aff; while my Master was
suffered, on Payment of Fees, to have better lodgings. Gaolers are
Gaolers all over the world, and Golden Fetters are always the
lightsomest. We were some Sixty Rascals (that is to say, Fifty-nine
scoundrels, with one Honest Youth, your Humble Servant) in the Common
Room, with but one Bed between us; this being, indeed, but a Raised
Wooden Platform, like that you see in a Soldiers' Guard Room. They
brought us some Straw every day, and littered us down Dog Fashion, and
that was all we had for Lodging Gear. It mattered little. There was a
Roof to the Gaol that was weather-tight, and what more could a Man
want?--until things got better at least.

Which they speedily did; and neither Master nor Man came to any very
great harm. 'Twas a near touch, though; and the safety of Jack
Dangerous's bones hung for days, so I was afterwards told, by the merest
thread. They deliberated long and earnestly about my case among
themselves. It was even, I believe, brought before the Aulic Council;
but, after about a week's confinement, and much going to and fro
between the English Embassador and the Great ones of the Court, Mr.
Pinchin had signified to him that he might procure his Enlargement by
paying a Fine of Eight Hundred Florins, which was reckoned remarkably
cheap, considering his outrageous behaviour at the Shooting match. Some
days longer they thought fit to detain Me; but My Master, after he
regained his liberty, came to see me once and sometimes twice a day; and
through his and Mr. Hodge's kindness, I was supplied with as good
Victuals and Drink as I had heretofore been accustomed to. Indeed, such
abundant fare was there provided for me, that I had always a
superfluity, and I was enabled to relieve the necessities and fill the
bellies of many poor Miserable Hungry creatures who otherwise must have
starved; for 'twas the custom of the Crown only to allow their Captives
a few Kreutzers, amounting to some twopence-farthing a day English, for
their subsistence. The Oldest Prisoner in the Ward, whom they called
Father of the Room, would on this Bare Pittance take tithe and toll,
often in a most Extortionate manner. Then these Gaol birds would fall to
thieving from one another, even as they slept; and if a man was weak of
Arm and Feeble of Heart, he might go for a week without touching a doit
of his allowance, and so might Die of Famine, unless he could manage to
beg a little filthy Cabbage Soup, or a lump of Bl