Bedlam Page #7

You will remember.

Someday you will remember.

And the bailiff came

and she went with him to Bedlam.

Apparently, Sims fears an investigation.

Men have rid themselves of unwanted

wives by that sweet expedient.

But it takes Sims to forestall criticism

with imprisonment.

I shall not believe such ill, even of him.

But she is there. I've spoken with her.

She is as sane as thee or me.

Mistress Nell with that bright,

quick mind of hers...

saner than either a politician or a Quaker.

This is still England, Hannay.

And we have laws here.

Laws of right and justice.

And I shall see

that Sims feels their full weight.

We'll have Nell out of Bedlam in a twinkle.

Never fear.

"Let Hull, house of Hull rejoice with Subis

a bird called the Spight

"which breaks the Eagle's eggs"

That's not right.

"Let Scroop, house of Scroop

rejoice with Fig-Wine

"Palmi, primarium vinum

"That's not so. Palmi-primum is the word"

That's not right.

"Let Hollingstead, house of Hollingstead

rejoice with Sissitietaeris

"herb of good fellowship

"Praise the name of the Lord

September, 1762"

That's not the word of truth.

The word of truth is peace.

Wallace, Betty. Stop.

We were fighting over truth.

Wiser people than you

have fought over it, Betty.

Mistress Bowen.

A word with you. I have good news.

You are to have a new hearing

before the Commission.

- When?

- When it pleases the Commission.

It will please them to hold your hearing

tomorrow afternoon.

I'm delighted for your sake.

Indeed, I am so pleased...

I want to do everything possible to make

sure that your hearing is a success.

- That you will be released.

- Thank you.

In fact, I have ordered

my most beneficent remedy for you.

- A remedy, Master Sims?

- Have they not told you?

It's my own invention. A cure.

Specific for the lax and wandering mind.

Look at him.

When he came here,

he had but one concern...

to remember something he had forgotten.

I tried to help him with my remedy...

- but perhaps I was not drastic enough.

- I need no cure.

- Just to be sure, Mistress Bowen.

- No.

I've given you an invitation.

Now I must speak as your physician.

Come with me.

I'll take my chances

with the commissioners. I need no cure.

As the Apothecary General of Bedlam,

I order you.

- No.

- Lf you insist upon it, I must force you.

Force me? Here? Look around you.

- Do you think your friends will help you?

- I have helped them.

You expect them to band together

and overwhelm me?

If they could reason so,

they would not be here.

I warn you, Sims. They know me.

They know I've helped them,

been kind to them...

And so they love you and will aid you.

Again that Quaker nonsense.

- Let go of me.

- Hold him.

- Warders, help! Warders!

- Shout away, Master Sims.

Your men are used to Bedlam

and its noises.

They've heard too many cries

to pay attention to one.

As for me, I'll just borrow your keys,

Master Sims.

No, Mistress Bowen. Not that way.

There's a warder in the hall

and another at the front door.

But you heard him threaten me

with the treatment. I cannot stay here.

There's a little window

that is left unbarred.

I think I know that window, Master Todd.

You must be mad if you think I'd climb

through that window as Master Colby did.

- And others before him, I dare say.

- I'm not mad, Mistress Bowen.

I'm not like the others here.

I have been placed here by my family...

to keep me from drink,

so that I may write and support them.

I know that little window is dangerous.

Designed for a death trap.

But those who tried before

were men of small strength.

- I'm no Hercules.

- Tom could lift you through that window.

You have more reason than the rest.

I expect more of you.

You know what I can do, don't you?

Then go to the door.

Call the warders for me.

Do as I say!

But the rest, what will they do to me?

Don't be afraid of their vengeance.

They can't think far enough ahead for that.

They're lunatics. They've been tried

and found incompetent by fair trial.

Trial.

Quo warranto.

Corpus delicti cum grano salis.

Yes, I'd forgotten you were a lawyer.

A lawyer, sir? I am a judge.

I am a judge.

I, the most skilled of them all.

And you shall be judged.

Judged, I say. Bailiffs, hold this man.

- He disturbs the court.

- You can go through that door.

- Try him.

- A fair trial for Master Sims.

- A fair trial.

- Mistress Bowen, speak to them.

- Please speak to them, I beseech you.

- Give Master Sims a fair trial.

Tom, you must get up on the roof.

You're to go first,

and then you are to pull me up.

Up. You understand?

Tom.

Tom.

I am Solomon the Wise. Split him in two.

Split him in two.

And so we have brought

this man before you...

to answer for these crimes.

These crimes,

which I shall number for you:

- Neglect.

- Yeah.

- Cruelty.

- Yeah.

Whippings. Beatings.

Dirty straw to lie upon.

- Yeah.

- Chains.

Starvation. Stealing our food.

For all these crimes,

milord and gentlemen of the jury...

I ask justice.

Kill him.

No. Let me speak.

Please, my friends, I beg of you.

Let me speak, let me speak.

- William.

- This is God's house.

- I broke free from Bedlam.

- But thee should not have run from there.

Thee were to have

a new hearing tomorrow.

If I had lived until then.

He had some treatment

he was to give me.

A treatment that made even

the maddest of them shudder to hear.

- I ran and they have him now.

- Who has him?

The loonies. They have seized him

and are trying him in mockery.

They will kill him.

It is what he deserves.

Thee should not speak that way

of any man.

- They will. They will kill him.

- Then thee must go to him.

Thee must speak to the poor afflicted ones

and save him.

- Save him?

- Can one know what is in his mind?

Can one know what sickness lies in it?

As thee were kind to those in Bedlam...

so thee must be kind to those

whose sickness...

- forces them to hurt their fellow man.

- But Sims?

Has not Sims a madness

that thee can pity?

Come, we'll get Wilkes. He'll help us.

- But why, Sims, why?

- I did not want to hurt you.

I did not want to put chains on you,

to steal from you, to starve you.

But you did. And now it's our turn.

You will not dare harm me.

They'll load you with chains,

scourge you with the cat.

Then you shall really know

what cruelty can be. I warn you.

Your vengeance isn't our present concern.

What you have done concerns us.

- Why you did it.

- I've told you, because I had to.

Even as you do things

because you have to do them.

- Even as you drink.

- But why?

I was frightened.

Did you beat us out of fright, Sims?

Did you starve us out of fear?

Split him in two.

Is that why you still threaten us

if harm comes to you?

- The rods, the chains. I warn you.

- You spoke of your fear.

- Fear of what? Speak quickly.

- Of the great world.

The great world of this age that gave me

my place. The comforts and the authority.

What little I have of riches.

What that world thinks, I must think.

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