‘So that you are not a Royalist?’
‘No,’
‘Never were one?’
‘Never.’
‘In what way would you employ yourself if set at liberty to-day?’
I stared, and felt confused; for however easy I found it to refer to the past, and reason on it, any speculation as to the future was a considerable difficulty.
‘You hesitate; you have not yet made up your mind, apparently.’
‘It is not that; I am trying to think of liberty, trying to fancy myself free—but I cannot!’ said I, with a weary sigh. ‘The air of this cell has sapped my courage and my energy—a little more will finish the ruin!’
‘And yet you are not much above four or five-and-twenty years of age?’
‘Not yet twenty!’ said I.