ng
to floor, carpets of Tauris, and the spotless and transcendent
brilliancy of coverlets and napkins, in thy former dwelling! Here
brawling and the shuffling of rude feet are eternal. The air is loaded
with the exhalations of disease and the fumes of debauchery. Thou art
cooped up in airless space, and, perhaps, compelled to share thy narrow
cell with some stupid ruffian. Formerly, the breezes were courted by thy
lofty windows. Aromatic shrubs were scattered on thy hearth. Menials,
splendid in apparel, showed their faces with diffidence in thy
apartment, trod lightly on thy marble floor, and suffered not the
sanctity of silence to be troubled by a whisper. Thy lamp shot its rays
through the transparency of alabaster, and thy fragrant lymph flowed
from vases of porcelain. Such were formerly the decorations of thy
hall, the embellishments of thy existence; but now--alas!----"

We reached a chamber in the second story. My conductor knocked at the
door. No one answered. Repeated knocks were unheard or unnoticed by the
person within. At length, lifting a latch, we entered together.

The prisoner lay upon the bed, with his face turned from the door. I
advanced softly, making a sign to the keeper to withdraw. Welbeck was
not asleep, but merely buried in reverie. I was unwilling to disturb his
musing, and stood with my eyes fixed upon his form. He appeared
unconscious that any one had entered.

At length, uttering a deep sigh, he changed his posture, and perceived
me in my motionless and gazing attitude. Recollect in what circumstances
we had last parted. Welbeck had, no doubt, carried away with him from
that interview a firm belief that I should speedily die. His prognostic,
however, was fated to be contradicted.

His first emotions were those of surprise. These gave place to
mortification and rage. After eyeing me for some time, he averted his
glances, and that effort which is made to dissipate some obstacle to
breathing showed me that his sensations were of the most excruciating
kind. He laid his head upon the pillow, and sunk into his former musing.
He disdained, or was unable, to utter a syllable of welcome or contempt.

In the opportunity that had been afforded me to view his countenance, I
had observed tokens of a kind very different from those which used to be
visible. The gloomy and malignant were more conspicuous. Health had
forsaken his cheeks, and taken along with it those flexible parts which
formerly enabled