The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 210: what you’re looking at

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

i THE MYSTERIES. ee fe ECE OLED ok SO ands CTRATNAR CRT da, ‘Qe Wis F 4F e: (tins. BRACE] masonry over-head—loosening the mortar as well as be was able round the key-stone of the arched ceil- img, The task was by no means easy: for the mor- tar had hardened into the callosity of the granite- blocks which it held together—the position in which Warren was forced to labour was an awkward one— and the dust of the disturbed lime fell into his eyes. Nevertheless he toiled courageously on in spite of these disadvantages; and in half-an-hour a large stone next to the central one was dislodged. The first breach having been made, materially facilitated the ensuing operations: the key-stone itself was soon removed—and by ten o’clock a considerable excava- tion was formed in the middle of the ceiling, so that the Magsman could feel with his hand the lower side of a flagstone in the pavement of the ceil overhead. To raise this flag was no easy matter. It was ne- cessary to clear away all the masonry adhering to those parts where it joined the circumjacent stones, from which it had to be separated by the jemmy. 25 But at length this labour was accomplished; and the Magaman, to his infinite joy, found the fiag yield to his vigorous upward pressure. He moved it away from the mouth of the aperture which he had thus formed; and, without any diffi- culty, the adventurous Mageman passed through that opening into the cell immediately abovehis own. He dared not take the candle with him—for if any offi- cial of the prison should happen to be passing along Newgate Street and observe a light streaming { from the loop-hole of a room which he knew to be occupied at the time, a suspicion that something wrong was going on would instantly be followed by a search—the result of which must, as a matter of course, prove fatal to the Magsman s enterprise In the dark, therefore, did he hastily grope about the cell into which he nad thus worked his way ;— and, to his joy, he discovered that it contained an iron bedstead similar to the one which had served him as a scaffolding below. Tilting it up lengthways, 193 COMGLOO SS COMM