ut a minute's
unconsciousness. What wonder that his flesh had sunk away from his
bones, and that his frame had lost its elasticity! For some hours every
day he had lain prostrate on the bed in his cell, in a state of
feebleness pitiful to behold, unable to speak or move, and hardly able
to breathe. "One morning," he writes, "while gasping for breath, I
besought the gaoler to let me have more air, by throwing up the window.
'You are no gentleman,' said he; 'you gave that letter[14] out of the
window, and I will come presently to nail it down.' Happily a friend
soon after called upon me, and through his interference the window was
put up. The brutal gaoler had never before been uncivil to me ... but
there is a spirit throughout animal nature, brute and human, to oppress
in proportion as opportunity is safe, and the object defenceless. The
wounded stag, and the close prisoner of a Provincial Government,
experience similar treatment."[15]

The summer heat, as before mentioned, had been excessive. No rain had
fallen for weeks until just before the opening of the assizes, when
there had been three days of damp, cool weather. During these three days
the prisoner's strength had rallied wonderfully, and he had been able to
prepare a written defence, as well as a written protest against the
legality of his trial, in case of a hostile verdict. But the exertion
had been too much for him in his enfeebled condition, and, as though to
add to his miseries, the heat had become more intolerable than before.
He had not known how utterly his nerves were shattered until his case
had been called for trial, and he had been placed in the prisoners'
dock. Hot and stifling as was the air of the court-room, it was balm
itself when compared with the vitiated element which he had long been
forced to breathe. The stimulus was too great, and he was no longer
master of himself. To quote his own words, he became rampant with the
fresh air, and was reduced to imbecility at the very moment when he
specially needed strength, patience and recollection. Such was his
condition when Mr. Attorney-General rose from his seat and proceeded to
lay bare the prisoner's unspeakable enormities. It had been determined
that no attempt should be made to convict him of sedition, and that the
only charge to be pressed against him should be his refusal to leave the
Province. The indictment, however, was read and commented upon,
doubtless for the purpose of influencing the m