Here he was confirmed by the Master of the Gaol,
the Mayoress, Mrs. Humdrum, and Professors Hanky and Panky, who all of
them could see what the interpreter meant, but denied that the prisoner
could be mistaken for the Sunchild for more than a few seconds. No doubt
the prisoner's unhappy delusion has been fostered, if not entirely
caused, by his having been repeatedly told that he was like the Sunchild.
The celebrated Dr. Downie, who well remembers the Sunchild, was also
examined, and gave his evidence with so much convincing detail as to make
it unnecessary to call further witnesses.
"It having been thus once for all officially and authoritatively placed
on record that the prisoner was not the Sunchild, Professors Hanky and
Panky then identified him as a well known monomaniac on the subject of
Sunchildism, who in other respects was harmless. We withhold his name
and place of abode, out of consideration for the well known and highly
respectable family to which he belongs. The prisoner admitted with much
contrition that he had made a disturbance in the temple, but pleaded that
he had been carried away by the eloquence of Professor Hanky; he promised
to avoid all like offence in future, and threw himself on the mercy of
the court.
"The Mayor, unwilling that Sunday's memorable ceremony should be the
occasion of a serious punishment to any of those who took part in it,
reprimanded the prisoner in a few severe but not unkindly words,
inflicted a fine of forty shillings, and ordered that the prisoner should
be taken directly to the temple, where he should confess his folly to the
Manager and Head Cashier, and confirm his words by kissing the reliquary
in which the newly found relic has been placed.
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