, but in my hurry, when I left
London, I had allowed to remain upon my finger. The gaol was a square
building, with two unglazed windows secured with thick iron bars, and
the rain having beat in, it was more like a pound for cattle, for it
was not even paved, and the ground was three or four inches deep in mud.
There was no seat in it, and there I was the whole of the night walking
up and down shivering in my wet clothes, in a state of mind almost
bordering upon insanity. Reflect upon what was likely to happen, I could
not. I only ran over the past. I remembered what I had been, and felt
cruelly the situation I then was in. Had I deserved it? I thought not.
"Oh! father--father!" exclaimed I, bitterly, "see to what your son is
brought--handcuffed as a felon! God have mercy on my brain, for I feel
that it is wandering. Father, father--alas, I have none!--had you left
me at the asylum, without any clue, or hopes of a clue, to my hereafter
being reclaimed, it would have been a kindness; I should then have been
happy and contented in some obscure situation; but you raised hopes
only to prostrate them--and imaginings which have led to my destruction.
Sacred is the duty of a parent, and heavy must be the account of those
who desert their children, and are required by Heaven to render up an
account of the important trust. Couldst thou, oh! father, but now behold
thy son! God Almighty!--but I will not curse you, father! No, no"--and I
burst into tears, as I leant against the damp walls of the prison.

The day at last broke, and the sun rose, and poured his beaming rays
through the barred windows. I looked at myself, and was shocked at my
appearance; my smock-frock was covered with black mud, my clothes were
equally disfigured. I had lost my hat when in the water, and I felt the
dry mud cracking on my cheeks. I put my hands up to my head, and I
pulled a quantity of duck-weed out of my matted and tangled hair. I
thought of the appearance I should make when summoned before the
magistrates, and how much it would go against me. "Good God!" thought I,
"who, of all the world of fashion--who, of all those who once caught my
salutation so eagerly--who, of all those worldly-minded girls, who smiled
upon me but one short twelve months since, would imagine, or believe,
that Japhet Newland could ever have sunk so low--and how has he so
fallen? Alas! because he would be honest, and had strength of mind
enough to adhere to his resolution. Well,