blood was shed--ill blood; so, perhaps, better out than in;--and as
Bruin's sticks were conveniently at hand as weapons of offence, they
were soon seized upon, and used so indiscriminately, that almost every
throw told. Many were stretched on the ground, and one of the
mastiff-police was thought to be killed. This was a serious offence,
indeed, and those who knew the penalty attending such a calamity
instantly took to flight. They were as instantly pursued; and when about
to be captured, with one voice denounced Bruin as the culprit; though,
in fact, it was not he who had struck the blow, and they knew it: but
such was his known ferocity and ill-temper, that to shield themselves
they were ready to give up the wrong beast, whom no one loved, and whom
every one would have suspected as the author of the calamity. So the
bear, in spite of his protestations of innocence, and in spite too of a
most furious resistance, in the course of which he got more than one
savage bite from some small animal he had injured, he was dragged off to
prison.

The place used for this purpose was a portion of a ruined castle,
standing in the centre of the town, on the banks of the rivulet before
spoken of; the ruin itself being of great antiquity, and having been
evidently erected by a very different class of beings to that which
formed the present population of Caneville. Several compartments were
adapted for the purpose, all more or less secure; but the square stone
chamber into which Bruin was thrust was the strongest of them all. The
door opening outwards was closed on him, and secured by a heavy mass of
rock, which the united efforts of several of the police rolled against
it; and having thus deposited the prisoner in safety, a couple mounted
guard at the entrance, in case by any chance the great strength of the
bear should succeed in removing the fastening. Bruin seemed, however, in
no humour to make the experiment. Sore and worn out, he crawled into a
corner and was soon fast asleep, resuming in his dreams some of his old
avocations. He woke at daylight, and immediately rose to examine his
prison. The door he sniffed at, but passed by; the window was at so
great a height from the floor that he could not reach it upon tiptoe,
but he remarked that a very delicious puff of fresh air came down an
aperture originally used as a chimney. He moved hastily towards it, and
many feet above observed the blue sky, and the large branch of a tree
wavin