CHAPTER I.

THE GOVERNOR EXPLAINS.

At the request of a person who has claims on me that I must not
disown, I consent to look back through a long interval of years
and to describe events which took place within the walls of
an English prison during the earlier period of my appointment
as Governor.

Viewing my task by the light which later experience casts on it,
I think I shall act wisely by exercising some control over
the freedom of my pen.

I propose to pass over in silence the name of the town in which
is situated the prison once confided to my care. I shall observe
a similar discretion in alluding to individuals--some dead, some
living, at the present time.

Being obliged to write of a woman who deservedly suffered
the extreme penalty of the law, I think she will be sufficiently
identified if I call her The Prisoner. Of the four persons
present on the evening before her execution three may be
distinguished one from the other by allusion to their vocations
in life. I here introduce them as The Chaplain, The Minister,
and The Doctor. The fourth was a young woman. She has no claim
on my consideration; and, when she is mentioned, her name may
appear. If these reserves excite suspicion, I declare beforehand
that they influence in no way the sense of responsibility which