as
at a tavern or cookshop, and where commons were served out to the poorer
prisoners.

Near this was a large hall, which served as the refectory of the
prisoners for debt. It was furnished with side benches of oak, and had
two long tables of the same wood; but both benches and tables were in a
filthy state, and the floor was never cleansed. Indeed, every part of
the prison was foul enough to breed a pestilence; and the place was
seldom free from fever in consequence. The upper part of the refectory
was traversed by a long corridor, on either side of which were the
dormitories.

The arrangements of the inner ward were nearly similar, and differed
only from the outer, in so far that the accommodations were superior,
as they had need to be, considering the price asked for them; but even
here nothing like cleanliness could be found. In this ward was the
chapel. At a grated window in the gate stood the poor debtors rattling
their begging-boxes, and endeavouring by their cries to obtain alms from
the passers-by.

Below the warden's lodgings, which adjoined the gate, and which were now
occupied by the deputy, Joachim Tunstall, was a range of subterranean
dungeons, built below the level of the Fleet. Frequently flooded by the
river, these dungeons were exceedingly damp and unwholesome; and they
were reserved for such prisoners as had incurred the censure of the
inexorable Court of Star-Chamber. It was in one of the deepest and most
dismal of these cells that the unfortunate Sir Ferdinando Mounchensey
breathed his last.

Allusion has been previously made to the influence exercised within the
Fleet by Sir Giles Mompesson. Both the wardens were his friends, and
ever ready to serve him; their deputy was his creature, and subservient
to his will in all things; while the jailers and their assistants took
his orders, whatever they might be, as if from a master. Thus he was
enabled to tyrannize over the objects of his displeasure, who could
never be secure from his malice.

By the modes of torture he adopted through his agents, he could break
the most stubborn spirit, and subdue the strongest. It was matter of
savage satisfaction to him to witness the sufferings of his victims; and
he never ceased from persecution till he had obtained whatever he
desired. The barbarities carried out in pursuance of the atrocious
sentences of the Court of Star-Chamber were to him pleasant spectacles;
and the bleeding and mutilated wretches, whom