Book the Fourth, Napoleon the Great.

Chapter 1 The Boy from Slapperton

Eight years have passed since the trial of Richard Marwood.

How have these eight years been spent by Daredevil Dick?

In a small room a few square feet in the county lunatic asylum, 14 miles from the town

of Slapperton, with no human beings companionship, but that of a grumpy old deaf keeper and

a boy, his assistant.

For eight monotonous years this man's existence has crept slowly on, always the same, the same

food, the same hours at which that food must be eaten, the same rules and regulations

for every action of his inactive life.

Think of this.

And pity the man's surname Daredevil Dick, and once the maddest and merious creature in

a mad and merry circle.

Think of the daily walk in a great square flagged yard, the solitary walk, for he is not

allowed even the fellowship of the other lunatics, lest the madness which led him to commit

an awful crime should again break out and endanger the lives of those about him.

During eight long years he has counted every stone in the flooring, every floor and every

crack in each of those stones.

He knows the shape of every shadow that falls upon the white-washed wall, and can, at all

seasons of the year, tell the hour by the falling of it.

He knows that at such a time on a summer's evening the shadows of the iron bars of the

window will make long black lines across the ground, and mount, and mount, dividing the

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