quell a riot, the gendarmes fired a random
volley of musket-balls in at the window.

Though there were here and there some traces
of compunction for the ill-treatment of men who
sat silently on their bedsides, and did not refuse
aid from their purses to the prisoners in sorest
need, the animosity of the worst class of criminals
against the political prisoners was beyond belief.
This was fostered and encouraged by the turnkey,
acting under the influence of the police.
Only by incessant prudence did I avoid being
miserably killed in the few months of my
detention here. Meanwhile, my wretchedness
was not quite unmitigated. I might see my
friends, read, write, play the flute, speak to my
fellow-prisoners, receive a dinner from my relatives.
I improvised, also, a ragged school, and
taught a class of fifteen of the common prisoners.

The public prosecutor, I think, had desired
my death. When the order came for my removal
from this common prison, it was ordained that I
should proceed, bound and handcuffed, a month's
journey, on foot. But I then feigned illness so
well that I got lodgings in hospital till my
friends had made interest to have me sent to
the Bagnio of Nisida by sea. Heartrending was
my old father's parting with me. He at least
might not see the fulfilment of his hope, that I
should outlive my great sorrow, and return to
peace in the home of my childhood.

The gendarme who took me to Nisida was,
without fee or reward from me, kind and indulgent.
Had I abused his confidence I could have
escaped at Messina, where he suffered me to go
ashore, and likewise at Naples, where I was again
free to go myself in search of the carriage that was
to take us the rest of the way to the Bagnio.
It was the twelfth of September, one thousand
eight hundred and fifty-one, when I reached my
new prison. The sky was bright, the trees in
the gardens along the road were laden with fruit
of all kinds, figs, apples, peaches, pears, and
great black and yellow bunches of grapes hung
from the tall poplars, while gay and pretty-looking
girls were busily employed in gathering
green French beans into baskets. Here, an idle
fellow slept soundly under the shadow of a vine.
There, another was torturing a poor ass, worn
out with age and fatigue.

On our arrival at the sea-shore, a flag was
hoisted, a boat was despatched for us, and
we were soon landed on the island. There we
had to journey by a steep stony path until we
finally reached the Bagnio. The good-natured
gendarme then left me, after giving me in charge
to the captain of the galley slaves. On entering
the office of the governor, a clerk asked me a
great many questions, the answers to which he
recorded in a large book bound in black. Then
he entered his description of my person,
repeating the words aloud, and glancing occasionally
at the governor for his approval. On leaving
the office I was again seized by the captain, who
said, " Stay, I have a rosary to give you." A
turnkey threw an iron chain on the ground, the
captain commanded me to place my foot on an
anvil, and I was soon decorated with the Neapolitan
badge of honour— a chain weighing from
thirty to thirty-four pounds, rusty, and roughly
made. The chains were not all of the same weight;
those of the common criminals were only of
fifteen or twenty pounds; but the political
prisoners were looked upon as untameable animals,
whose ardour was to be kept down by heavy
weights. Sometimes a good space was left
between the ring and the flesh, but frequently
the ring was so narrow that it pressed on the
ankle and prevented the blood from circulating
through the fettered limb. The foot and
leg then became swollen and livid, and, when
the governor refused to order a larger ring, the
iron became imbedded between two large clack
lumps of flesh. When I was chained I could
scarcely breathe for emotion, and I did not hear
the captain tell me I might go. It was not
until he had given me a blow which threw me
on the ground, that I moved away; but I was
stopped again, and told not to hurry myself,
as they had a companion to give me.

The man came, but instead of the political
prisoner I had imagined him to be, he was a criminal
of the worst sort— a murderer— a dark fierce
sinister-looking ruffian, with small eyes, a narrow
forehead, and his left cheek branded. The political
prisoner was bound thus to an assassin,
in order to degrade him, and to make the
common criminals look on themselves as his equal
in offence. Of my new prison, where we dined,
subject to the new infliction of a blinding smoke,
this was the dietary:

Water, one pint in twenty-four hours; in
summer, at discretion.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday,
from forty-five to fifty beans, containing insects,
and one pound and a half of bad bran bread.
This to serve for breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea,
and supper.

Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, a little
shoemaker's paste, by way of variety, for the
corresponding number of meals.

Five ounces of bad ill-smelling beef once a
fortnight, except in Lent.

Each prisoner was supposed to receive seven
pence a year to pay for the washing of his linen,
and this sum was very often paid with a reduction.
The cases, besides, were not rare where
some governors did not pay anything for the
"lavanda," so the reader may imagine the
condition as to cleanliness of those pent up in the
Bagnio.

At my first day's dinner in the Bagnio I
offered my companion my bread and soup, which
he at once accepted; after swallowing my
dinner with his own, he did not refuse to come
out again into the open air. Scarcely, however,
had we taken a few steps, when I was ordered
down stairs again, to exchange my clothes for
prison garments. These consisted of two shirts,
made of the very coarsest linen, like canvas; two
pairs of drawers of the same material; a pair of
wretched brown cloth trousers; a red jacket; and
a conical-shaped brown cloth cap. By way of bed
I also received a mat rather than a mattress,
stuffed with ass-hair or cow-hair. When I put on