The inner mind was exasperated by barefaced
injustice and oppression; above all, by his letters being stopped; for
that convinced him both Baker and Bailey, with their see-saw evasions,
knew he was sane, and dreaded a visit from honest, understanding men: and
the mind's external organ, the brain, which an asylum professes to
soothe, was steadily undermined by artificial sleeplessness. A man can't
sleep in irons till he is used to them and, when Alfred was relieved of
these, his sleep was still driven away by biting insects and barking
dogs, two opiates provided in many of these placid Retreats, with a view
to the permanence rather than the comfort of the lodgers.
On the eighth day Alfred succeeded at last in an object he had steadily
pursued for some time: he caught the two see-saw humbugs together.
"Now," said he, _"you_ say _he_ intercepts my letters; and _he_ says it
is _you_ who do it. Which is the truth?"
They were staggered, and he followed up his advantage: "Look me in the
face, gentlemen," said he. "Can you pretend you do not know I am sane?
Ah, you turn your heads away.
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