obeisance, and was about to retire, when Mr. Dashall, with
his characteristic benevolence, begged the favour of a few moments
conversation.

"I am gratified," he observed, "in perceiving one exception to the
general torpitude of feeling which seems to pervade this place; and
I trust that your case of distress is not of a nature to preclude
the influence of hope in sustaining your mind against the pressure of
despondency."

"The cause of my confinement," answered the prisoner, "is originally
that of debt, although perverted into crime by an unprincipled,
relentless creditor. Destined to the misery of losing a beloved wife
and child, and subsequently assailed by the minor calamity of pecuniary
embarrassment, I inevitably contracted a few weeks arrears of rent to
the rigid occupant of the house wherein I held my humble apartment,
when, returned one night to my cheerless domicil, my irascible landlord,
in the plenitude of ignorance and malevolence, gave me in charge of a
sapient guardian of the night, who, without any enquiry into the nature
of my offence, conducted me to the watch-house, where I was presently
confronted with my creditor, who accused me of the heinous crime of
getting into his debt. The constable very properly refused to take
cognizance of a charge so ridiculous; but unluckily observing, that had
I been brought there on complaint of an assault, he would in that case
have felt warranted in my detention, my persecutor seized on the idea
with avidity, and made a declaration to that effect, although evidently
no such thought had in the first instance occurred to him, well knowing
the accusation to be grossly unfounded. This happened on a Saturday
night, and I remained in duresse and without sustenance until the
following Monday, when I was held before a Magistrate; the alleged
assault was positively sworn to, and, maugre my statement of the
suspicious, inconsistent conduct of my prosecutor, I was immured in the
lock-up house for the remainder of the day, on the affidavit of ~22~~
perjury, and in the evening placed under the friendly care of the
Governor of Tothill-fields Bridewell, to abide the issue at the next
Westminster sessions."

"This is a most extraordinary affair," said the Squire; "and what do you
conjecture may be the result?"

"The pertinacity of my respectable prosecutor," said the Captive, "might
probably induce him to procure the aid of some of his conscientious
Israelitish brethren, whom 1