h the most
degraded creature in existence cannot escape.

There has been another spectator, in the person of a woman in the common
shop; the lowest of the low; dirty, unbonneted, flaunting, and slovenly.
Her curiosity was at first attracted by the little she could see of the
group; then her attention. The half-intoxicated leer changed to an
expression of something like interest, and a feeling similar to that we
have described, appeared for a moment, and only a moment, to extend
itself even to her bosom.

Who shall say how soon these women may change places? The last has but
two more stages--the hospital and the grave. How many females situated
as her two companions are, and as she may have been once, have terminated
the same wretched course, in the same wretched manner! One is already
tracing her footsteps with frightful rapidity. How soon may the other
follow her example! How many have done the same!

CHAPTER XXIV--CRIMINAL COURTS

We shall never forget the mingled feelings of awe and respect with which
we used to gaze on the exterior of Newgate in our schoolboy days. How
dreadful its rough heavy walls, and low massive doors, appeared to
us--the latter looking as if they were made for the express purpose of
letting people in, and never letting them out again. Then the fetters
over the debtors' door, which we used to think were a _bona fide_ set of
irons, just hung up there, for convenience' sake, ready to be taken down
at a moment's notice, and riveted on the limbs of some refractory felon!
We were never tired of wondering how the hackney-coachmen on the opposite
stand could cut jokes in the presence of such horrors, and drink pots of
half-and-half so near the last drop.

Often have we strayed here, in sessions time, to catch a glimpse of the
whipping-place, and that dark building on one side of the yard, in which
is kept the gibbet with all its dreadful apparatus, and on the door of
which we half expected to see a brass plate, with the inscription 'Mr.
Ketch;' for we never imagined that the distinguished functionary could by
possibility live anywhere else! The days of these childish dreams have
passed away, and with them many other boyish ideas of a gayer nature.
But we still retain so much of our original feeling, that to this hour we
never pass the building without something like a shudder.

What London pedestrian is there who has not, at some time or other, cast
a hurried glance through the wic