Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/266

 dungeon, they rushed into each other's arms, and fell to the ground. With the assistance of Francis they were lifted up: Ferdinand prevailed on them to take some wine.

"We are not strangers to this liquor," said the man, gratefully pressing the hand of his preserver; "once a week we have had a half-pint each of us, not as a favour, but with a degree of refined cruelty, to support and enable us to bear the miseries inflicted on us."

Without shoes, only coarse flannel stockings, a kind of petticoat of the same, and the blanket round their shoulders, they had only been accustomed to struggle rather than walk to the end of their dungeons, where a small partition was contrived to afford a proper separation from the place they were to sit and lye on, for beds they had none. With infinite difficulty Ferdinand and Francis got them out of the dungeon, and up the steps into the vaulted passage: Here they rested for some time, and at length reached its termination; but no sooner did the light and