The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein Read Free Page A

poor alike, sending its current down every alley and lane and thoroughfare in the course of its pulsating life. London seemed ungovernable, obeying laws mysterious to itself, like some dim phantasm stalking through the world.
    Bysshe meanwhile had sought out and found the men of liberty. Together we attended a meeting of the Popular Reform League above a perfume shop in Store Street, where to our delight we heard epithets hurled against the members of the administration that would have marked them and burned them like firebrands! I was intoxicated by the language of liberty, convinced as I was that the old order of oppression andcorruption must surely pass away. It was time to breach the foundations of tyranny, and to abrogate the laws by which humanity had been enslaved. There was a new world waiting to be brought to life and light!
    We were cordially welcomed by the members of the League, having satisfied themselves very quickly that we were not government spies but friends of freedom or Citizens as they called us. When I confessed that I came from Geneva there was an “hoorah” for “the home of liberty.” Bread and beer were ordered, and all became very merry. This was followed by a general debate in which the demands for annual parliaments and universal suffrage were loudly proclaimed. One young man by the name of Pearce rose to his feet and proclaimed that, “Truth and Liberty, in an age so enlightened as the present, must be invincible and omnipotent.” I could not help but interpret his words in the light of my own researches where truth, if pursued in a scientific manner, might also prove invincible. There was no possible limit to the power of the human mind if it were properly and justly harnessed.
    Pearce’s words were greeted with acclamation, in which Bysshe and I joined, and I could not help but compare these enthusiastic Citizens with the supine youth of the university. I was about to whisper this to Bysshe when, his eyes shining, he rose to his feet and declared to the gathering that “we have no occasion for kings.” This was loudly huzzahed, and several men got up and shook hands with him. “What have we to fear?” he asked them. “If we stay fast to our principles of truth and freedom, then all will be well. Follow the lightning flash!” The members of the League, roused by his rhetoric, then began a song of great fervour:
“Come you sons of true liberty, let us agree
To form an alliance firm honest and free
Let’s join hand in hand as reason upholds
Her bright torch of friendship. Let us be bold!”
    I do not know if Bysshe admired the poetry, but he thoroughly approved of the sentiments.
    At the end of the meeting one of the Citizens came up to Bysshe and introduced himself. “How do you do, sir? I hope your Oxford residency agreed with you?”
    Bysshe was taken aback. “How do you know of that?”
    “I am a particular friend of Mr. Hunt. He has been in correspondence with you, has he not?”
    “I have met him in London.”
    “Have you? As soon as I saw you and your companion—” he bowed to me, “I knew you to be the men expelled from the university.”
    “This is Mr. Frankenstein. He is not expelled. But he shares my principles.”
    “My name is Westbrook. I am a shoemaker.” He looked around the hall for a moment. “We rarely give our names here, for fear of spies. But you are exceptional, Mr. Shelley. You are the son of a baronet, are you not?”
    “I am. But I will use every particle of my birthright in the service of the cause.”
    “Well said, sir. Now we must make our way into the street. Before the magistrates interrupt us. We have learned to avoid what we call the war whoop of Church and King.”
    We walked down into Store Street, and stood together on the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Westbrook seemed to meto bear a noble mind. His physiognomy was firm and, with a prominent forehead, inclined to ideality; he was by no means shabbily dressed, despite his trade,