That parting from his first master, Jack, had been a great wrench to Prince’s whole nature; and while the strain of the pull, and the ache of the void, were still in full force, the dog was condemned for his sins to solitary confinement, on the lowest diet, and with no satisfaction of his social instincts, except the brief interview with Mr. Jerry Noakes, his gaoler, who never said, “Hie! old dog,” or “What are you arter to-day, you duffer?” or “Shan’t we have a rove to-night, my beauty?” Sometimes Prince was so depressed in his spirits that he could not find it in his heart to make a spring, worry, and have done with a cat which, from scrambling idly down on the wall, ventured imprudently to descend into his territory. He contented himself with growling at her, just that she might escape to the wall again, and stand there raising her back and spitting at him, which was an approach to company. It was a positive relief when the sun was right overhead, blazing down into the little black hole, threatening to produce spontaneous combustion among the materials for fuel which seemed then so unnecessary, and to grill the bones of Prince, lying panting with his tongue out in that couch of his, which neither kept out heat nor cold, and was very far from water-tight—that he could divert his mind from sad thoughts by watching the blue-bottle flies which, for some reason Prince could not divine—if he had got his choice, he would not have selected such quarters—congregated and buzzed lazily about the enclosure. Prince only watched the flies; he was by far too practical and mature a dog to descend—even in his dulness, and although he had not been weak from deficiency of food and overcome by the heat—to anything so childish as catching flies. I think it was Sir Edwin Landseer himself who said that no dog could endure being kept strictly on the chain for a longer period than three years; that his heart would break, or his reason give way in the interval. I believe Prince was nearly three years Mr. Jerry Noakes property without either dying or going mad; but then he was a dog of singular powers of endurance, as I have signified; besides, after the first few months of his joint experience of being a gaoler and gaoled, there were modifications introduced into the system which rendered it more bearable to him. Mr. Jerry Noakes discovered that by the sheer force of habit, and of that defective imagination which prevents some men and dogs, though driven to extremity, from breaking out into independent enterprise, Prince, if let loose for a season, would return doggedly, of his own accord, to his durance on the expiry of a reasonable time. Therefore, when Mr. Jerry was himself on duty at the yard, he would free the dog, and send him out of the gates for a scamper, reflecting with a grin that he saved Prince’s feed that morning—since the dog was sure to nose out some booty in his outing—as well as preserved him in good health.