The electric light in medicine.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The electric light in medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    May 14, 1881.] MY UNFORTUNATE PATIENT. 513 taking everything into consideration, we came to the determination that something must be done, and done quickly'. Of course, I did not accompany them to their solicitor’s ; but I heard his opinion was, that they were unnecessarily anxious, and he reminded Mrs Roystpn that, according to law, the wife was not to be lightly interfered with. However, circumstances favoured us. I hap- pened to Re driving past Grosvenor Gardens, when at a crossing I caught sight of the housekeeper into whoseXliands I had intrusted Mr Meredith on the last oc&asion when I had seen him. Quick as thought, I pulled the check-string, and jumped out. Perhaps snh owed a grudge to Mrs Meredith; perhaps she had a. feeling of pity for her unfor- tunate master; perhaps the half-sovereign I slipped into her hand had aVsoftening effect. I did not care what it was, so long as she was softened. I came to my point pretty quickly'. I wanted to know where her master ‘ Well, sir, there’s no dodbt where he is, though we servants are not supposed* to know. He is at II ; ’ naming a private lunatic asylum. ‘ Poor. gentleman, we all said it was a shame ! But afte you left, Mr Stretton he went off and brings two doctors; and the thing was settled sofn enough. My mistress saw them first; and they went up-stairs to see the master; and Robson and Jones—the two men you'^aw i: dressing-room — got their orders to fires: Meredith as well as they could; and driven away. They carried him into t riage.’ ‘ And did Mrs Meredith go with them ‘0 no, sir. She is off somewhere/else, was Robson let out to me where the master wal going; and I’m sure I hope I woijrt get into trouble for telling you, sir. I hope it/von’t go no farther.’ ‘You need not be afraid,’ I said,/ ‘I will pro- mise that Mrs Royston will hold /you harmless. But in the cause of humanity', yo* must give us all the assistance you can in </xler to release Mr Meredith.’ ‘ Release him, sir ! We can’t/interfere. If his wife puts him in, no one c/n take him out. Robson told me that much.’ ‘I think Robson was wrotA',’ I replied. ‘But tell me your name ; and aeo promise you will find out at once for me where Mrs Meredith is.’ ‘Forrest is my name, sir—Mrs Forrest. And I may as well tell you where my mistress is. She went down to Brighton.' ‘ Well, good-day to yah for the present, Mrs Forrest. Here is my direction. But you will probably hear from mi shortly.’ And I drove off, tingling all over with mingled anxiety and indignation. As may be surmi^d, I lost not a moment in communicating my Xuformation to Mr Charles Royston, who, hapmly for his sister-in-law and Mr Meredith, was l man of energy and decision, as well as prudent And far-seeing. He soon settled upon a course of Action. It was useless to go to the asy'lum and /demand Mr Meredith ; useless to apply to magistrates until another course had failed; and beyond all, it was useless to delay a day or an hour, when the sands of the unhappy patient’s life were swiftly ebbing awayr. Accom- panied by his solicitor, he went to Grosvenor Gardens, and there summoned all the servants together and briefly stated his case. Like most evil-doers, Mrs Meredith had betrayed herself; and aft the first movement in favour of their master, the servants one after another gave testimony against her. Before he left the house, Mr Royston had amply sufficient grounds for believing tjfat he would succeed in getting the guardianship of Mr Meredith taken out of her hands. Tfle next morning, he started for Brighton, and surprised Mrs Meredith, not altogether pleasur- ably, in /the middle of a sumptuous breakfast, to which she and Mr Stretton were apparently doing ample justice. At .first, she treated Mr Royston very much as she had treated me, with arrogant insolence, in -/inch Mr Stretton supported her ; but they fougd that their visitor meant business. He very quiet and very cool, and kept to his p^int with steady persistence. He began by ' ing her upon what grounds she had prevented firs Royston from seeing her brother; and Mrs Meredith, who did not dream how much was known, replied defiantly: ‘Simply because I do not choose that she should see him.’ ‘ And is it simply because you choose, that Mon- tagu Meredith is now at H , the sane inmate of a lunatic asylum ? Now, we shall understand each other,’ he continued. ‘ I have come here because I know evmjthing—because I hold evidence that will take Mr Meredith out of your power for ever. Your servants have come forward—your secrets are known—and I hold a power over you both,’ turning towards Mr Stretton, who paled visibly. ‘ But for Meredith’s sake, we want no unnecessary disclosures in public. If he lives, you have less to fear. If he dies, the law will decide. In the meantime, before I leave this room, you must ve me a written authority to authorise me to withdraw Mr Meredith from II , and to place him under the care of his sister. That is all I ask at present.’ And.he got it. He came back in triumph ; and I accompanied Mrs Royston and himself down to H , where we found Mr Meredith still alive, and keenly conscious of his terrible and, what he had fancied, hopeless situation. He wrept like a child in his sister’s arms, clung to her in tremulous terror, and besought her never to leave him, not to let him die there. She was deeply affected, but restrained herself nobly, while we settled matters with the doctor there, who had received the patient at the request of his wife, and on the verdict of two other medical men. These signatures being sufficient to incarcerate the sanest, the asylum doctor was free from all blame in the matter, and Mr Meredith had been sub- jected to no unkind treatment at his hands. But in his enfeebled state—to be watched day and night by an attendant, treated as aXlunatic, sepa- rated from all his friends, and feeling himself in an asylum, was enough—more than eiiough to drive him into actual madness. Whether my suspicions relative to \ecret poisoning were correct or not, they were greatly strengthened and confirmed by the tidings tjhff Mrs Meredith and her cousin had vanished, taking'- her jewel-case and a large sum of money with them. They had been careful, before leaving Grosvenor Gardens, to remove or destroy every- thing that might lead to detection on the score of hEt-’