and levity rather than distress. But the dirt of a prison speaks sadness
to the heart, and appears to be already in a state of putridity and
infection.

I was detained for more than an hour in the apartment of the keeper, one
turnkey after another coming in, that they might make themselves
familiar with my person. As I was already considered as guilty of felony
to a considerable amount, I underwent a rigorous search, and they took
from me a penknife, a pair of scissars, and that part of my money which
was in gold. It was debated whether or not these should be sealed up, to
be returned to me, as they said, as soon as I should be acquitted; and
had I not displayed an unexpected firmness of manner and vigour of
expostulation, such was probably the conduct that would have been
pursued. Having undergone these ceremonies, I was thrust into a
day-room, in which all the persons then under confinement for felony
were assembled, to the number of eleven. Each of them was too much
engaged in his own reflections, to take notice of me. Of these, two were
imprisoned for horse-stealing, and three for having stolen a sheep, one
for shop-lifting, one for coining, two for highway-robbery, and two for
burglary.

The horse-stealers were engaged in a game at cards, which was presently
interrupted by a difference of opinion, attended with great
vociferation,--they calling upon one and another to decide it, to no
purpose; one paying no attention to their summons, and another leaving
them in the midst of their story, being no longer able to endure his own
internal anguish, in the midst of their mummery.

It is a custom among thieves to constitute a sort of mock tribunal of
their own body, from whose decision every one is informed whether he