Immediately on the right as you enter, is a building containing the press-room, day-room, and cells; the yard is on every side surrounded by lofty walls guarded by _chevaux de frise_; and the whole is under the constant inspection of vigilant and experienced turnkeys.
In the first apartment into which we were conducted--which was at the top of a staircase, and immediately over the press-room--were five-and-twenty or thirty prisoners, all under sentence of death, awaiting the result of the recorder's report--men of all ages and appearances, from a hardened old offender with swarthy face and grizzly beard of three days' growth, to a handsome boy, not fourteen years old, and of singularly youthful appearance even for that age, who had been condemned for burglary.

There was nothing remarkable in the appearance of these prisoners.

One or two decently-dressed men were brooding with a dejected air over the fire; several little groups of two or three had been engaged in conversation at the upper end of the room, or in the windows; and the remainder were crowded round a young man seated at a table, who appeared to be engaged in teaching the younger ones to write.

The room was large, airy, and clean.

There was very little anxiety or mental suffering depicted in the countenance of any of the men;--they had all been sentenced to death, it is true, and the recorder's report had not yet been made; but, we question whether there was a man among them, notwithstanding, who did not _know_ that although he had undergone the ceremony, it never was intended that his life should be sacrificed.