The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

OR RN Lt ete ome he MON amg em: nh ee || bat still suggestive of something very different, and make me at times a convert | to the belief in an interfering special Providenee, and this is one of them.” “It is a dangerous doctrine, my friend.” “Think you so?” “Yes. Itis much better and much safer both for the judgment and imagi- ' nation to account naturally for all those things which admit of a natural explana- | | tion, than to fall back upon a special Providence, and fancy that it is continually || interfering with the great and immutable laws that govern the world. Ido not— || -mark me—deny such a thing, but I would not befhasty in asserting it. No man’s | } I - experience oan have been without numerous instances such as you menton.” | " “ Certainly not.” ec ce: : ** Then I should say to you, as St. Paul said to the Athenians‘ In all things I find you superstitious.” What’s that?” A faint moan had come upon both their ears, and after listening for a few ' moments another made itself heard, and they fancied, by the direction of the |} sound, that Tobias’s lips must have uttered it. Placing his finger against his |{ ' mouth to indicate silence, the colonel stepped upto the bedside, and hiding | behind the curtains, he said, in the softest and kindest voice he could assume— “Tobias! Tobias! fear nothing now you are with friends, Tobias; and, above all, you are perfectly free from the power of Sweeney Todd.” “Tam eet mad! I am wot mad!” shouted Tobias with a shrill vehemence that | i made both the colonel and his friend start. ah , | “ Nay, who says you are mad, Tobias? We know you are not mad, my lad. Don’t alarm yourself about that, we know you are not mad.” “Mercy! mercy! Iwill say nothing—nothing. How fiend-like he looks. Oh, Mr. Todd, spare me, and I will go far, far away, and die somewhere else, but do not kill me now, Iam yet iridtielen a boy only, and my poor father is dead——dead—dead !” «Ring the bell,” said Jeffery to his friend, “and tell John to go for Mr. Chisolm, the surgeon. Come-come, Tobias, you still fancy you are under the _power of Todd, bust it is not so—you are quite safe here.” | ‘“Hush! hush! mother—oh, where are you, mother—-did you leave me here, | | ‘mother? Say you took, ina moment of thoughtlessness, the silver candlestick ! Is Todd to be a devil, because you were thoughtless once? Hide me from him== hide me—hide! hide! Tam notmad. Hark! I hear him—one—two—three—_ four-—five-«six steps, and all Todd’s. Kach one leaves blood in its track. Look | athim now! His face changes—’tis a fox’s—~a serpent’s—hideous—hideous— } | God—God ! I am mad—mad—mad !” ow! i The boy dashed his head from side to side, and would have flung the bed had not Colonel Jeftery advanced and held him. “Poor fellow,” he said, ‘‘ this is very shocking. Tobias! Tobias!” | ‘‘Hush! I hear—poor thing, did they say you was mad too ?—~Hide me in the } | straw! There—there—what a strange thing it is for all the air to be so full ef | | ' blood. Do we breathe blood, and only fancy it air? Hush! not a word—he comes with a serpent’s face—oh, tell me why does God let such beings ever riot | | upon the beautiful earth—one—two—three—-four—five—six—Hiss—hiss! Off | —off! Iam not mad—not mad. Ha! ha! ha!” | An appalling shriek concluded this paroxysm, and for a few moments Tobias | was still, Whe medical man at this time entered the room. i - Oh,” he said, “we have roused him up again, have we.” Medical men are | | rather fond of the plural identifying style of talking. | * Yes,” said Colonel Jeffery, “‘ but he had better have slept the sleep of death j than have awakened to be what he is, poor fellow.’ <* A little—eh 2?” The doctor tapped his forehead. “sen | «* Nota little.” | | +1 «Far away over the sea!” said Tobias, “ oh, yes=in atiy ship, only donot kill _me, Mr. Todd—let me go arid I will say nothing, I will work and send my poor {| himself from | comicbooks.com