'When we had finished, I glanced at Henrietta's face, and there was something in her eyes, as they met mine, which made me, with a sudden impulse, give her such a kiss as I would have given Bessie.
'"I think you will not be so unhappy now, will you, dear Fan?" she said, returning it warmly, and stroking my hair; and I answered earnestly, "No, indeed;" for the mere effort of trying to repeat the well-known words that I had been used to say reverently night and morning, ever since I could remember, had soothed my paroxysm of grief and fright, and reminded me that our Father in Heaven was caring for us still, and that, under His protection, we might "dwell safely, and be quiet from fear of evil."
'"He will deliver us," murmured Henrietta, "sooner or later; so we will not frighten ourselves by looking forward to what may happen. We will make up our minds to hope for the best; shall we? You know the jailer half promised to give us a room to ourselves to-day. Oh, what a boon that would be!"
'This hope made me feel quite cheerful; and we sat talking in under-tones about our letters, and the possibility of persuading the jailer to forward them, until the sleepers around us began, one after another, to awake, roused by the returning sunbeams, which were now lighting up the room.
'It was not until all the rest were up and moving about—by no means noiselessly—that Bessie at last awoke. She had continued to sleep heavily—nothing seeming to disturb her in the least degree—until an old woman, with a particularly shrill, not to say cracked voice, struck up the old cavalier song of "The King shall enjoy his own again," which she elaborated with various trills, turns, and quaverings; and then at length poor Bessie gave a startled cry and sprang to her feet, almost before she had opened her eyes. She was quite well, she said, except for a little headache, but it was easy to see that it was by no means such a little one; and when the breakfast of somewhat watery porridge and dry bread made its appearance, she turned away with a shudder, declaring that she would starve rather than touch a mouthful. The morning passed away much as the day before had done. By Henrietta's wise suggestion we had made our toilets, as well as we could under the circumstances, before our companions had roused themselves enough to take any notice of us; but when Bessie began to plait her hair, and opened the trunk to take out our little mirror, a regular crowd was round her in a minute. It was just like our poultry-yard at home when mamma went out with her apron full of corn. The mirror was very soon taken out of her hands, and seemed to have but a small chance of returning to them. I suppose we must have been the only people in the room who possessed such a treasure; for it brought about so much pushing and jostling, and even fighting, among the women to whom Bessie had yielded it, that at last it was cracked right across, after which they became more quarrelsome than ever. Meanwhile some amused themselves by diving into our unfortunate little trunk, until every one of its contents had been pulled out and examined. One or two women interfered on our behalf, but this only made the wrangling worse; and Henrietta and I looked on in helpless dismay, while Bessie went on braiding her pretty golden locks in a sort of dull, indifferent way, as if she felt too languid to care either for the loss of her mirror, or the ransacking of her chest.
'But suddenly, in the midst of the commotion, there was a sound which silenced all the tongues in a moment, and made our eyes turn towards the door. There was a grating of the bolts, and a rattling of the key in the lock, and yet it was not nearly time for dinner. Was it only some new prisoner, or was it a summons, coming to one of ourselves, to the bar of the terrible Lord Chief-Justice? I remember quite well the intensely painful look of expectation upon all the faces round the room when the door opened, and the various murmurs of surprise, relief, and pity that sounded in our ears when we three were called upon to follow the turnkey.
'"So soon! the latest comers of all! Ay! well. May we never see them back again; that's the best luck I can wish them!"
'"Nay, neighbour, there are worse places than this, evil though it be," said the musical old woman; and the words made me shiver.
'"I wish you well through your troubles, my little lady," said the girl with whom I had made friends the day before. She had been collecting those little possessions of ours that had been strewn about the floor; and now she was helping us to arrange the hoods and mantles, which, by counsel of the turnkey, we were hastily throwing on. "I will try and take care of your goods there," she said, glancing towards the trunk; and then, as I thanked her, she bent down and added in a hurried whisper: "I was awake this morning when you were saying your prayers; it made me think of my own again. Tell her" (and she nodded to Henrietta). "Fare ye well: and God bless you all."
'I did not shrink from her now as I might have done an hour ago. In my present terror I had forgotten all about the fever; but, ah! how sick at heart I felt when I heard the door close, and knew that we were really on our way to a court of justice—that in a few minutes more we should be in the presence of the merciless Judge Jeffreys! And when we actually stood in the court itself, and above the hum of many voices all around us the tones of some one declaiming in hoarse, fierce accents reached us from an open doorway, a cold agony of horror came over me, that was positive pain. I leaned against Henrietta and gasped with fright.