hey glared at each other in the dim light with ghoul-like
eyes, and at night they lay down at opposite sides of the floor on
bundles of straw for beds. This straw, having served them in their
poverty for weeks and even months, had fermented and become filthy and
damp.

Such was the place and such the society in which Ralph spent the seven
days between the day on which he surrendered and that on which he was
indicted for treason.

The little window looked out into the streets, and once or twice daily
Simeon Stagg, who discovered the locality of Ralph's confinement, came
and exchanged some words of what were meant for solace with his
friend. It was small comfort Ralph found in the daily sight of the
poor fellow's sorrowful face; but perhaps Ralph's own brighter
countenance and cheerier tone did something for the comforter himself.

Though the two unhappy felons were made free of the spacious courtyard
for an hour every day, the like privilege was not granted to Ralph,
who was kept close prisoner, and, except on the morning of his trial,
was even denied water for washing and cleansing.

When he was first to appear before the judges of assize, this prisoner
of state, who had voluntarily surrendered himself, after many
unsuccessful efforts at capturing him, was bound hand and foot. On the
hearing of his case being adjourned, he was taken back to the cell
which he had previously shared; but whether he felt that the unhappy
company was more than he could any longer support, or whether the foul
atmosphere of the stinking room seemed the more noisome from the
comparative respite of a crowded court, he determined to endure the
place no longer. He asked to be permitted to write to the governor of
the city. The request was not granted. Then, hailing Sim from the
street, he procured by his assistance a bundle of straw and a candle.
The straw, clean and sweet, he exchanged with his fellow-prisoners for
that which had served them for beds. Then, gathering the rotten stuff
into a heap in the middle of the floor, he put a light to it and
stirred it into a fire. This was done partly to clear the foul
atmosphere, which was so heavy and dank as to gather into beads of
moisture on the walls, and partly to awaken the slugglish interest of
the head gaoler, whose rooms, as Ralph had learned, were situated
immediately above this cell. The former part of the artifice failed
(the filthy straw engendered as much stench as it dissipated), but t