d, they say, won't come out. But I never found any truth in the
saying. When I've had an hour's rest, I'll be after Blueskin."

CHAPTER XV.

How Blueskin underwent the Peine Forte et Dure.

As soon as it became known, through the medium of the public prints on
the following day, that Jack Sheppard had broken out of prison, and had
been again captured during the night, fresh curiosity was excited, and
larger crowds than ever flocked to Newgate, in the hope of obtaining
admission to his cell; but by the governor's express commands, Wild
having privately counselled the step, no one was allowed to see him. A
question next arose whether the prisoner could be executed under the
existing warrant,--some inclining to one opinion, some to another. To
settle the point, the governor started to Windsor, delegating his trust
in the interim to Wild, who took advantage of his brief rule to adopt
the harshest measures towards the prisoner. He had him removed from the
Condemned Hold, stripped of his fine apparel, clothed in the most sordid
rags, loaded with additional fetters, and thrust into the Stone
Hold,--already described as the most noisome cell in the whole prison.
Here, without a glimpse of daylight; visited by no one except Austin at
stated intervals, who neither answered a question nor addressed a word
to him; fed upon the worst diet, literally mouldy bread and ditch-water;
surrounded by stone walls; with a flagged floor for his pillow, and
without so much as a blanket to protect him from the death-like cold
that pierced his frame,--Jack's stout heart was subdued, and he fell
into the deepest dejection, ardently longing for the time when even a
violent death should terminate his sufferings. But it was not so
ordered. Mr. Pitt returned with intelligence that the warrant was
delayed, and, on taking the opinion of two eminent lawyers of the day,
Sir William Thomson and Mr. Serjeant Raby, it was decided that it must
be proved in a regular and judicial manner that Sheppard was the
identical person who had been convicted and had escaped, before a fresh
order could be made for his execution; and that the matter must,
therefore, stand over until the next sessions, to be held at the Old
Bailey in October, when it could be brought before the court.

The unfortunate prisoner, meanwhile, who was not informed of the
respite, languished in his horrible dungeon, and, at the expiration of
three weeks, became so seriously indisposed