“On reaching the street, I inquired at a half-grown boy where we might obtain a lodging; and after causing me to inquire twice or thrice—­’I no ken, Sawney—­haud awa’ north,’ said the brat, sarcastically imitating my accent.  I next inquired of a watchman, who said there was no place upon his beat; but beat was Gaelic to me; and I repeated my inquiry to another, who directed me towards the hells of Saffron Hill.  At a third, I requested to be informed the way, who, after abusing me for seeking lodgings at such an hour, said he had seen me in the town six hours before, and bade us go to the devil.  A fourth inquired if we had any money, took us to the bar of a public-house, called for a quartern of gin, drank our healths, asked if we could obtain a bed, which being answered in the negative, he hurried to the door, bawling ’Half-past eleven,’ and left me to pay for the liquor.  On reaching Saffron Hill, it was in an Irish uproar:  policemen, thieves, prostitutes, and Israelites were brawling in a satanic mass of iniquity; blood and murder was the order of the night.  My child screamed, my wife clung to my arm; she would not, she durst not, sleep in such a place.  To be brief:  we had to wander in the streets till the morning; and I believe that night, aided by a broken heart, was the forerunner of her death.  It was the first time I had been compelled to walk trembling for a night without shelter, or to sit frozen on a threshold; and this, too, I owe to procrastination.

“For a time we rented a miserable garret, without furniture or fixture, at a shilling weekly, which was paid in advance.  I had delayed making application for employment till our last sixpence was spent.  We had passed a day without food; my child appeared dying; my wife said nothing, but she gazed upon her dear boy, and shook her head with an expression that wrung me to the soul.  I rushed out almost in madness, and, in a state of unconsciousness, hurried from shop to shop in agitation and in misery.  It was vain; appearances were against me.  I was broken down and dejected, and my state of mind and manner appeared a compound of the maniac and the blackguard.  At night I was compelled to return to the suffering victims of my propensity, penniless and unsuccessful.  It was a dreadful and a sleepless night with us all; or if I did slumber upon the hard floor for a moment (for we had neither seat nor covering), it was to startle at the cries of my child wailing for hunger, or the smothered sighs of my unhappy partner.  Again and again I almost thought them the voice of the Judge, saying, ’Depart from me, ye cursed.’