“‘I was too old a bird, however, to be paralysed by fear for more than an instant of time. Her screams continued.
“‘In my wild alarm, I sprang upon her and clutched her throat.
“‘As I did so, a thousand thoughts flashed through my brain. The consequences which would fall upon me should my employer discover any attempt upon his property—the judge’s face, stern and relentless—the words of the prosecuting attorney—the stolid jurymen, with prejudice and hatred imprinted upon their foredooming faces—and then the walls of this accursed prison rose before me, with their stony hopelessness augmented fifty-fold. I continued to choke down her accursed cries more vigorously as these terrible thoughts fleeted through my head.
“‘At length she ceased struggling, and, slowly relinquishing my grip, I laid her upon the floor. I then bent over her, with a cold, icy horror at my heart, never experienced before; for I perceived that the housekeeper was dead.
“‘I had no control over myself after that, sir. In my wild excitement I rushed to the nearest police-station, hurriedly confessed my crime, and was arrested. At the subsequent trial I was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. In view of the extenuating circumstances, as they called them, my sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and here I am.’
“‘Good-bye, sir, and may God bless you! I hear the warden at the door.’
“Tears stood in his eyes as he extended his hand to me, and grasping it warmly I quitted the cell. After the door was closed I heard a great hammering going on within, and I knew that the prisoner-for-life was forgetting his loneliness in the monotonous hum-drum of shoe-pegging.”
“Poor fellow,” said Lord Fitzbogleton. “What a dweadful punishment it must be to be impwisoned for life!”
“Yes, it is a most melancholy state of existence without doubt,” said Smythe: “and, to say the truth, it appears almost miraculous how prisoners are able to bear so severe a punishment, but in most cases they deserve what they get. The wonder is that there are not more escapes, seeing that so many are driven to what one might call a desperate condition.”
“When I was in the United States,” said Captain Crasher, “escapes and attempted escapes from prison were frequent occurrences, but here in the old country, as our Transatlantic cousins term it, the chances for prisoners freeing themselves from bondage are but few and far between. Nevertheless, even here successful attempts at escape do take place, despite the surveillance kept over the unfortunate denizens of a penal prison. When I was in America many of the convicts of Clinton prison strove to be again on their travels. No less than thirteen tried to escape within the space of two months. Whether this was caused by the neglect of the officers, or the insecurity of the prison, I will not intend to say, but as we are discoursing on prison life, I will just give you an account of the rascals at Clinton, and how they managed to escape, or, at least, tried to do so.