doctrines and instructions a of youth of these charges the there is every for believing honestly found him guilty and condemned the man who probably of all then bom had deserved best of mankind to be put to death as a criminal the cry for justice s from the of o speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty i e by m see page i hear footsteps over my head all night they come and they go again they come and they go all night they come one eternity in four paces and they go one eternity in four paces and between the coming and the going there is silence and the night and the infinite for infinite are the nine feet of a prison cell and endless is the march of him who walks between the yellow brick wall and the red iron gate thinking things that cannot be chained and cannot be locked but that wander far away in the world each in a wild pilgrimage after a destined goal � � � � � � � throughout the restless night i hear the footsteps over my head who walks i know not it is the phantom of the jail the sleepless brain a man the man the one � two � three � four four paces and the wall one � two � three � four four paces and the iron gate he has measured his space he has measured it accurately as the measures the rope and the grave the � so many feet many inches so many of an inch for each of tbe four paces one � two � three � four each step sounds heavy and hollow over my head and the echo of each step sounds within my head as i count them in suspense and in that once perhaps in the endless walk there may be five steps instead of four between the yellow brick wall and the red iron gate but he has measured the space so accurately so so that nothing breaks the grave of the slow fantastic march � � � a all the sounds of the living beings and things and all the noises of the night i have heard in my wistful i have heard the of him who a thing that is dead and the sighs of him who tries to a thing that will not die i have heard the stifled sobs of the one who with his head under the coarse blanket and the of the one who with his forehead on the hard cold stone of the floor i have heard him who laughs the shrill sinister laugh of folly at the horror on the yellow wall and at the red eyes of the nightmare glaring through the iron bars i have heard in the sudden icy silence him who a dry ringing cough and wished madly that his throat would not rattle so and that he would not spit on the floor for no sound was more than that of his upon the floor i have heard him who oaths which i listen to in reverence and awe for they are than the virgin s prayer s the cry for justice and i have heard most terrible of all the silence of two hundred brains all possessed by one single desperate thought all this i have heard in the watchful night and the murmur of the wind beyond the walls and the of a distant bell and the of the rain and the remotest echoes of the sorrowful city and the terrible wild mad of the one heart which is nearest to my heart all this have i heard in the still night but nothing is louder harder more awful than the footsteps i hear over my head all night � � � � a all through the night he walks and he thinks is it more frightful because he walks and his footsteps sound hollow over my head or because he thinks and speaks not his thoughts but does he think why should he think do i think i only hear the footsteps and count them four steps and the wall four steps and the gate but beyond beyond where goes he beyond the gate and the wall he does not go beyond his thought breaks there on the iron gate perhaps ic breaks like a wave of rage perhaps like a sudden flow of hope but it always returns to beat the wall like a of helplessness and despair he walks to and fro within the narrow of this ever and furious thought only one thought � constant fixed immovable without power and without voice a thought of madness frenzy agony and despair a hell thought for it is a natural thought all natural are things impossible while there are in the world � bread work happiness peace love but he thinks not of this as he walks he thinks of the most the most the most impossible thing in the world he thinks of a small brass key that turns just half and throws open the red iron gate that is all the thinks as he walks throughout the night and that is what two hundred minds drowned in the darkness and the silence of the night think and that b also what i think wonderful is the supreme wisdom of the jail that makes all think the same thought is the providence of the law that all even in mind and sentiment fallen is the last barrier of privilege the aristocracy of the intellect the of reason has all the two minds to the common surface of the same thought i who have never killed think like the murderer i who have never stolen reason like the thief i think reason wish hope doubt wait like the hired the the the the the the the the i i 