_Gives a description of Fanny's visit to the madhouse, and of her
interview with her father._
After the lapse of some few days, during which Mr. Lupton left the hall
on his proposed brief journey,--(though not without first sending a
messenger to Whinmoor with a small packet for Colin, which the latter
found to contain fifteen guineas, and a repetition of the invitation
to appear again at Kiddal on the day previously named,)--Fanny's
arrangements for going over Doctor Rowel's establishment were completed;
and according to appointment she set out one morning, early after
breakfast, and reached Nabbfield about ten o'clock. As she approached
the place her heart began to throb violently, and her hands to tremble
as she placed them on her bosom, as if by that action to still the poor
troubled thing within. She gazed at the building as though every single
stone was a separate source of fear to her; at its melancholy windows
as so many eyes, out of which madness and pain looked upon the pleasant
world below. As she passed along the footpath outside the boundary wall
she stopped, and listened. Instead of sounds of woe, which she expected
to hear from within, the blackbird and the linnet in the plantations
sounded their pleasant notes there the same as elsewhere. The great and
gaudy dragon-fly darted along the sunny wall, and little clouds of gnats
flew in innumerable and ever-changing evolutions beneath the pendent
branches of the young elms and sycamores by the roadside. When she saw
the gateway she first lingered, and then stopped, to gather breath and
resolution. She could not: she looked again, and then retraced her steps
some yards, hoping to quiet herself, and grow more calm. She looked up
at the sky: it was bright, and vast, and deep, with an intense blue,
that seemed as unfathomable as eternity. She thought of her father, and
then of another Father who alone could help her and sustain her in all
trials. Fanny sunk down upon the bank, and clasped her hands together in
silent and spontaneous prayer for assistance to meet the coming trial.
She arose strengthened, calm, and assured.
As the keeper of the lodge-gate opened it to admit her, Fanny inquired,
with evident signs of fear, whether the people whom she saw at some
distance up the pathway, would do her any injury? These were several of
the partially-recovered and harmless patients, who had been allowed to
take exercise in the garden. Although Fanny's question was answered in
the negative, and she was told not to be in the least afraid of them,
she yet advanced up the pathway with a quick-beating heart, and a
timorous step. As she approached them, several of the people held up
their heads, and gazed half-vacantly at her.
Fanny hurried along with increased rapidity, and reached the doctor's
house without interruption. She rung the bell, and stood a long time
before anybody answered it, though she knew not it was more than a
moment, so occupied was her mind with the thoughts of what was about to
ensue. “If my father _be_ here,” thought she,--“if I _should_ see him,
and hear him say his name is the same as mine, what in the world shall
I do? How shall I conduct myself? What shall I say to him?” and, as
she thus thought the door opened, and Fanny was ushered into an
elegantly-furnished room, such as she had not before seen, and at the
same time into the presence of the doctor's wife.
As I have before stated that the visit had been previously arranged,
Mrs. Rowel was of course prepared to conduct her almost immediately
over the establishment. As she successively passed through open rooms
in which the more harmless patients were assembled,--some laughing and
playful, others desponding and weeping over again their troubles of
former days,--and thence was conducted down gloomy ranges of cells, the
dim light of which just served to show the fairest of God's creations
writhing in foul struggle with the demon of madness,--or, yet more
remotely, was taken to behold sights which humanity forbids me to
describe, but which, once seen, can never be forgotten;--as all this,
I repeat, passed before the affrighted eyes of Fanny, and brought up to
her mind still more vividly the picture of her own father, it was
with the greatest difficulty she could hide her emotion from those who
accompanied her.
Fanny and the doctor's wife now proceeded together, and unaccompanied,
down that winding passage which led to the yard where James Woodruff
obtained all of daylight and air which he had enjoyed during many years.
The door was opened to the dazzling light of Midsummer time, so that
Fanny could scarcely see, after being so long in the dungeon-like places
of that dreary mansion. But there stood the black old yew-tree, looking
as if carved out of ebony, amidst the blaze of a mid-day sun, and under
its deep hard shadow lay a man, motionless as might be the monumental
effigy in some old church aisle; his eyes upon the bright space above
him, and his hands fast bound across his breast. As the noise occasioned
by the approach of Fanny and Mrs. Rowel reached his ear, he gently
turned his head, and displayed to the gaze of Fanny a countenance
pale and thoughtful, surrounded by a profusion of deep black hair, and
brightened by a pair of eyes of the same hue, that looked like spots of
jet set in a face of alabaster.
“And is he,” remarked Fanny, as she turned towards her conductress, “is
he as wild as those men we have seen in the cells?”
“The doctor,” replied Mrs. Rowel, “says he is quite insane; though for
myself I sometimes think he talks as properly and sensibly as you or
I might do. But then Mr. Rowel says that no dependence is to be placed
upon that, because people who are quite out of their senses will
sometimes appear as reasonable in their conversation as any other
person.”
