the ordinary acts and duties of life, recovered all his powers when
the field of his discoveries was touched upon. He became animated, and
spoke with the assurance of a man who knows whereof he is descanting,
and an authority that carried conviction with it. In the heat of his
eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of his fulgurator
and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature of the
explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed,
he preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out
of him remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the
paroxysms to which he was occasionally subject, there had been reason
to believe that his secret would escape him, and every precaution had
been taken to note his slightest utterance. But Thomas Roch had
each time disappointed his watchers. If he no longer preserved the
sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to preserve the
secret of his discovery.

Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was
surrounded by hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise
under the surveillance of his guardian. This guardian lived in the
same pavilion, slept in the same room with him, and kept constant
watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He hung upon
the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state
between sleeping and waking--watched and listened while he dreamed.

This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of
Thomas Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently
was wanted, he had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had
been engaged to look after the new inmate.