he court is empty and
clean; even the grass between the paving stones is weeded out. We
entered the 'reception room,' to which the prisoner is first taken;
then the bath room, whither he is carried next. We ascend a flight
of stairs, and find ourselves in a large hall, built the whole
length and height of the building. Several galleries, one over
another in the different stories, extend round the whole hall, and
in the midst of the hall is the chancel, from which, on Sundays,
the preacher delivers his sermon before an invisible audience. All
the doors of the cells, which lead upon the galleries, are half
opened, the prisoners hear the preacher, but they cannot see him,
nor he them. The whole is a well-built machine for a pressure of
the spirit. In the door of each cell there is a glass of the size
of an eye; a valve covers it on the outside, and through this may
the warden, unnoticed by the prisoners, observe all which is going
on within; but he must move with soft step, noiselessly, for the
hearing of the prisoner is wonderfully sharpened by solitude. I
removed the valve from the glass very softly, and looked into the
closed room--for a moment the glance of the prisoner met my eye. It
is airy, pure, and clean within, but the window is so high that it
is impossible to look out. The whole furniture consists of a high
bench, made fast to a kind of table, a berth, which can be fastened
with hooks to the ceiling, and around which there is a curtain.
Several cells were opened to us. In one there was a young, very
pretty maiden; she had lain down in her berth, but sprang out when
the door was opened, and her first movement disturbed the berth,
which it unclasped and rolled together. Upon the little table stood
the water cask, and near it lay the remains of hard black bread,
farther off the Bible, and a few spiritual songs. In another cell
sat an infanticide; I saw her only through the small glass of the
door, she had heard our steps, and our talking, but she sat still,
cowered together in the corner by the door, as if she wished to
conceal herself as much as she could; her back was bent, her head
sunk almost into her lap, and over it her hands were folded. The
unhappy one is very young, said they. In two different cells sat
two brothers; they were paying t