The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — page 142: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

broken—broken now! Mad! mad! oh, no, not mad—no—no, but the last—but the last. I tell you, sir, that I am—am—am not mad. Why do you look at me, I am not mad—one—two—three—four—five—six. God—-God—God! I am mad—mad. Ha! ha! ha! There they come, all the serpents, and Todd is their king. How the shadows fly about—they shrink—I cannot shrink. Help! God! God! God!” “This is horrible,” said Colonel Jeffery. “Tt is appalling, from the lips of one so young,” said the captain. The medical man rubbed his hands together as he said— “Why, a-hem! it certainly is strangely indicative of a considerable amount of mental derangement, but we shall be able, I dare say, to subdue that. I think, if he could be persuaded to swallow a little draught I have here, it would be beneficial, and allay this irritation, which is partly nervous.” “There cannot be much difficulty,” said the colonel, “in making him swallow anything, I should think.” “Let us try.” They held Tobias up while the doctor poured the contents of a small phial into his mouth. Nature preferred performing the office of deglutition® to choking, and it was taken. The effect of the opiate was rapid, and after some inarticulate moans and vain attempts to spring from the bed, a deep sleep came over poor Tobias. “Now, gentlemen,” said Mr. Chisolm, “I beg to inform you that this is a bad case.” “T feared as much.” “A very bad case. Some very serious shock indeed has been given to the lad’s brain, and if he at all recovers from it, he will be a long time doing so. I do not think those violent paroxysms will continue, but they may leave a kind of fatuity behind them which may be exceedingly difficult to grapple with.” “In that case, he will not be able to give me the information I desire, and all I can do is to take care that he is kindly treated somewhere, poor lad. Poor fellow, his has been a hard lot. He evidently has a mind of uncommon sensibility, as is manifest from his ravings.” “Yes, and that makes the case worse. However, we must hope for the best, and I will call again in the morning.” “Will he awake soon?” “Not for six or eight hours at least, and when he does, it is very unlikely that those paroxysms will again ensue. He will be quiet enough.” “Then it will be scarcely necessary, during that time, to watch him, poor fellow?” “Not at all. Of course, when he awakens it will be very desirable that some one should be here to speak to him; for, finding himself in a strange place, he will otherwise naturally be terrified.” As this was promised by the colonel, and the medical man left the house, evidently with very slender hopes in his own mind of the recovery of Tobias. The colonel and his friend retired to another room, and,then, after a consultation, they agreed that it was highly proper they should inform Sir Richard Blunt of what had taken place, for although poor Tobias was in no present condition to give any information, yet his capture, if it might be called by such a term, was so important an event that it would be unpardonable to keep it from the magistrate. They accordingly went together to his house, and luckily finding him at home, they at once communicated to him their errand. He listened to them with the most profound attention, and when they had concluded, he said— “Gentlemen, it will be everything, if this lad recovers sufficiently to be a witness against his rascal of a master, for that is just what we want. However, from the account you give me of him, I am very much afraid the poor fellow’s mind is too severely affected.” “That, too, is our fear.” “Well, we must do the best we can, and I should advise that when he awakens some one should be by him with whose voice, as a friendly sound, he will be familiar?” “Who can we get?” “His poor mother.” “Ah, yes, I will set about that at once.” “Leave it to me,” said Sir Richard Blunt, “leave that to me—I know where to find Mrs. Ragg, and what’s best to say to her in the case. Let me see, in about four hours from now probably Tobias may be upon the point of recovery.” “Most probably.” “Then, sir, expect me at your house in that time with Mrs. Ragg. I will take care that the old lady’s mind is put completely at ease, so that she will aid us in any respect to bring about the recovery of her son, who no doubt has suffered severely from some plan of Todd’s to put him out of the way. That seems to me to be the most likely solution to the mystery of his present condition. Todd, I am convinced,” said Colonel Jeffery, “would stop at no villainy.” “Certainly not. My own belief is, that he is so steeped to the lips in crime, that he sees no other mode of covering his misdeeds already done than by the commission of new ones. But his career is nearly at an end, gentlemen.” The colonel and the captain took the rising of the magistrate from his chair as a polite hint that he had something else to do than to gossip with them any longer, and they took their leave, after expressing again to him how much they appreciated his exertions. “If the mystery of the fate of my unhappy friend,” said the colonel, “is ever cleared up, it will be by your exertion, Sir Richard, and he and I, and society at large, will owe to you a heavy debt of gratitude for unmasking so horrible a villain as Sweeney Todd, for that he is such no one can doubt.” CORniclooo S CO)