He then talked very seriously to me for a
long time. He was sorry, and surprised, he said, to see a man of my
appearance brought to such a place for such a crime; he could not
understand how a person of my evident intelligence should get into
such a scrape.
I told him that he understood it as well as I did, at all events;
that I could not conceive why I should get into these difficulties,
one after the other; but that I believed I was a crazy man on this
one subject-matrimonial monomania; that when I had gone through with
one of these scrapes, and had suffered the severe punishment that
was almost certain to follow, the whole was like a dream to me-a
nightmare and nothing more. With regard to what was before me in
this prison I should try and behave myself, and make the best of the
situation; but I notified the Warden that I did not mean to do one
bit of work if I could help it.
He took me inside, where my fine clothes were taken away, and I. was
dressed in the usual particolored prison uniform. I was told the
rules, and was warned that if I did not observe them it would go
hard with me. Then followed twenty-four hours solitary confinement,
and the next afternoon I was taken from my cell to a shop in which
scythe snaths were made.
It had transpired during my trial at Montpelier, that when I was a
young man, I was a blacksmith by trade. This information had been
transmitted to prison and I was at once put to work making heel
rings. It was some years since I had worked at a forge and handled a
hammer.
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