s constituted a spiral staircase which wound round the
interior of the tower; ever and anon as we passed a small window I saw
the lights of Bath twinkling in the distance.

Beyond a few walks during the ten days I had spent there--my first
visit--I knew very little of Bath or its neighbourhood, therefore I had
no opportunity of taking my bearings.

I was urged up this staircase in a manner which I should have thought
unusual had I not remembered the men's complaints of the long
journey--which they had made twice--in the fly.

Finally we reached a door, and they simply pushed me through it into a
large room. It was evidently the top storey of the tower and had
windows looking all ways. It was perfectly circular in shape, was
fairly clean, and had a fire burning in a grate with a wire screen
before it; in one corner was a bed.

The two men released their hold as I looked around, and the dark one
went to a corner and picked up a chain.

"Come here!" he shouted to me roughly.

His colleague assisted me by giving me a shove in his direction. Then,
in a twinkling, he fixed a steel ring to my left ankle, snapped it
there and locked a small padlock on it.

I was chained up like a dog!

Having thoroughly searched me, they prepared to leave; the taller man
addressed me.

"I suppose you know," he remarked, as the two moved towards the door,
"that if you make any attempt to escape, you'll be shot?"

With this parting caution he closed the door, and I heard a key turn in
the lock.

I took one turn round the room, the chain being long enough, with many
a yearning look at the distant lights of Bath; then, horrified at the
clanking of my fetters, which were fixed to a staple in the wall, I
threw myself as I was on the bed in the corner, and there, being tired
out, almost immediately fell asleep.

CHAPTER VI

PUT TO THE TORTURE

I awoke with a feeling of intense cold, the fire was out, and I was
lying outside the bed without covering.

The day had fully broken, and there was even an attempt on the part of
the sun to pierce the heavy mists of a November morning. I looked
around out of the windows, and saw the hills topped with cloud in every
direction.

Drawing the rough blankets over me, I lay and thought. My first
yearning was for something to eat; I had tasted nothing since lunch the
previous day; I was fearfully hungry.

I had lain thus perhaps half an hour between sleeping and waking, when
a key wa