d where the jury were, and
why they were giving me so long to consider before going on with the
business of the court. Time seemed to have been given me on purpose to
confuse my mind, for the longer I pondered the more bewildered I
became. At last, like a child who does almost mechanically as his
parents bid it, I read from a paper these words: "I plead guilty to
uttering two bills of exchange, knowing them to be fictitious." The
judge in the centre asked the counsel for the crown if he accepted the
plea, and on getting an answer in the affirmative, he whispered a
second or two with his brother judge, whose son I believe prepared the
case against me, and then pronounced sentence of penal servitude for a
term of years that then seemed eternity to me. I was removed from the
court to the prison, stripped of my clothes, clad in the garb of the
convict, and turned into a cell, there to writhe in tearless agony, and
to indulge in bitter and unavailing regrets.

CHAPTER III.

THREE MONTHS IN A SCOTTISH PRISON--BEGIN MY STUDY OF THE CONVICT AND
HIS SURROUNDINGS--AN OLD JAIL BIRD--A SOLDIER--AN INNOCENT CONVICT--MY
FIRST CRACKSMAN ACQUAINTANCE--CONSPIRACY TO MURDER AN OFFICER AND
ESCAPE--MY REMOVAL TO ENGLAND.

The paroxysm of grief and indignation which followed my return to
prison gradually subsided, and after a few days I became in some
measure resigned to my fate, and determined as far as possible to make
the best of it. Indeed, in some respects the change in my circumstances
was for the better. The oatmeal treatment, it is true, was still
continued, but with this difference that I now got more of it, and a
still further and most welcome addition of a pennyworth of good milk
and a pennyworth of eatable bread per diem. I remained on this diet
during the three months and a-half which elapsed before I was removed
to England.[2] Unfortunately, during this time my stomach, though
craving for animal food, would not accept the oatmeal, or chief portion
of my diet, and accordingly I was in the practice of dividing it
amongst my fellow prisoners.

[2] Perth, where the diet is more liberal, was not then opened
for convicts.

I mentioned my case to the medical officer, but had to rest content
with a little quinine and the assurance that I would be sent to England
in a day or two, where I would get a few ounces of animal food daily.
To add to my troubles, one of my ankles began to swell, but after some
time, a