152

HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

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folded his arms, and sat down, doubtless
expecting that in due time a servant would
enter as usual to inform him that dinner was
ready. But in this he was deceived.

Dinner hour arrived, and no servant ap-
peared. He waited patiently for some time;
but at length the pangs of hunger roused
him from his listlessness, and he began to call
out loudly for something to eat. No one
answered him; and he passed the whole
night in knocking on the walls of his apart-
ment, and ordering his servants to bring him
his dinner.

About nine o'clock next morning, one of
the keepers entered the apartment of the
new patient, who, starting up with more
energy than he usually manifested, imperi-
ously ordered his breakfast to be prepared.
The keeper offered to go into the town to
purchase something for his breakfast, if he
would give him the money to pay for it.
The hungry man eagerly thrust his hands
into his pocket, and to his dismay, having
discovered that he had no money, he implored
the keeper to go and procure him some break-
fast on credit.

"Credit!" exclaimed the keeper, who had
received the requisite instructions from Count
Pisani. " Credit, indeed! No doubt you
might easily have obtained credit to any
amount, when you were living at Castelve-
leruno, and everyone believed you to be the
rightful lord of those fine domains. But now
that the truth has come out, who do you
think will give credit to a pauper?"

The lunatic immediately recollected what
Count Pisani had told him respecting his
altered position in life, and the necessity of
working for his daily bread. He remained
for a few moments as if absorbed in profound
reflection; then, turning to the keeper, he
asked whether he would point out to him
some mode by which he could earn a little
money to save himself from starvation.

The keeper replied that if he would help
him to carry up to the loft the fagots of fire-
wood which were in the cellar, he would
willingly pay him for his work. The pro-
posal was readily accepted; and after carrying
up twelve loads of wood, the labourer received
his hire, consisting of a little money just
sufficient to purchase a loaf of bread, which
he devoured with a keener appetite than he
ever remembered to have felt throughout the
whole previous course of his life.

He then set to work to earn his dinner as
he had earned his breakfast; but instead of
twelve, he carried up thirty-six loads of
wood. For this he was paid three times as
much as he had received in the morning, and
his dinner was proportionably better and
more abundant than his breakfast.

Thenceforward the business proceeded with
the most undeviating regularity; and the
patient at last conceived such a liking for his
occupation, that when all the wood had been
carried from the cellar to the loft, he began

of his own voluntary accord to carry it down
from the loft to the cellar, and vice versâ.

When I saw this lunatic, he had been em-
ployed in this manner for about a year. The
morbid character of his madness had com-
pletely disappeared, and his bodily health,
previously bad, was now re-established. Count
Pisani informed me that he intended soon to
try the experiment of telling him that there
was some reason to doubt the accuracy of
the statements which had caused him to lose
the property he once enjoyed; and that he
(the Count) was in quest of certain papers
which might, perhaps, prove after all, that he
was no changeling, but the rightful heir to the
estates of which he had been deprived.
"But," added the Count, when he told me
this, " however complete this man's recovery
may at any time seem to be, I will not allow
him to quit this place unless he gives me a
solemn promise that he will every day, where-
soever he may be, carry twelve loads of wood
from the cellar to the garret, and twelve loads
down from the garret to the cellar. On that
condition alone, shall I feel any security
against the risk of his relapse. Want of
occupation is well known to be one of the
most frequent causes of insanity."

Each patient had a separate apartment,
and several of these little rooms were
furnished and decorated in the most capri-
cious style, according to the claims of their
occupants. One, who believed himself to
be the son of the Emperor of China,
had his walls hung with silk banners, on
which were painted dragons and serpents,
whilst all sorts of ornaments cut out in gold
paper, lay scattered about the room. This
lunatic was good-tempered and cheerful, and
Count Pisani had devised a scheme which he
hoped might have some effect in mitigating
the delusions under which he laboured. He
proposed to print a copy of a newspaper,
and to insert in it a paragraph announcing
that the Emperor of China had been de-
throned, and had renounced the sovereignty
on the part of his son and his descendants.
Another patient, whose hallucination con-
sisted in believing himself to be dead, had his
room hung with black crape, and his bed con-
structed in the form of a bier. Whenever
he arose from his bed, he was either wrapped
in a winding sheet, or in some sort of drapery
which he conceived to be the proper costume
for a ghost. This appeared to me to be a
very desperate case, and I asked Count
Pisani whether he thought there was any
chance of curing the victim of so extraordi-
nary a delusion. The Count shook his head
doubtfully, and observed that his only hope
rested on a scheme he meant shortly to try;
which was to endeavour to persuade the
lunatic that the day of judgment had arrived.

As we were quitting this chamber, we
heard a loud roaring in another patient's
apartment near at hand. The Count asked
me whether I had any wish to see how he