hand,
until it became as plastic as clay. This he modelled into snuffboxes
(with strips of rag for hinges, and a piece of whalebone for a spring),
draughts, chess-men, pipe-bowls, and other articles. When dry, they
became hard and serviceable; and he sold them among the prisoners and the
prison officials. He obtained thus a number of comforts not afforded by
the prison regulations.

On Sunday, I attended the Catholic chapel attached to the prison--a damp
unwholesome cell. I stood among a knot of prisoners, enveloped in a
nauseous vapour; for there arose musty, mouldy, effluvia which gradually
overpowered my senses. I felt them leaving me, and tottered towards the
door. I was promptly met by a man who seemed provided for emergencies of
the kind; for he held a vessel of cold water, poured some of it into my
hands, and directed me to bathe my temples. I partly recovered; and,
faint and dispirited, staggered back to the prison. I had not, however,
lain long upon my bed (polished and slippery from constant use), when the
prison guard came to my side, holding in his hand a smoking basin of egg
soup "for the Englishman." It was sent by the mistress of the kitchen.
I received the offering of a kind heart to a foreigner in trouble, with a
blessing on the donor.

On the following Tuesday, after an imprisonment of, in all, nine days,
during which I had never slept without my clothes, I was discharged from
the prison. In remembrance of the place, I brought away with me a straw
landscape and a bread snuff-box, the works of the prison artist.

On reaching my lodging I looked into my box. It was empty.

"Where are my books and papers?" I asked my landlord.

The police had taken them on the day after my arrest.

"And my bank-notes?"

"Here they are!" exclaimed my landlord, triumphantly. "I expected the
police; I knew you had money somewhere, so I took the liberty of
searching until I found it. The police made particular inquiries about
your cash, and went away disappointed, taking the other things with
them."

"Would they have appropriated it?"

"Hem! Very likely--under pretence of paying your expenses."

On application to the police of the district, I received the whole of my
effects back. One of my books was detained for about a week; a member of
the police having taken it home to read, and being, as I apprehend, a
slow reader.

It was matter of great astonishment, both to my friends and to the
police, th