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MITCHEL'S FLIGHT.

towards the Bush instead of the shore, and wait his chance of a ship.

But he must first deliver up his ticket-ofleave, into the hands of the police magistrate, and in so doing give the owner of the white Arab, Donald, an opportunity of taking him into custody if he was able, or disposed so to do.

He and his mysterious friend Nicaragua ride into Bothwell, provided with Colt's revolvers. They dismount at the door cf the police-court. Mr. Davis is on the bench.

"Mr. Davis," said Mitchel, "here is the

copy of a note which I have just despatched to the Governor. I have thought it necessary to give you a copy." The note contained his resignation of his ticket-of-leave, and the withdrawment of his parole.

Mr. Davis was knocked all of a heap, and before he had time to shake himself up, or summon courage to call on the constables to take the convict into custody, John Mitchel was in the saddle, and soon beyond his reach.

HIS SUBSEQUENT FORTUNES.

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It is not our intention to follow him and his companion into the Bush, or to mention the names of the friends he met there, or how he escaped to Sydney, and from Sydney to the Sandwich Islands, and from the Sandwich Islands to California. Here he established a newspaper.

He spent the last two or three years in Paris, and became French correspondent of the Irishman.

He returned during the last year to America, where he has been appointed Keeper of the Confederate Archives at Richmond. A most proper appointment, for he is as ripe and as accomplished a scholar, as he is a revolutionist or rebel. His sons are fighting in the Confederate ranks.

CHAPTER XXV.

POSTSCRIPT.

IN Chapters IV. and V. of the first volume, I speak of the nature and effects of what is styled the "deterrent" discipline of Mountjoy cellular prison. "It is the practice," writes the late chairman, Sir Walter Crofton, "to make this stage very penal."

The Four Visiting Justices of Wakefield, who are perfectly enamoured of the "idle discipline," say, "The prisoner kept in the strict seclusion of his cell, and forced to be idle, soon feels, that to have something to do would be a great relief to the monotony of his existence."

SUICIDES IN MOUNTJOY.

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I speak in Chapters IV. and V. of the effect of such discipline in driving men mad, and give examples of the two "Men with Bees in their Bonnets," who came to Spike Island from the cells of Mountjoy, where they caught the bees, one of whom committed suicide.

Since I wrote those chapters another prisoner has committed suicide in Mountjoy, and a third almost succeeded in doing so. This last is acknowledged to have been a "real attempt, for respiration—as the result of strangulation— was suspended for a considerable time. I refer to this case, in order to lay the following interesting letter before the reader, which I feel convinced will touch every heart that is not too deeply imbued with Sir Walter Crofton's deterrent discipline. The letter is written on leaves of books, and small bits of paper :—

"November 11th. 1862.

"RESPECTED SIR,

"Impressed with a feeling sense of my

302

INTERESTING LETTER.

present awful situation, I address you for the first and last time. I have this act in contemplation for the last three months.

"I have read your countenance well, and can discover gentleman' stamped in every lineament of your features, in every act, in every expression you give utterance to.

"That is my reason for taking the liberty of addressing you, hoping that you will be so kind as to give consolation to my wife and daughter. Also give her the enclosed articles, in remembrance of me.

66

'My last request is, for her never to let her daughter know, her father committed suicide, in a convict prison.

"Sir, I cannot bear up any longer with this monopaly [monotony]. It is more than I can endure. A man in solitude-whom sloth often warps, and whose conversation is not always with God-is his own most dangerous tempter and worst company.

"Man is defined a social creature,' or one