said Sweeney Todd, "I don't suppose you do, and for my part I
never heard of a cell laughing yet." "Oh! you know what I mean, Mr. Todd, well enough." "That may be," said Todd, "but it would be just as well to say it for
all that. I think, however, as I came in you said something about
refreshment?" "I certainly did; and, if you will honour me by stepping back to my
room, I think I can offer you, Mr. Todd, a glass of as nice wine as the
king himself could put on his table, if he were any judge of that
commodity, which I am inclined to think he is not." "What do you expect," said Sweeney Todd, "that such an idiot should be a
judge of?--but I shall have great pleasure in tasting your wine, for I
have no hesitation in saying that my work to-night has made me thirsty." At this moment a shriek was heard, and Sweeney Todd shrank away from the
door. "Oh! it's nothing, it's nothing," said Mr. Fogg; "if you had resided
here as long as I have, you would get accustomed to now and then hearing
a slight noise. The worst of it is, when half a dozen of the mad fellows
get shrieking against each other in the middle of the night. Then, I
grant, it is a little annoying." "What do you do with them?" "We send in one of the keepers with the lash, and soon put a stop to
that. We are forced to keep the upper hand of them, or else we should
have no rest. Hark! do you not hear that fellow now?--he is generally
pretty quiet, but he has taken it into his head to be outrageous to-day;
but one of my men will soon put a stop to that. This way, Mr. Todd, if
you please, and as we don't often meet, I think when we do we ought to
have a social glass." Sweeney Todd made several horrible faces as he followed the
madhouse-keeper, and he looked as if it would have given him quite as
much pleasure, and no doubt it would, to brain that individual, as to
drink his wine, although probably he would have preferred doing the
latter process first, and executing the former afterwards, and at his
leisure. They soon reached the room which was devoted to the use of Mr.
Fogg and his friends, and which contained the many little curiosities in
the way of madhouse discipline that were in that age considered
indispensable in such establishments. Mr. Fogg moved away with his hands
a great number of the books and papers which were on the table, so as to
leave a vacant space, and then drawing the cork of a bottle, he filled
himself a large glass of its contents, and invited Sweeney Todd to do
the same, who was by no means slow in following his example. While these
two villains are carousing, and caring nothing for the scenes of misery
with which they are surrounded, poor Tobias, in conformity with the
orders that had been issued with regard to him, was conveyed along a
number of winding passages, and down several staircases, towards the
cells of the establishment. In vain he struggled to get free from his
captor--as well might a hare have struggled in the fangs of a wolf--nor
were his cries at all heeded; although, now and then, the shrieks he
uttered were terrible to hear, and enough to fill any one with dismay. "I am not mad," said he, "indeed I am not mad--let me go, and I will say
nothing--not one word shall ever pass my lips regarding Mr. Todd--let me
go, oh, let me go, and I will pray for you as long as I live." Mr. Watson whistled a lively tune. "If I promise--if I swear to tell nothing, Mr. Todd will not wish me
kept here--all he wants is my silence, and I will take any oath he
likes. Speak to him for me, I implore you, and let me go." Mr. Watson commenced the second part of his lively tune, and by that
time he reached a door, which he unlocked, and then, setting down Tobias
upon the threshold, he gave him a violent kick, which flung him down two
steps on to the stone floor of a miserable cell, from the roof of which
continual moisture was dripping, the only accommodation it possessed
being a truss of damp straw flung into one corner. "There," said Mr. Watson, "my lad, you can stay there and make yourself
comfortable till somebody comes to shave your head, and after that you
will find yourself quite a gentleman." "Mercy! mercy--have mercy upon me!" "Mercy!--what the devil do you mean by mercy? Well, that's a good joke;
but I can tell you, you have come to the wrong shop for that; we don't
keep it in stock here, and if we wanted ever so little of it, we should
have to go somewhere else for it." [Illustration]

Mr. Watson laughed so much at his own joke, that he felt quite amiable,
and told Tobias that if he were perfectly quiet, and said "thank you"
for everything, he wouldn't put him on the strait waistcoat, although
Mr. Fogg had ordered it; "for," added Mr. Watson, "so far as that goes,
I don't care a straw what Mr. Fogg says, or what he does; he can't do
without me, damn him! because I know too many of his secrets." Tobias made no answer to this promise, but he lay upon his back on the
floor of the cell wringing his hands despairingly, and feeling that
almost already the very atmosphere of that place seemed pregnant with
insanity, and giving himself up for lost entirely. "I shall never--never," he said, "look upon the bright sky and the green
fields again. I shall be murdered here, because I know too much; what
can save me now? Oh, what an evil chance it was that brought me back
again to my mother, when I ought to have been far, far away by this
time, instead of being, as I know I am, condemned to death in this
frightful place. Despair seizes upon me! What noise is that--a shriek? Yes, yes, there is some other blighted heart beside mine in this
dreadful house. Oh, Heaven! what will become of me? I feel already
stifled and sick, and faint with the air of this dreadful cell. Help,
help, help! have mercy upon me, and I will do anything, promise
anything, swear anything." If poor Tobias had uttered his complaints on the most desolate shore
that ever a shipwrecked mariner was cast upon, they could not have been
more unheeded than they were in that house of terror. He screamed and
shrieked for aid. He called upon all the friends he had ever known in
early life, and at that moment he seemed to remember the name of every
one who had ever uttered a kind word to him; and to those persons who,
alas! could not hear him, but were far enough removed away from his
cries, he called for aid in that hour of his deep distress. At length,
faint, wearied and exhausted, he lay a mere living wreck in that damp,
unwholesome cell, and felt almost willing that death should come and
relieve him, at least from the pang of constantly expecting it! His
cries, however, had had the effect of summoning up all the wild spirits
in that building; and, as he now lay in the quiet of absolute
exhaustion, he heard from far and near smothered cries and shrieks and
groans, such as one might expect would fill the air of the infernal
regions with dismal echoes.