I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God,-even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm. Gentlemen, my plan is broken up! -what this lawyer and his client say is true: I have been married: and the woman to whom I was married lives! You say you never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at the house up yonder, Wood: but I daresay you have many a time inclined your ear to gossip about the mysterious lunatic kept there under watch and ward.
Some have whispered to you that she is my bastard half sister: some, my cast-off mistress; I now inform you that she is my wife, whom I married fifteen years ago,-Bertha Mason by name; sister of this resolute personage, who is now, with his quivering limbs and white cheeks, showing you what a stout heart men may bear. Cheer up, Dick!-never fear me!-I'd almost as soon strike a woman as you. Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family;-idiots and maniacs through three generations!
Her mother, the Creole, was both a mad woman and a drunkard! -as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before. Bertha, like a dutiful child, copied her parent in both points. I had a charming partner-pure, wise, modest: you can fancy I was a happy man.-I went through rich scenes! Oh! My experience has been heavenly, if you only knew it! But I owe you no further explanation. Briggs, Wood, Mason,-
I invite you all to come up to the house and visit Mrs. Poole's patient, and my wife!-You shall see what sort of a being I was cheated into espousing, and judge whether or not I had a right to break the compact, and seek sympathy with something at least human. This girl," he continued, looking at me, "knew no more than you, Wood, of the disgusting secret: she thought all was fair and legal; and never dreamt she was going to entrapped into a feigned union with a defrauded wretch, already bound to a bad, mad, and embruted partner! Come all of you, follow!"