The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 205: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

194 and mounting on the head-board, as in the former instance, the Magsman renewed his operations by a determined attack on the ceiling of this cell on the first floor. If his progress were not so rapid as hitherto, and if the necessity of working in the dark matenially impeded his operations, nevertheless he found some recompense in the fact that the roof he was now as- sailing was not near so thick as the one through which he had already passed. Nevertheless, the toil was arduous in the extreme: the dust, getting into his throat, created a burning thirst; and he was several times forced to descend and drink from the large pitcher of water in his own cell. But every piece of mortar which he broke away and every stone which he removed, appeared in his eyes to be another and another obstacle overcome ; and, so far from despairing, his hopes acquired strength as time progressed. Midnight sounded from St. Sepulchre’s just as the Magsman succeeded in raising a large flag which covered the excavation he had formed in the vaulted roof of this dungeon on the first floor; and in a few minutes he passed up into the cell overhead. Around ‘the walls, in the total darkness, did he sweep his {hands : but, alas! this time he was disappointed— for the place was entirely empty—and there was no inon bedstead to form a scaflolding. | This contingeney had however been provided for, as the reader will soon find. \ Deseending into the room beneath, the Magsman lthrust the blanket and oover-lid (alias horse-cloth) belonging to the bed, up into the top cell; and mount- ng thither ones more, he resumed his operations with fresh energy, though working in utter darkness. Using the trusty crow-bar asa hammer, he drove two of the four nails which had been sent him, into one of the walis, at a distance of five feet from the floor, and about a foot apart from each other. The remaining two he drove into the opposite wall, pre- serving as nearly as he could gnesa the same relative osition. He then unwound his ball or silken cord, nd fastened it from natl to nail, in such a manner hat two parallel lines, with an interval of twelve inches, extended from wall to wall; and as the length of the string allowed these lines to be doubled, they were competent to bear a very considerable weight. The Magsman now folded the blanket and horse- loth into a sort of square cushion, which he placed pon the lines; and, having without much difficulty eated himself thereon, he was fairly balanced at a neight of five feet from the floor, and at a convenient distance from the ceiling which henow attacked with his eraw-bar. Ons o'clock struck before the intrepid Joe Warren uceseded in moving the first stone. Well nigh ex- aumted with the extraordinary exertions he had al- feady made—eo parched with thirst that his tongue seemed like a piece of charcoal—aad finding his tignt-rope scaffold, ingenious though the contrivance might be, most inconvenient for his operations, the nearer he drew tothe threshold of liberty, the greater became the difficulties which he had to encounter. But will he did hia best; and he worked chearily, cheerily an »—ner would he waste time by descending inte the esl] on the ground-Goor to slake his burning thirst with the water that was there. ivery now and then he paused for a few moments 40 listen—and when some suspicious noise met his cars, the Megemau grasped his crow-bar all the more THE MXSTERIES. tightly, and ground his teeth together,—for he was animated with the ferocious resolve to murder the first person who might appear to molest him. But on each occasion his apprehensions proved ground- less—and he resumed his toils with a resuscitated energy. All on a sudden the silken cords snapped in twain —and Joe Warren fell heavily upon the stone pave- ment. He was sorely bruised; and for an instant he imagined that one of his legs was broken ;— but rising slowly and painfully, he shook himself like a lion that has just escaped from the pursuit of huntes —and a savage grow! burst from his breast. What was he todo? To mend the lines so as to enable them to bear his weight again, was impossible. A thought struck him!—he would descend to the cell beneath and pull the iron bedstead to pieces in order to form a scaffold for the continuation of his labours. Rolling up the blanket and horse-cloth, and fas- tening them together so as to constitute a rope, he tied one end round the huge flag-stone which he had displaced from the floor of the uppermost cell, and passed the rope through the hole into the dungeon beneath: becanse. when once the iron bedstead should have been broken up, he would lose that means of ascent into the tof, dungeon again. Descending into the celi un the first storey, he ‘owered the bedstead to its proper horizontal posi- tion, and tried the screws which held the varioug pieces together. But he was enveloped in darkness —the candle in his own cel] had been extinguised for the last two hours—and he could not possibly pursue his present operations in such dense obscurity. Gnashing his teeth with rage, and giving vent to horrible imprecations in an under tone, the Mags- man again aud again tried the screws with his crow- bar: but they were so completely rusted into their sockets, that half-an-hour was thus passed without producing the slightest effect upon any one of them. What washetodo? Again he asked himseif this question; and, sitting down exhausted on the bed which he had fruitlessly endeavoured to break up, he wiped the perspiration and the dust from his throb- bing brows. ” The Magsman was perfectly ferocious: he chafed like a starved lion in a cage—he would have rith- lessly murdered any turnkey or prison official who might have appeared at that moment. Yet soinething must be done! Time wae passing : the hour was already gone by at which his friends expected that he would have succeeded in working his way through. the masenry of the top cell so that only a thin sheet of lead should He between him and liberty ! What if he were to tear the sacking of the straw— mattress into slips, and fasten them te the four nafhs in the place of the broken cord of silk? Yes—this was the only course which he could now adopt. Hed there been a sacking, lashed with ropes in the usnal way, to the bed, all this trouble and anxiety were spared him: but, alas! the foundation of that bed. stead was a thin sheet of iron, supported by crow pars of the same metal, and on which the mattrem ye No time was to be lost! With his powerful bands he tore open that mattress—turned out the etraw— and rent the coarse stuff into severgl] long slipg These he twisted up and fastened tegethar; and, am COMIC OO© SS co eee EEE eee