'I could not help wondering whether I should also learn to take what was put before other people. But of course I did not dare to say so, and she went on in a tone of apology:
'"I'm just getting well of the fever. That's what makes me so hungry, I suppose. I never do get enough to eat here."
'"Were you very ill?" I ventured to ask, feeling rather sorry that I had eaten my cake so quickly.
"Yes; I believe so. I don't remember much about it. They told me I nearly died. There was one in the next bed to me that did."
'Bessie, who sat on the other side of me, gave a little start as she heard these words; but she did not say anything, and the girl went on.
'"I wished then that I had died too. I should have been out of this place then; but somehow I got better and better, and to-day I have come in here for the first time."
'"How long have you been in prison?" I asked, getting quite interested.
'"Ever since two days after the Battle of Sedgemoor."
'"Oh, how dreadful! And why?"
'"Because I gave the Duke of Monmouth a loaf of bread when he changed his clothes at my father's house, and bade God speed him," she replied. "And the next day the soldiers came looking for him, and father let it all out. So they took us both away, and brought me here; and what became of father I don't know to this day. I have never seen him since."