Jackson, I can have none to
spend elsewhere."
"Then you must go to Newgate!" answered the man, in as surly a tone
as his comrade's had been insolent.
"I'll run for a coach, Wilson," cried the other, opening the room
door.
"I will not pay for one," said Thaddeus, at once comprehending the
sort of wretches into whose custody he had fallen; "follow me down
stairs. I shall walk."
Mrs. Robson was in her shop as he passed to the street. She called
out, "You will come home to dinner, sir?"
"No," replied he; "but you shall hear from me before night." "The
men, winking at each other, sullenly pursued his steps down the lane.
In the Strand, Thaddeus asked them which way he was to proceed?"
"Straight on," cried one of them; "most folks find the road to a jail
easy enough."
Involved in thought, the count walked forward, unmindful of the stare
which the well-known occupation of his attendants attracted towards
him. When he arrived at Somerset House, one of the men stepped up to
him, and said, "We are now nearly opposite Wych Street. You had
better take your mind again, and go there instead of Newgate. I don't
think your honor will like the debtor's hole."
Thaddeus, coldly thanking him, repeated his determination to be led
to Newgate. But when he beheld the immense walls within which he
believed he should be immured for life, his feet seemed rooted to the
ground; and when the massive doors were opened and closed upon him,
he felt as if suddenly deprived of the vital spring of existence.
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