He applied for a writ of habeas corpus,--but
mark the result.
The Captain proceeded to the jail, and demanded to see his steward;
the jailer hesitating at first, at length granted his permission. He
found Manuel locked up in a little, unwholesome cell, with scarcely
a glimmer of light to mark the distinction of day and night; and so
pale and emaciated, that had he met him in the street he should
scarcely have recognised him. "Gracious God! What crime could have
brought such an excess of punishment upon you?" inquired the
Captain.
Manuel told him the whole story; and, added to that, the things
which had been sent to him during the seven days he had been
confined in that manner, had seldom reached him. He had lost his
good friend Jane, and the many kind acts which she was wont to
bestow upon him, and had been compelled to live upon bread and water
nearly the whole time, suffering the most intense hunger. Upon
inquiry, it was ascertained that the few things sent to make him
comfortable had been intrusted to Daley to deliver, who appropriated
nearly the whole of them to his own use, as a sort of retaliatory
measure for the castigation he received from Manuel. He had not
failed to carry him his pan of soup at twelve o'clock every day, but
made the "choice bits" serve his own digestion. The jailer felt the
pain of the neglect, and promised to arrange a safer process of
forwarding his things by attending to it himself, which he did with
all the attention in his power, when Manuel's condition became more
tolerable.
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