and robbed him of his bed and his gas for fourteen days.  We none of us know the meaning of these little punishments so vast beyond our experience; but in order to catch a glimmer of the meaning of the last item, we must remember first that the cells admit but little light, and that the gas is the prisoner’s sunlight for the hour or two of rest from hard toil that he is allowed before he is ordered to bed, and next that a prisoner has but two sets of clothes—­those he stands upright in, and his bed-clothes; these are rolled up inside the bed every morning.  When therefore a prisoner was robbed of his bed, he was robbed of the means of keeping himself warm as well as of that rest without which life soon comes to a full stop.

Having victimized this child’s tender body as aforesaid Mr. Hawes made a cut at his soul.  He stopped his chapel.

One ought not to laugh at a worm coming between another worm and his God and saying, “No! you shall not hear of God to-day—­you have displeased a functionary whose discipline takes precedence of His;” and it is to be observed, that though this blockhead did not in one sense comprehend the nature of his own impious act any more than a Hottentot would, yet as broad as he saw he saw keenly.

The one ideaed-man wanted to punish, and deprivation of chapel is a bitter punishment to a prisoner under the separate and silent system.

And lay this down as a rule, whenever in this tale a punishment is recorded as having been inflicted by Hawes, however light it may appear to you who never felt it, bring your intelligence to bear on it—­weigh the other conditions of a prisoner’s miserable existence it was added to, and in every case you will find it was a blow with a sledge-hammer; in short, to comprehend Hawes and his fraternity it is necessary to make a mental effort and comprehend the meaning of the word “accumulation.”

The first execution of biped Carter took place about a week after Mr. Eden was laid prostrate.

It is not generally very difficult to outwit an imbecile, and the governor enmeshed Carter, made him out refractory and crucified him.  The poor soul did not hallo at first, for he remembered they had not cut his throat the last time, as he thought they were going to do (he had seen a pig first made fast—­then stuck).  But when the bitter cramps came on he began to howl and cry most frightfully; so that Hawes, who was talking to the surgeon in the center of the building, started and came at once to the place.  Mr. Sawyer came with him.  They tried different ways of quieting him, in vain.  They went to a distance, as Mr. Eden had suggested, but it was no use; he was howling now from pain, not fear.

“Gag him!” roared Hawes, “it is scandalous; I hate a noise.”

“Better loose him,” suggested the surgeon.

Hawes blighted him with a look.  “What; and let him beat me?”

“There is no gag in the prison,” said Fry.