The String of Pearls (1850), p. 515

mind could have been quite at ease, his recovery would have been as rapid any one could possibly have wished or expected.
As soon as he was up and about upon the following morning, then, after the arrests, the colonel sought Tobias's room, and with a cheerful smile upon his face he said
"Well, Tobias, I come to bring you good news."
"Indeed, sir?" said Tobias his colour coming and going in flushes. "I am very weak, and—and if—"
"Come, come, Tobias. What I am going to tell you will strengthen you, I know. Todd is in Newgate!"
Tobias drew a long breath.
"Todd is in Newgate?" he replied, "Todd is in Newgate? The walls are very thick. I am safe now."
"Yes, you are, indeed, Tobias. The walls of Newgate are thick, and the doors are massive and well-guarded. Be assured that Todd will never issue out at them but to his execution. Your old cunning enemy is at length more powerless by a great deal than you are, and from this moment you may completely banish all fear from your mind upon his account."
"And the woman, sir, Mrs. Lovett?"
"She is in Newgate likewise."
"Both, both, and their crimes then are all known at last, and there will be no more murders, and no more poor boys driven mad as I was! Oh, God be thanked, it is indeed all over now, all over."
With this Tobias burst into tears, and relieved his surcharged heart of a load of misery. In the course of about five minutes he looked up with such a great smile of happiness upon his face, that it was quite a joy to see it.
"And you, sir, you," he said, "my dear friend have done all this!"
"Not all, Tobias. I have helped in every way that lay in my power to bring the affair about, but it is Sir Richard Blunt the magistrate, who has toiled day and night almost in the matter, and who has at last brought it to so successful an issue, that the guilt of both Todd and Mrs. Lovett can be distinctly and clearly proved, without the shadow of a doubt."
"Unhappy wretches!"
"They are, indeed, Tobias, unhappy wretches, and may Heaven have mercy upon them. Some other old friends of yours, too, will, before nightfall I think, find a home in Newgate."
"Indeed, sir, whom mean you?"
"The folks at the madhouse at Peckham. Sir Richard would have had them apprehended some time ago, but he was afraid that it might give the alarm to Todd, before the affair was ripe enough to enable him to be arrested, with a certainty of his crimes being clearly understood and brought home to him. Now, however, that is all over, and they will be punished.''
"They are very, very wicked. I think, sir, they are almost worse than Sweeney Todd."
"They are, if anything ; but they will meet with their deserts, never fear; and as Minna Gray is expected every moment, so your mother tells me, I will not deprive you of the gratification of giving her the piece of news yourself. Of course, all the town will know it soon through the medium of the press; and Sir Richard Blunt, too, will be here in the course of the morning, to arrange with you concerning your evidence."
"My evidence? Shall I be wanted?"
"Yes, Tobias. Surely you would not like so notorious a criminal to find a loop-hole of escape, from the want of your evidence?"
"Oh, no, no—I will go. I have only to tell the truth, and that should never be denied for or against. I will go, sir."
"You are right, Tobias. It is a duty you owe to society. If some one long ago, and before you even had the evil fortune to go into his shop, had