(_To be continued._)

* * * * *




THE GATHERER.


A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.
SHAKSPEARE.

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PRISONS.

We had formerly in the Tower of London, a straight room or dungeon,
called, from the misery the unhappy occupiers of this very confined
place endured, the Little-Ease. But this will appear a luxurious
habitation, when compared with the inventions of Louis XI. of France,
with his iron cages, in which persons of rank lay for whole years;
or his oubliettes, dungeons made in the form of reversed cones,
with concealed trap-doors, down which dropped the unhappy victims
of the tyrant, brought there by Tristam L'Hermite, his companion and
executioner in ordinary; sometimes their sides were plain, sometimes
set with knives, or sharp-edged wheels; but in either cases they were