inaroras OF JOSEPH GBIMAXBI. 209

shared off, and his person being kept under strict restraint.
Concluding that he had a maniac to deal with, Grimaldi spoke
in a very gentle, quiet manner, which the patient observing,
hurst into a roar of laughter.

" My dear fellow," said Bradbury, " don't look and speak to
me in that way!—for though you find me here, treated as a
patient, and with my head shaved, I am no more mad than you
are."

Grrimaldi rather doubted this assurance, knowing it to be a
common one with insane people, and therefore kept at a respect-
ful distance. He was not long in discovering, however, that
what Bradbury said was perfectly true. The circumstances
which had led to his confinement in the lunatic asylum were
briefly these:

Bradbury was a very dashing person, keeping a tandem, and
associating with many gentlemen and men of title. Upon one
occasion, when he had been playing at Plymouth, a man-of-war
was coming round from that town to Portsmouth, on board of
which he had several friends among the officers, who took Tn'm
on board with them. It was agreed that they should sup
together at Portsmouth. A. splendid meal having been pre-
pared, they spent the night, or at least the larger portion of it,
in great hilarity. As morning approached, Bradbury rose to
retire, and then, with considerable surprise, discovered that a
magnificent gold snuff-bos, with a gold chain attached, which
he was accustomed to wear in hiAob, and which he had placed
on the table for the use of his friends, had disappeared. He
mentioned the circumstance, and a strict search was imme-
diately instituted, but with no other effect than that of proving
that the valuable box was gone. "When every possible conjec-
ture had been hazarded, and inquiry made without success, it
was recollected that one of their companions, a young gentleman
already writing " Honourable" before his name, and having a
coronet in no very remote perspective, had retired from theum, and had