I was allowed to walk in the garden; there was a high wall so that I
managed to play a sort of hand fives, which prevented my feeling the
bad effects of my confinement, though it was stupid work playing alone.
In the course of time people from the town and neighbourhood began to
pester the jailor to be allowed to see me, and on receiving handsome
fees he let them do so. The people were good to me; almost too good,
for they were inclined to make a lion of me, which I hated—at least the
women were; only they had to beware of Yram, who was a young lady of a
jealous temperament, and kept a sharp eye both on me and on my lady
visitors. However, I felt so kindly towards her, and was so entirely
dependent upon her for almost all that made my life a blessing and a
comfort to me, that I took good care not to vex her, and we remained
excellent friends. The men were far less inquisitive, and would not, I
believe, have come near me of their own accord; but the women made them
come as escorts. I was delighted with their handsome mien, and pleasant
genial manners.
My food was plain, but always varied and wholesome, and the good red
wine was admirable. I had found a sort of wort in the garden, which I
sweated in heaps and then dried, obtaining thus a substitute for
tobacco; so that what with Yram, the language, visitors, fives in the
garden, smoking, and bed, my time slipped by more rapidly and
pleasantly than might have been expected. I also made myself a small
flute; and being a tolerable player, amused myself at times with
playing snatches from operas, and airs such as “O where and oh where,”
and “Home, sweet home.” This was of great advantage to me, for the
people of the country were ignorant of the diatonic scale and could
hardly believe their ears on hearing some of our most common melodies.
Often, too, they would make me sing; and I could at any time make
Yram’s eyes swim with tears by singing “Wilkins and his Dinah,” “Billy
Taylor,” “The Ratcatcher’s Daughter,” or as much of them as I could
remember.
I had one or two discussions with them because I never would sing on
Sunday (of which I kept count in my pocket-book), except chants and
hymn tunes; of these I regret to say that I had forgotten the words, so
that I could only sing the tune. They appeared to have little or no
religious feeling, and to have never so much as heard of the divine
institution of the Sabbath, so they ascribed my observance of it to a
fit of sulkiness, which they remarked as coming over me upon every
seventh day. But they were very tolerant, and one of them said to me
quite kindly that she knew how impossible it was to help being sulky at
times, only she thought I ought to see some one if it became more
serious—a piece of advice which I then failed to understand, though I
pretended to take it quite as a matter of course.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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