Since his wife's illness the previous winter he had been a more sober man until now.

He was never exactly drunk, for he had a strong, well-seasoned head; but the craving to hear the last news of the actions of the press-gang drew him into Monkshaven nearly every day at this dead agricultural season of the year; and a public-house is generally the focus from which gossip radiates; and probably the amount of drink thus consumed weakened Robson's power over his mind, and caused the concentration of thought on one subject.

This may be a physiological explanation of what afterwards was spoken of as a supernatural kind of possession, leading him to his doom..