Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/179

 panion close to the gate, for I was unable to go further, and there had my den as long as we were in that prison.

There were then but few prisoners in the gaol, for they had gone as rowers on board the war-boats, but they were from time to time expected. These prisoners had left abundant filth behind them, as well as many pieces of rags and tattered garments, which we took and placed under our heads instead of pillows. In truth, no man who has not experienced it will believe what sort of lodging it was in that prison. For, not to speak of fleas, lice, and bugs, there was a kind of black insects, like large ants, and wherever they stung blood immediately spouted out, and the place swelled up, just as when the measles break out on children. We were all so stung that nowhere over our whole persons had we a sound spot where you could stick a pin, on the head and face just as little as on the rest of the body. To us voluptuous people, unaccustomed to such lodgings, it was excessively difficult to get used to this; for, though we stripped ourselves naked, it was no good, but those flies stung us still. After all, however, it was lucky for us that it was so, for the skin over the whole of our bodies was so bestung that we no longer felt the biting of lice or bugs, although it was impossible to get used to the stinging of those other insects. The steam, stench, and heat were so excessive that I might have lost my senses, and, above all, the dysentery attacked me so violently in that prison that I could not remain a quarter of an hour in the place where I was. And thus, tortured and utterly miserable being that I was, I wished for death, especially as my companion could not walk and carry the chain, and we were obliged to defile