just reach the man in front or behind. If an officer suspects
one of these worthies, he calls out, "Now then, seventeen, I see ye!"
"See me what?" says the indignant innocent. "Talking," replies the
officer. "Why, I never opened my lips," says the prisoner, and his
defence is perfectly true.

On returning from the exercise yard to our cells, we were furnished
with a sheet of paper and an envelope to write the last letter which
"condemned criminals" are permitted to send from prison after their
sentence. The privilege is almost a mockery, for no answer is allowed,
and there is little consolation in flinging a final word into the
vast silence, which seems deaf because unresponsive. A last interview,
however brief, would be far more merciful.

We were summoned from our cells at eleven o'clock for conveyance to
Holloway Gaol. All our effects were handed over to us, and we formally
signed a receipt for them in the big book. While this process was going
on the officers allowed us to chat, and endeavoured to console us by
insisting that we should "soon be out." One of them, with a practical
turn of mind, recollecting that I had complained of my apartment,
informed me that there were some beautiful cells at Holloway.

Having pocketed our belongings, we were conducted through the
subterranean passage I have several times mentioned to the great
courtyard. The head-warder conversed with us very genially, but when we
emerged into daylight and faced the prison van drawn up to receive us,
his manner changed. Holding a formidable document, he called out our
names and descriptions, officially satisfying himself that we were the
persons under sentence. I told him, with mock solemnity, that I had no
doubt I was the George William Foote described on the blue paper, and my
fellow prisoners gave him a similar assurance.

It was a critical moment. Will they, I thought, try to handcuff us? I
hoped not, for I had resolved not to submit tamely to any gratuitous
indignities, and I should have felt it necessary to offer what
resistance I could to such a flagrant insult. Happily the handcuffs were
kept out of sight. One by one we ascended the steps, entered the narrow
passage in the van, and huddled ourselves into the narrower boxes. They
were so small that no ordinary-sized man could sit upon the little bench
at the back. I was obliged to crouch on one ham diagonally, my shoulders
stretching from corner to corner. Half a dozen holes were bore