My sleep made me feel stronger; I felt far better than when the old man had visited me. I looked around the room again, and saw a hard-featured woman. She, too, was elderly, fast beating on toward sixty. She placed a basin of gruel at my side. "'Ere," she said, "ait this." "Ah," I thought, "I am still in Cornwall. Anyhow, the woman speaks with a Cornish accent." I thought I might fare better with her than with the old man, so I tried to gain some information from her. "Let's see," I said, "what part of Cornwall are we in?" "Ait yer mait, an' ax no questions," was her response. I ate the gruel with a good appetite. It was carefully made, and seemed to be seasoned with some pleasant-tasting cordial. When I had finished the old woman grunted with satisfaction. "It is very nice," I said--"very nice. Whoever made it knows her work. Did you make it?" "Who es ther' that knaweth how to make sich stuff as that but me?" she said. Her answer set me thinking, and I drew two conclusions. One was that the old woman was vulnerable to flattery, the other was that she did not hail from that part of the county in which I was reared. The word "knaweth" told me that she belonged to the northern part of the county. I put another question in order to test the truth of both these conclusions. "You look too much of a lady to be the cook," I said, "and yet I thought the cook would naturally make such things." "Ther's no cook. Her's gone. I'm in charge." She said this proudly, but although her answer was brief, it confirmed me in my suspicions. People in the western part of the county would say "She's gone," so when she said, "Her's gone," I was sure that she hailed from either Devon or from somewhere in the region of Tintagel and Boscastle. "It must be a place of importance," I said. "Have you lived here long?" "I was born in this parish." "Let's see, this is near St. Minver, isn't it?" "Ax me no questions and I'll tell 'ee no lies," was the reply. But she had let me know more than she imagined. She had told me that she was born in the parish where my prison was situated, and I knew by her brogue that the parish was situated a good many miles north of St. Eve. I asked her many more questions, but she would answer none that gave me any further information concerning my whereabouts. As to why I was there she seemed as ignorant as myself. After this I lay many days on my bed--how many I do not know. The mornings dawned and the daylight departed by; I did not pay much heed. From the remarks of the little man, who constantly visited me, I judged that some complication had arisen in my case, and so my recovery was delayed. At length, however, I felt myself grow stronger again, and then daily health came to my blood and vitality to my being. By and by I was able to rise from my bed, and a suit of clothes of antiquated cut was given me to wear. "What month is this?" I asked one day of the old man when he came to see me.