DRACONIC LA.WS. 315 



or wounded, the doctor is at their side in an instant. 

 Their food is both wholesome and abundant, and many 

 peasants in the vicinity have not such good provisions. 

 Neither do they want for society, such as it is ; nor is 

 there a dearth of amusement. They even manage to 

 procure newspapers. If they are expert workmen, they 

 can earn a good deal of money, which is deposited for 

 their future use in the keeper's hands. 



" Brandy is, of course, prohibited in the prison ; but 

 through the connivance of certain parties privileged to sell 

 the convicts slops, &c., that pernicious liquor sometimes 

 finds its way amongst them. It is difficult enough to 

 keep them in order if sober, but when drunk, they become 

 quite unmanageable, and know no bounds to their rage 

 and insolence. Unless brought on themselves by their 

 own misconduct, they are not subjected to harsh treat- 

 ment. Should they be guilty of crime, they are punished, 

 it is true, with blows of a stick (prygel}, by imprisonment 

 in a dark cell, or it may be are put in irons ; but only in 

 accordance with the sentence, after full investigation, of 

 the Slotts-Ralt, a court composed of certain function- 

 aries attached to the fortress. Although condemned to 

 imprisonment for life, they have nevertheless good grounds 

 to hope that if they conduct themselves with propriety, 

 they will be pardoned after the lapse of eight to ten 

 years. Their situation, therefore, is by no means so 

 desperate as people generally imagine, especially when 

 one considers that they consist of the very dregs of 

 society. The insalubrity of their prison, and the insuffi- 

 ciency of clothing, is, with the exception of loss of liberty, 

 all they have to complain of. 



" Shut out from the world, the prisoners in this 

 fortress have established a community amongst them- 

 selves a Republic in the strongest sense of the word 

 which they support by the most stringent Draconic laws; 



