They went to church. The civil guard was drawn up under the gallery with loaded rifles. Eight hundred convicts attended service; some of them were penitent; most of them were trying to make a high profession of contrition as a bid for the good graces of the chaplain. The obtrusive reverence of one sinister gray-head near at hand attracted Hugh Ritson's especial attention. He knelt with his face to the gallery in which the choir sat. Beside him was a youth fresh from Millbank. The hoary sinner was evidently initiating the green hand into the mysteries of his new home. He was loud in his responses, but his voice had a trick of dropping suddenly to a whispered conference. "Who's the fat 'un in the choir? A chap as is doing his ten. His missis chared to keep the kids, and one morning early he popped the old girl's shoes." The voice of the chaplain interrupted further explanation; but after another loud response the old rascal's mouth was twisted awry with the words: "He's a wide 'un, he is--seat in the choir got comfortable cushions. Besides, he gets off Saturday morning's work for practicing--got no more voice nor a corn-crake." Evidently it was no disadvantage here to be the greatest of vagabonds. When a cadaverous old Jew came hobbling up the aisle with his gang, the gray-head whispered, with awe: "It's old Mo; he's in the stocking gang; but I did business with him when he could ha' sent old Rothschild home for a pauper." At one moment the attention of the green hand was arrested by a tall man in the black and gray that indicated a convict who had attempted to escape. "Says he's in for twenty thousand, but it's a lie," whispered the old man; "he only knocked a living out of the religious fake." The last of the conference that Hugh Ritson overheard was a piece of touching advice. "Them as 'as any pluck in 'em turns savage, same as B 2001; them as 'asn't, knocks under, same as me; and I says to you, knock under." After service the sacrament was celebrated. There must have been many hundreds of communicants, all humble in their piety. It could be noticed that the chaplain had sometimes to keep a tight grip of the goblet containing the wine.