovery! how did every nerve quiver! how did his heart throb with the most violent e like a lion in the toil--then he placed his ear close to the partition, and listened as if his whole soul was exerted in his sense of hearing When the sound ceased to vibrate on his ear, he threw hiuish, he exclaimed in broken accents; and in all probability his heart would have burst, had not the violence of his sorrow found vent in a flood of tears
These first transports were succeeded by a fit of iood earnest His surprise at finding his lost Aurelia in such a place, the seeerness to contrive so discovery he hadwhich he acted a thousand extravagances, which it ell for him the attendants did not observe Perhaps it ell for the servant that he did not enter while the paroxysht have met with the fate of Lichas, whom Hercules in his frenzy destroyed
Before the cloth was laid for supper, he was calh to conceal the disorder of his ht be next day visited by the physician, to whom he resolved to explain himself in such a manner, as should ether destitute of conscience and humanity
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE KNOT THAT PUZZLES HUMAN WISDOM, THE HAND OF FORTUNE SOMETIMES WILL UNTIE FAMILIAR AS HER GARTER
When the doctor made his next appearance in Sir Launcelot's apartht addressed him in these words: ”Sir, the practice of medicine is one of thethe sons of men; a profession which hath been revered at all periods, and in all nations, and even held sacred in the es of antiquity