I could overcome his prepossession, I took his advice, and was silent.
It was not much longer before every thing was prepared for my departure,
and I was conducted to the same prison which had so lately enclosed the
wretched and innocent Hawkinses. They too had been the victims of Mr.
Falkland. He exhibited, upon a contracted scale indeed, but in which the
truth of delineation was faithfully sustained, a copy of what monarchs
are, who reckon among the instruments of their power prisons of state.




CHAPTER XI.


For my own part, I had never seen a prison, and, like the majority of my
brethren, had given myself little concern to enquire what was the
condition of those who committed offence against, or became obnoxious to
suspicion from, the community. Oh, how enviable is the most tottering
shed under which the labourer retires to rest, compared with the
residence of these walls!

To me every thing was new,--the massy doors, the resounding locks, the
gloomy passages, the grated windows, and the characteristic looks of the
keepers, accustomed to reject every petition, and to steel their hearts
against feeling and pity. Curiosity, and a sense of my situation,
induced me to fix my eyes on the faces of these men; but in a few
minutes I drew them away with unconquerable loathing. It is impossible
to describe the sort of squalidness and filth with which these mansions
are distinguished. I have seen dirty faces in dirty apartments, which
have nevertheless borne the impression of health, and spoke carelessness