5*8 THE SPORT OF FORTUNE* 



himfelf in a horrid dungeon under the earth. The 

 firrt. fight that prefented itfelf to his opening eyes was 

 the dreadful prifon-wall, againft which the moon 

 darted down fome feeble rays, through a narrow ere - 

 vice at the height of nineteen fathoms from the ground 

 of his cell. At his fide he felt a fcanty loaf of bread 

 arid a pitcher of water, and near him a fcattering of 

 flraw for his couch. In this condition he held out till 

 the following noon ; when, in the middle of the turret, 

 a Hiding mutter feemed to open of itfelf, through 

 which prefently two hands appeared, letting down a 

 hanging bafket with the fame allotment of provifion he 

 had found belicle him the day before. Now, for the 

 firft time fince his fatal reveffe, pain and anxiety forced 

 from him thefe queftions to the invifible perfon ; how 

 he came here ? and what crime he had committed ? 

 But no anfwer was returned from above : the hands 

 were withdrawn, and the fhutter clofed. Without 

 feeing a human Vlfage, without even hearing a human 

 voice, unable to gni efs at what might be the end of 

 this deplorable ftroke, in like dreadful uncertainty on 

 the future and on the part, cheered by no genial ray 

 of light, rcfrefhed by no wholefome breeze, cut off 

 from all affirmance, and abandoned by common com- 

 panion, four hundred and ninety doleful days did he 

 count in this place of condemnation, by the bread of 

 affliction which was daily let down to him at noon In 

 il lent and fad uniformity. But a difcovery he made 

 foon after his confinement here, completed the mea- 

 fure of his diftrefs. He knew this place. — He him- 

 felf it was who, impelled by a fpirit of bafe revenge, 

 had built it afrefh but a few months before for a brave 



and 



