unatic Asylum. Having an inborn thirst
for facts, I conversed with him from the wooden platform which
overlooks the gaol yard. He was walking to and fro, and talking very
cheerfully to himself, and to the world in general. He spoke well,
and had evidently been well educated, but his ideas were all in
pieces as it were, and lacked connection. He spoke very
disrespectfully of men in high places, both in England and the
Colonies; and remarked that Members of Parliament were the greatest
rascals on the face of the earth. No man of sound mind would ever
use such language as that.

Some years afterwards, while I was Collector of Customs at Port
Albert, I received a letter from Melbourne to the following purport:

"Yarra Bend Asylum,
----------188--

"Strictly private and confidential

"Sir,--You are hereby ordered to take possession of and detain
every vessel arriving at Port Albert. You will immediately proceed
on board each of them, and place the broad arrow abaft the foremast
six feet above the deck. You will thus cut off all communication
with the British Empire. I may state that I am the lawful heir to
the title and estates of a Scottish dukedom, and am deprived of the
possession and enjoyment of my rightful station and wealth by the
machinations of a band of conspirators, who have found means to
detain me in this prison in order to enjoy my patrimony. You will
particularly observe that you are to hold no communication whatever
with the Governor of this colony, as he is the paid agent of the
conspirators, and will endeavour to frustrate all efforts to obtain
my rights. You will also be most careful to withhold all information
from the Duke of Dunsinane, who is a member of the junior branch of
my family, and at the head of the conspiracy. You will proceed as
soon as possible to enrol a body of men for the purpose of effecting
my deliverance by force of arms. As these men will require payment
for their services, you will enter the Bank of Victoria at Port
Albert, and seize all the money you will find there, the amount of
which I estimate at ten thousand pounds, which will be sufficient for
preliminary expenses. You will give, in my name, to the manager of
the bank, a guarantee in writing for repayment of the money, with
current rate of interest added, when I recover the dukedom and
estates. Be careful to explain to him that you take the money only
as a loan, and that will prevent the bank from laying an