He has been ever on the alert for a sentence of doom.

He has been cuffed, kicked, caned, flogged, shut up in the dark, fed on bread and water, sent hungry to bed, subjected to a variety of cruel and humiliating punishments, terrified with idle--but to him appalling--threats.

In his misery he has shed a whole ocean of tears,--the salt and bitter tears of hopeless grief and helpless anger, not the soul-refreshing tears which are sometimes distilled from sorrow by the sunshine of love.

But of all the cruelties to which he has been subjected, the most devilish has been that of making him believe in his own criminality, in the corruption of his innocent heart.

In the deadly shade of that chilling cloud, the flower of his opening life has too often withered before it has had time to expand.