Of Newgate prison I'd heard a great deal of talk, but it in no way prepared me for what it was.  To a free man living in the fens, with fresh air to breathe and going about when he chose, where he chose, it was a frightful thing to be confined, and worse to be confined amid filth and the filthy.

No sooner was I brought into the prison than I was loaded with irons, shoved about, and abused.  Then the prisoners came to me with demands for garnish, which I provided, having hidden money about me.

One lingered.  He was a bold-faced rascal, a thief, he added, and occasionally a highwayman.

"You can have the irons off," he told me, "for a bit of something to the jailer, and for a bit more you can live well, but never let them think there's an end to what you have, for then you will be thrown into the worst hole they have and left to rot.  There's no bit of human feeling in them.  Many a man has died here."

His name was Hyatt.  I found myself liking the man.  I was in sore need of somebody with a knowing way about Newgate.

"It is Croppie you must see," he advised with a knowing wink.  "Henry Croppie is the one, and he's a brute, mate, a bloody brute who'd kill you with his bare bands."

"I also have two hands," I said.

"Aye, but there's a sinister power in his, and delighted he is to put it to use on some poor soul.  If he kills you it is no loss to him, but if you kill him it's Tyburn or Execution Dock."

A wicked gleam lit up his face.  "It is said you where there's treasure... gold, mayhap, and gems.  Is it true then?"

Now a man who has nothing is of no use to anyone, but if there is a chance of gain even the best of men are sometimes swayed, so I merely shrugged.  "Let them believe what they want," I said.  "I admit nothing, deny nothing."

With a bit of coin placed in the proper hand I had my irons removed, was changed to better quarters, and found choicer food available.  It was not in my mind, however, to remain long where I was.

The questioning would begin.  "It is like so," Hyatt said.  "They will speak gently at first, try to get what they want without effort, and if they do not get it, they will bear down."

For a week I went about the prison, my nostrils repelled by the vile stench, yet taking in all that went on, and all who were about, for help may come from strange quarters and I was in no position to hold back from the roughest hand.

Men and women mixed together, some children ran about, all in the filthiest rags, faces and hands dirty, with the worst of criminals mingled with debtors and those thrown into gaol for heresy, which was an easy thing if one talked but loosely of Queen or Church.

One day I was called to a private room where two men sat.  One was a slender man with a tight, cruel mouth and a tightly curled wig.  He looked at me with an aloof and distant expression.

The other man was square and solid-looking, a man of the Army, I would have guessed, or perhaps the captain of a warship.