It was the scene on the poop-deck over again; only, here being no fear of restraining keepers, the wild beasts were a little more free in their movements.

It is impossible to convey, in words, any idea of the hideous phantasmagoria of shifting limbs and faces which moved through the evil-smelling twilight of this terrible prison-house.
Callot might have drawn it, Dante might have suggested it, but a minute attempt to describe its horrors would but disgust.

There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate.
Old men, young men, and boys, stalwart burglars and highway robbers, slept side by side with wizened pickpockets or cunning-featured area-sneaks.

The forger occupied the same berth with the body-snatcher.
The man of education learned strange secrets of house-breakers' craft, and the vulgar ruffian of St.Giles took lessons of self-control from the keener intellect of the professional swindler.

The fraudulent clerk and the flash "cracksman" interchanged experiences.