The passage-door was thrown back, and the doctor stood upon its threshold. A yard some forty feet square, surrounded by a wall about six yards high, and floored with rolled gravel, like the path of a garden, was before him. Near the centre stood a dismal-looking yewtree, its trunk rugged, and indented with deep natural furrows, as though four or five shoots had sprung up together, and at last become matted into one; its black lines of foliage, harmonizing in form with the long horizontal clouds of the north-west quarter, which now marked the close approach of night. Nothing else was to be seen. As the eye, however, became somewhat more accustomed to the peculiar dusky light which pervaded this place, the figure of a man standing against the tree-trunk became visible; with his arms tightly crossed upon his breast, and bound behind him as though they had almost grown into his sides; and his hair hanging long upon his shoulders, somewhat like that of a cavalier, or royalist, of the middle of the seventeenth century. The doctor raised his voice, and called, in a lusty tone, “Woodruff!” The patient returned no answer, nor did he move. “James Woodruff!” again shouted the doctor. A slight turn of the head, which as quickly resumed its previous attitude, was the only response made to the doctor's summons. Finding that he could not call this strange individual to him, Doctor Rowel stepped across the yard, and advanced up to him. “James,” said he mildly, “it is time you were in your cell.” The man looked sternly in his face, and replied, “I have been there some thousands of times too often already.” “Never heed that,” answered Rowel. “You _must_ go to rest, you know.” “_Must_ go--ay? Ah! and so I must. I am helpless. But, had I one hand free--only one hand--nay, with one finger and thumb, I would first put you to rest where you should never wake again! When am I to go free?” “Will you go to your room?” said the doctor, without regarding his question. “I ask again,” cried the alleged madman, “as I have asked every day past counting, when am I to be loosed of this accursed place? How long is this to last?” “Only until you are better,” remarked, with deep dissimulation, this worthy member of the faculty.