to be shut up all day in this
room is far from pleasant; and we will pass our words not to escape for
the next week, should we be confined as long."

The warden laughed grimly. "That were a pretty way of looking after
prisoners," he observed. "However, on payment of another mark each, you
may perchance obtain the liberty of taking the air, on passing your word
that you will make no attempt to leave the prison."

The money and the promise were at once given, and the boys were told
that at certain hours of the day they would have liberty to take the air
in the courtyard below.

The very thought of this gave the boys considerable satisfaction. They
did not sleep soundly that night, and both were awoke, it might have
been about midnight, by hearing groans, as of a person in pain,
proceeding apparently from the chamber below them. They listened
attentively, and now they heard a human voice; it seemed lifted up in
prayer. Getting out of bed, and putting their ears to the floor, they
could distinguish the very words. Fervent and earnest was the prayer.
It was addressed neither to the Virgin nor to saints, but to One always
ready to hear prayer--to One who "so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life." The voice was deep-toned and earnest.
Sometimes it trembled like that of a man advanced in life, or suffering
from great bodily sickness. The boys felt almost that they had no right
to listen to words which were spoken to God alone. Still they felt
their own spirits revive, and their courage strengthened. The speaker
seemed to think that the hour of his death was fast approaching, that he
might have to stand before a tribunal of his fellow-men, and he prayed
that strength might be given him to make a good confession, to hold fast
to the faith. At length the prayer ceased, and once more the boys lay
down in their beds, and were soon again asleep.

The following day, at the hour of noon, the door of their ward opened,
and the red nose of Master Babbington appeared at it.

"You may go forth, young masters," he observed; "but remember you are
watched, and if you are seen spying about, instead of the leniency you
have hitherto experienced, you will be treated with no small amount of
rigour." Saying this, the warden went on his way to visit other
prisoners.

The boys, glad to find themselves in the enjoyment of even such limited