Having thoroughly searched me, they prepared to leave; the taller man addressed me.
"I suppose you know," he remarked, as the two moved towards the door, "that if you make any attempt to escape, you'll be shot?"
With this parting caution he closed the door, and I heard a key turn in the lock.
I took one turn round the room, the chain being long enough, with many a yearning look at the distant lights of Bath; then, horrified at the clanking of my fetters, which were fixed to a staple in the wall, I threw myself as I was on the bed in the corner, and there, being tired out, almost immediately fell asleep.
CHAPTER VI
PUT TO THE TORTURE
I awoke with a feeling of intense cold, the fire was out, and I was lying outside the bed without covering.
The day had fully broken, and there was even an attempt on the part of the sun to pierce the heavy mists of a November morning. I looked around out of the windows, and saw the hills topped with cloud in every direction.
Drawing the rough blankets over me, I lay and thought. My first yearning was for something to eat; I had tasted nothing since lunch the previous day; I was fearfully hungry.
I had lain thus perhaps half an hour between sleeping and waking, when a key was put in the door and it opened, admitting a big, dark man with a long, black beard; he bore in his hands a small table which he placed in the middle of the room.