Now how Harry sped at the prison I learnt afterwards; for at this point his tale was cut short; but I will put the story here, where it seems fittest.

By great good fortune Althea encountered with Harry and the seaman Ned Giles at the very gate of the prison, and she soon bought leave to visit the prisoner called William Dewsbury, who lay under lock and key in a very filthy cell, and had latterly been denied even bread and water, because his money being spent he could not satisfy his gaoler’s demands.  They found him lying on a heap of mouldy straw; he was miserably wasted, and to all seeming lifeless; yet they knew him at once for Andrew; and Harry perceived there was life yet in him.  Althea, however, seeing him lie as if dead, rose into fiery indignation; she turned to the gaoler, saying, in a terrible voice,—­

’See there, murderer! that is your work—­the blood of this man shall lie on your soul for ever—­it shall drown you in perdition!’ at which he cowered and shrank (’and well he might,’ said Harry), stammering out ’twas an oversight, a pure accident; and she going on to threaten him with law and vengeance, he asked hurriedly, would not the lady like to remove the poor man, and give him honourable burial? at which Harry whispered her, ‘Take his offer quickly; say not a word more of revenge;’ and Althea, guessing his meaning, softened her tone a little, and consented to the man’s proposal.  ‘Get me only a coach,’ said she, ’and I will have this poor lifeless body to mine own home; and I will not charge you with the murder.’

So they fetched a coach; but the driver, seeing as he thought a dead man brought out and laid in it, flung down the reins and refused to drive them.

‘I am well used to drive sick folks,’ he said (indeed that was now the chief use of hackney coaches), ’but a corpse I never drove and never will.’

Althea, however, stepped in herself, and bade Will get on the box and take the reins; then whispering to Harry, she told him where to find me, and begged he would prepare me for her coming.  ’I shall soon master this knave’s scruples,’ she said; ’he is but bringing them to market, and I am ready to buy them;’ and as I suppose, she paid a heavy price for the use of that coach for an hour, saying her man should drive it to her house and then return it empty to the coachman.

For while Harry and I stood talking at the door, his tale was broken by the rumbling of wheels; and the coach coming lumbering up, we perceived Will to be the driver.

‘That is well,’ said Harry; ‘it will not be known where you dwell.’  As he spoke the coach stopped, and Althea put aside the close-drawn curtains.  She called Harry to her, and said softly,—­