e to attempt either of them. Indeed, if he had been
ignorant of it, the sound of voices which he could faintly distinguish,
would have served as a caution to him.

Hurrying on, his progress was soon checked by a strong door, several
inches in thickness, and nearly as wide as the passage. Running his hand
carefully over it in search of the lock, he perceived to his dismay that
it was fastened on the other side. After several vain attempts to burst
it open, he resolved, as a last alternative, to break through the wall
in the part nearest to the lock. This was a much more serious task than
he anticipated. The wall was of considerable thickness, and built
altogether of stone; and the noise he was compelled to make in using the
heavy bar, which brought sparks with every splinter he struck off, was
so great, that he feared it must be heard by the prisoners on the
Debtors' side. Heedless, however, of the consequences, he pursued his
task.

Half an hour's labour, during which he was obliged more than once to
pause to regain breath, sufficed to make a hole wide enough to allow a
passage for his arm up to the elbow. In this way he was able to force
back a ponderous bolt from its socket; and to his unspeakable joy, found
that the door instantly yielded.

Once more cheered by daylight, he hastened forward, and entered the
chapel.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Chapel.

Situated at the upper part of the south-east angle of the jail, the
chapel of Old Newgate was divided on the north side into three grated
compartments, or pens as they were termed, allotted to the common
debtors and felons. In the north-west angle, there was a small pen for
female offenders, and, on the south, a more commodious enclosure
appropriated to the master-debtors and strangers. Immediately beneath
the pulpit stood a large circular pew where malefactors under sentence
of death sat to hear the condemned sermon delivered to them, and where
they formed a public spectacle to the crowds, which curiosity generally
attracted on those occasions.

To return. Jack had got into one of the pens at the north side of the
chapel. The enclosure by which it was surrounded was about twelve feet
high; the under part being composed of taken planks, the upper of a
strong iron grating, surmounted by sharp iron spikes. In the middle
there was a gate. It was locked. But Jack speedily burst it open with
the iron bar.

Clearing the few impediments in his way, he soon reached th