This declaration somewhat startled Fanny's faith in the virtue of common
sense; and, as if seeking for an illustration of this strange doctrine
in the person before her, she again turned to the yew-tree. She started.
Those coal-black eyes were still upon her, fixed, and apparently full
of some mysterious meaning. She dreaded lest the madman should be
meditating wrong against her, and instinctively seized the arm of the
doctor's wife.
“Do not be alarmed,” observed the latter encouragingly; “he will do you
no injury in the world. He looks more frightful than he is a great deal;
his hair makes him look so: but he and I have had many conversations
together. I will try if he will speak, and then you can hear how these
mad people talk. James!” raising her voice, “how do you do to-day?”
He rolled round on his back, and by a sudden and peculiar action, which
long captivity and experience alone could have rendered familiar to
him, leapt instantaneously up without the assistance of his arms. Fanny
shrunk convulsively within the door, in dread lest he should approach
her.
“Stand still, my dear,” remarked her companion; “there is not the least
danger from him. Now, _do_ be assured, and come forward.”
Fanny obeyed with trembling, especially when she saw the man advance
towards them with the intention, apparently, of addressing either her
or her conductress. He spoke, however, in the first instance, to the
latter.
“Good morning, good lady, and to your young companion. How bright
and beautiful the day is! How does the world look beyond these walls?
Beautiful, I dare say; glorious far beyond any thought of mine, for I
have almost forgotten what robe the earth wears in summer time. Yet it
is full of delight even on this arid sand, and between these burning
walls. And so, young lady,”--and James Woodruff turned his dark eyes
upon Fanny's countenance as he spoke in a more jesting, yet melancholy
strain,--“you have come to look at me as a curiosity and a show?”
“Oh, no, sir!” exclaimed she in a hurried tone, and with her face
deepening with blushes, “I--I--I am very glad to see you, sir.”
“Are you?” exclaimed Woodruff earnestly. “Then Heaven bless that heart,
and reward you with its choicest gifts, for feeling glad to see such an
unfortunate thing as I! Glad to see me! Why, that is more than any one
has said these many years! Forgive me, young woman; but in your face I
see over again the good angel that delivered Peter from his dungeon,
and it is a blessing to my eyes to look upon one like you. I am not mad,
young lady; indeed I am not. Nay, do not shrink. I would dash this head
against the wall sooner than dream of injury to you. I had a wife once
at your age: your youth brings her back again, till I could think
she had come from heaven to plead for me! I have been here twenty
winters,--I have given up all my land and money--everything but
life--for liberty, and have still been basely deceived! Now do not, for
the love of God, and of justice! do not doubt me. I am not mad. I never
was. I was stolen from my home, and from my daughter--a child--a little
child.”
Fanny's brain grew dizzy. She clung to her companion for support.
“Let us go, my dear,” said Mrs. Rowel. “You cannot bear it. James, why
do you talk so?”
“I will not go!” cried Fanny eagerly, and struggling hard to rally
herself “Tell me your name--your name!” added she, addressing the
captive.
“Woodruff!” cried the poor prisoner.
Fanny's glazed eyes were fixed on him for an instant,--she sprung
forwards with a shriek, and fell at full length on the ground, and as
though dead, at his feet!
Mrs. Rowel and the unfortunate James Woodruff stood equally astonished.
The latter attempted to raise Fanny: he could not--his arms were
bound--and he laughed. But the next instant, as he requested the
mistress of the mansion to do so, he stooped over the insensible body
before him, and burst into a flood of tears.
“Who is she?” he demanded. “What soul of beauty is it?”
“I do not know, James,” replied the lady; “she is a stranger to me.”
“Would that I could touch her cheek with my finger!” said Woodruff. “She
is good--good indeed!”
In the mean time Robson had answered the call of Mrs. Rowel, and come to
her assistance.
“Carry her into the house. Or, stay, fetch water,” said she; “she had
better be recovered here,” and Robson was accordingly despatched for a
glass of water, with which he soon returned. It was applied to her
lips, and partially sprinkled on her forehead.
After a time she began to recover; she opened her eyes, looked round,
and spoke--“Where is he?”
“Here! I am here, young lady,” replied Woodruff, as he looked her
earnestly in the face to fix her attention. “What of me?”
“My father!” exclaimed Fanny, as she again sunk into a state of
insensibility.
“Father!” repeated Woodruff--“my father! I her father! She my daughter!”
He strove to wrench his arms free to clasp her to his bosom, but again
he could not.
“Take her away, Robson,” said Mrs. Rowel. “What does all this mean? Take
her away!--take her away!”
And Fanny was carried back by the strong man to the room into which she
had at first been introduced; while James Woodruff remained standing
upon that spot, gazing on that ground where his child had laid, as
though the great world contained in it no other place which, even to
him, deserved for a moment to be looked upon.