Nevertheless he was greatly disturbed and annoyed by his noisy neighbour, who seemed to keep up an incessant clatter throughout the livelong night.
The next morning he discovered what it was that so disturbed him. His neighbour was what is called a black-dress man, who wore fetters and a heavy chain, one end of which was fastened with rivetted rings round each ankle, and the middle of it was held up to his waist by a strap.
Doubtless many of our readers have seen the print of Captain Macheath in the condemned cell at Newgate. The fetters on that fabulous hero of Gay’s opera resembled those worn by the black-dress man of Dartmoor.
His dress was parti-coloured, of black and drab—one side one colour, one the other; the front of one sleeve black and the back drab, and the reverse with the other sleeve.
The same with the breeches or knickerbockers, which were fastened with buttons down the sides of the legs, to admit of their being fastened with the fetter on.
The costume was not picturesque, but then the reality of prison life is so vastly different from that shown on the stage! In this man’s case it was miserably wretched, albeit he richly deserved the hardships he was compelled to endure.
He was condemned to this punishment for either striking or threatening an officer, and for this offence he had been “bashed,” or flogged, besides.
It is not often a flogging is inflicted, only in extreme cases. Night and day the refractory prisoner has to wear his manacles; in bed or out of bed, it was just the same, and every time he moved in bed they clanked and rattled, making so strange a noise that Peace was sorely troubled as he lay in his cell during the lonely hours of the night.
Sometimes, in turning, the manacled prisoner would strike his fetter against the corrugated iron partition of the cell.
Peace pitied the poor wretch, but he had the prudence not to offer any observation.