Todd did not speak, and the not over luxurious meal was placed on the table, or rather upon the end of the bench upon which he lay, and which served the purpose of a table.
The moment Todd heard the door of the cell closed behind the turnkey, he rose from his recumbent posture, and, although he staggered when he got to his feet, he seized the bason, and at once, without tasting any of its contents, broke it against the corner of the bench to fragments.
"I shall elude them yet!" he said. "They think they have me in their toils—but I shall elude them yet!"
He selected a long jagged piece of the broken bason, and dragging down his cravat with one hand, he was upon the very point of plunging it into his throat with the other, when the turnkey sprang into the cell.
Todd In Newgate, Tries To Commit Suicide.
"Hold a bit!" he cried. "We don't allow that sort of thing here with any of our customers. You should have thought of those games before you got into the stone jug!"
With one powerful blow, the turnkey struck the piece of the broken bason from the hand of Todd, and with another he felled him to the floor.
"None o' your nonsense," he said; and then he carefully collected the pieces of the broken bason.
"Why should you grudge me the means of death," said Todd, "when you know that you have brought me here among you to die?"