At the Mercy of TiberiusEvans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
History
At the Mercy of Tiberius
Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37 -- Fiction
"We were obliged to move her, after she was sentenced, but the doctor
said one of those cells down stairs would be certain and quick death
for her, with her lungs in such a condition; so we put her in the
smallest room on this floor; the last one at the end of the corridor.
It is only a closet it is true, but it is right in the angle, and has
two narrow slits of windows, one opening south, the other west, and the
sunshine gets in. The day after her trial ended, she sent for the
sheriff, who happened to be here, and asked him if solitary confinement
was not considered a more severe penalty than any other form here? When
he told her it was, she said: Then it could not be construed into
clemency or favoritism if you ordered me into solitary confinement?
Certainly not, he told her. Whereupon she begged him to allow her to be
shut up away from the others, as she would sooner sit in the dark and
see no human being, than be forced to associate with the horrible,
guilty outcasts down stairs. While he and Ned were consulting about her
case, she was taken very ill. Of course you know Ned has a good deal of
latitude and discretion allowed him, and the doctor is on our side, but
even at best, the rules are stern. She takes her meals alone, and the
only place where she meets the other convicts--isn't it a shame to call
her one!--is the chapel; and even there she is separated, because Ned
has given her charge of the organ. Everybody under sentence is obliged
to work, but she does not go down into the general sewing room. The
superintendent of that department apportions a certain amount of
sewing, and her share is sent up daily to her. She really is not able
to work, but begged that we should give her some employment."
"She consented to see Mr. Prince Darrington?"
"Oh, no! It was the merest accident that he succeeded in speaking to
her. He happened to come the day that I took her out for the first time
in the garden, for a little fresh air in the sunshine; and we met him
and Ned on the walk. O, Mr. Dunbar! It was pitiful to see her face,
when the young man took off his hat, and said:
"'I am General Darrington's adopted son.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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