uselessness
of such conduct, and being also covered with bruises, he desisted and
passed the next hour in calling out for relief. No relief came; only
the mice and the insects heard his cries, and the former affrighted,
sought seclusion in their holes, leaving the latter to survey in
silent surprise the new comer who had intruded upon their privacy.

Wearied out, he gave over shouting at last, and lay upon the floor of
his damp cell, tossing uneasily about from side to side. The sun set;
the dark night came and went; the morning sun arose, and yet he knew
it not. It was too dark for him to see anything, for even no ray of
light found its way inside to gladden the heart of the prisoner. He
was altogether shut off from the world; he was, for the time being, to
all intents and purposes, buried alive.

At length, after a night of abject misery, which seemed as if it never
would end, he heard the key turned in the lock, and in another moment
the gaoler entered. He fastened Edmund's hands securely behind his
back, and unlocking the fetters he bade him follow him to the court.

The landlord of the Cock Tavern was already there, much enraged at the
loss of his property and the conduct of his servant, which he laid to
the charge of the prisoner. In a very short space of time Edmund Wynne
was convicted as a vagabond, and he listened akin to relief as the
Judge sentenced him to be kept in the stocks for the rest of the day
and threatened him with a whipping in the pillory if he were brought
before him on a second occasion. Much to the annoyance of the
innkeeper, the attempt to connect the prisoner with the loss of his
property and the ostler's flight entirely broke down; and disgusted
with everybody and everything, the good man returned to the tavern to
smile with counterfeited pleasure at his customers, and to vent his
rage upon the servants who were left him.

The loss of the paper somewhat disconcerted Sir George Vernon, and
after the disappearance of the ostler he sat for a minute or two quite
dumbfounded, gazing in speechless surprise at the closed door. His
companion was a man of action, however, and undaunted by finding the
door locked, he hastened to the window, and would have attempted an
exit there had it not been that the windows were too narrow for such a
procedure.

Baffled again, but in nowise disheartened, he began to thunder at the
door, and with the assistance of Sir George Vernon he soon made noise
enough