As he lay upon his bed and gazed out of the window of his cell, watching the birds dart hither and thither in a clear blue sky, thoughts of the time when he should be free arose in his mind and cheered his desponding heart.
Through the silent hours of the night he watched the myriad stars shining in the midnight sky, glancing glory from far-off worlds, and thought the while which among that radiant, silent throng was his.
He looked forward to the day when he should be cast into the world again.
Can it be wondered at that under the influence of these feelings he bitterly regretted having pursued such a reckless and lawless career? He had seen enough and heard enough from the prison chaplain to be forcibly impressed with the errors of his ways.
He had met with men whose whole life had been spent in constant warfare against society, and who had no other intention, on regaining their liberty, than to continue the struggle to the bitter end—
The murderer, cheerful and complacent over the verdict of manslaughter; the professional garotter, in whose estimation human life is of no value, troubled only at being so foolish as to be caught; the professional thief, the pickpocket, the skilled housebreaker—every one of them sound in wind and limb, intent only on their schemes and “dodges,” to extract the sting from their punishment—all longing for the time when they and society would cry “quits,” and they be at liberty to pursue their career of villainy.
With these, the vilest of the vile, and also with the hoary criminal who knew no home save the prison, who preferred it to the poor-house.
He had been shut up many months without a glance at the external world and its doings; he had not seen a newspaper or heard a scrap of news of any sort, and it was, therefore, some relief to him when he was informed that he was to be transferred with the next batch of convicts to Dartmoor.
He never reflected at this time that perhaps he might possibly find the discipline much more severe in that place.
Dartmoor, as most of our readers know, is an extensive and remarkable tract of land on the north-west of Exmoor. It comprises an area of three hundred and fifty thousand acres, one-third of which is termed Dartmoor Forest.