4 INTRODUCTION. 



familiar with many instances where persons who had 

 been banished from their country, on pain of death, 

 have been irresistibly drawn towards the frontiers ; 

 and though they knew that their lives would be for- 

 feited if they were captured, have been unable to 

 resist the impulse that urged them to trespass across 

 the forbidden line. 



Not many years ago, there existed in the vicinity 

 of certain prisons a few streets, technically named the 

 " Rules " of the prison. In these " Rules " any one 

 imprisoned for debt might live, without being actually 

 within the walls of the prison, provided that he could 

 pay the high rental demanded. 



If he ventured across the boundary of. the " Rules/' 

 were ib but by a foot, he might be captured, and then 

 would be strictly confined within the walls of the prison. 

 This partial liberty was certainly a considerable privi- 

 lege, though, in fact, it was more apparent than 

 real. For, so deeply does human nature resent the 

 existence of any boundaries, that the residents within 

 the Rules found them scarcely less galling than the 

 prison itself. They would come to the entrance of the 

 street, stand as close as they could to the line of 

 separation, and gaze wistfully at the world with which 

 they might not mix. 



Sometimes, after watching carefully so that no 

 enemy might be in sight, they would jump across the 

 boundary ; and occasionally one of them, bolder or 

 more active than the rest, would run fairly across 

 the street, touch the opposite wall, and dart back 

 again, amid the envious congratulations of his com- 

 panions. He really felt much better after an exploit 



