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walk in the garden whenever I pleased, and intimated that I should
shortly have something brought me to eat. I was allowed to retain my
blankets, and the few things which I had wrapped inside them, but it was
plain that I was to consider myself a prisoner--for how long a period I
could not by any means determine. He then left me alone.




CHAPTER VIII: IN PRISON


And now for the first time my courage completely failed me. It is enough
to say that I was penniless, and a prisoner in a foreign country, where I
had no friend, nor any knowledge of the customs or language of the
people. I was at the mercy of men with whom I had little in common. And
yet, engrossed as I was with my extremely difficult and doubtful
position, I could not help feeling deeply interested in the people among
whom I had fallen. What was the meaning of that room full of old
machinery which I had just seen, and of the displeasure with which the
magistrate had regarded my watch? The people had very little machinery
now. I had been struck with this over and over again, though I had not
been more than four-and-twenty hours in the country. They were about as
far advanced as Europeans of the twelfth or thirteenth century; certainly
not more so. And yet they must have had at one time the fullest
knowledge of our own most recent inventions. How could it have happened
that having been once so far in advance they were now as much behind us?
It was evident that it was not from ignorance. They knew my watch as a
watch when they saw it; and the care with which the broken machines were
preserved and ticketed, proved that they had not lost the recollection of
their former civilisation. The more I thought, the less I could
understand it; but at last I concluded that they must have worked out
their mines of coal and iron, till either none were left, or so few, that
the use of these metals was restricted to the very highest nobility. This
was the only solution I could think of; and, though I afterwards found
how entirely mistaken it was, I felt quite sure then that it must be the
right one.

I had hardly arrived at this opinion for above four or five minutes, when
the door opened, and a young woman made her appearance with a tray, and a
very appetising smell of dinner. I gazed upon her with admiration as she
laid a cloth and set a savoury-looking dish upon the table. As I beheld
her I felt as though my position was already much ameliorated, for the
very sight of her carried great comfort. She was not more than twenty,
rather above the middle height, active and strong, but yet most
delicately featured; her lips were full and sweet; her eyes were of a
deep hazel, and fringed with long and springing eyelashes; her hair was
neatly braided from off her forehead; her complexion was simply
exquisite; her figure as robust as was consistent with the most perfect
female beauty, yet not more so; her hands and feet might have served as

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