The Government officials came again to the mission-house and seized all the silver they could find in it; but Mrs. Judson had received warning of their visit, and before they arrived had hid as much money as she could.  Had she not done this, she and her husband must inevitably have starved during the following months.  As it was, she had something now with which to mollify the officials, and she succeeded in getting her husband and Dr. Price taken out of the common prison for a time, and placed in an open shed.

Day by day she worked incessantly, petitioning every one of influence, from the Queen downwards, for her husband’s release.  Many sympathised with her, but one and all declared themselves unable to do anything.  The governor of the city, who had chief control of the prison, happily became their friend, and did all he dared for them.  Three times he was informed by a near relative of the Emperor, that if he would cause all the white prisoners to be privately put to death it would be pleasing to the monarch; but every time he managed to avoid doing it.

For seven months Mrs. Judson strove daily on her husband’s behalf, and spent what time she could with him in the gaol.  “Sometimes,” she said, “I could not go into the prison till after dark, when I had two miles to walk in returning to the house.  Oh, how many times have I returned from that dreary prison at nine o’clock at night, solitary and worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and endeavoured to invent some new scheme for the release of the prisoners.”

After her husband had been in prison for some months, she gave birth to a little daughter, and for a few weeks was unable to get about to look after the captives as before.  During this time news came to Ava of further great defeats of the Burmese troops, and the treatment of the captives was at once made harsher.  They were again shut in the inner prison, among all the common malefactors of the place, and were each bound with five pairs of fetters.  The hottest season of the year had now arrived, and the situation of the prisoners was far more terrible than any words can describe.  The room in which they were confined was occupied by about a hundred native criminals; there was no ventilation beyond that afforded by the cracks in the walls, and the continual stench and heat were almost unbearable.  As soon as she could get about, Mrs. Judson built herself a small bamboo hut by the gate of the prison, and lived there, to be as near as possible to her husband.  After he had been a month in this black hole Mr. Judson was taken ill with fever, and after much entreaty she was permitted to move him to a little bamboo cell by himself, and to go in daily to feed him and to give him medicine.

CHAPTER VIII.

“THROUGH MUCH TRIBULATION.”