Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-08-14
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SWEETS OF LIBERTY.

LIE SW EElS OF LlBERIYs
20 Liberty! thou goddess heavenly
bright! Profuse of bliss and pregnant with
delight" Every bard has sung the joys OF
Liberty; every writer has said his say upon
her g1ories. Patriots have died for her, and
statesmen-modern ones especially-have
made her a convenient stalking horse. The
subject being such stock one, and apt
quotations so plentiful, there is no need tc
dilate upon the franne of mind in which Mrs.
Miller's acquaintance, Mr.. Maurice Hervey,
late No. 1880, found himself, when Portland
prison at length discontinued its ungrudging
and machine-like hospitality and restored
him to the outer world, a free man save fol
the formality of once month reporting him
self to the police and that general suspicious
surveillance which is so irksome to the
usually modest and retiring nature Of
ticket-of-leave man.
The ''goddess heavenly bright" showed her
face, the first time for some years, to Mau.
rice Hervey on the very day when Miss
Clauson and Sylvanus Mordle went to Black
town.
Mrs Miller, who had manifested so keen
an interest in the felon's enlargement, re-
manned in complete ignorance of the happy
event. This was due to no omission on he1
part She had written twice to the governor
of Portland, begging that the date of the
convict's release might be made known tc
her. The letters were dated not from Oak
bury, but from some place in London. The
first letter was duly acknowledged, and the
information vouchsafed that the date could
not be exactly fixed. To the second letter
she received no reply. The reason for such
apparent discourtesy was this:
The day of the mans emancipation was
drawing very near, so he was told that his
friend had written, and he was asked if he
wished to be sent to London to meet her.
He cast down his eyes and in respectful
way stated that he was sorry to say that he
attributed his present shameful position to
certain evil counsel which the writer had
given him, and which he had followed. He
did wish to be sent to London; but would
rather avoid this woman than seek her
After this avowal Mrs. Millers letter re-
manned unanswered.
He was an educated villain, who had been
sentenced to five years penal servitude for
uttering forged bills. Like most such men,
who are sent into seclusion for the good of
the community, Maurice Hervey was able to
realize, without such severe treatment as
was needed to convince the Apostle Paul,
that kicking against pricks is foolishness.
He had been ordered to pay certain debt.
Misbehavior meant that the debt would be
exacted to the uttermost farthing; whereas
good conduct would in time tighten the obi
cation and induce his creditor to accept a
handsome composition. So he did to the
b~st Of his ability such work as was al
lotted to him. He was too clever to attempt
the elhow-worn trick of interesting the
chaplain by pretended conversion. He
sagely reflected that chaplains must by this
time have grown wide awake. But he wore
a contented, inoffensive look, spoke civilly to
his jailers, complained Of nothing, and gave
no trouble. 1t was only in the seclusion of
his circumscribed cell of corrugated iron
that No. 1880 scowled, grated his teeth and
clenched his hands, 1t was only there that
while his heart craved for personal freedom
his lips noiselessly framed bitter curses and
vows of vengeance.
So it is that if upon his return to freedom
Mr.. Hervey had given his experiences of
penal servitude to the daily papers, his de-
scription of the punishment of bread and
water diet, dark cells, and that humiliating
exercise with the crank known as "grind
ing the air' would have had no first-hano
value.
Before leaving Portland he was told that
the discharged Prisoners Aid Society"
WOulQ dOuDUleSS 90 SOIQeInluS IOr n1ul ZIG
expressed his gratitude for the information,
but added that unless from disuse his right
hand had lost its cunning, he could earn an
honest-he emphasized the word-ivelihood
without difficulty. He had been an artist,
and could again pursue that craft under
new name. During his detention he had
given his janitors proof Of his graphic abili-
ties by the craving of sundry states with
complicated and not inartistic designs. These
works of art are still shown to visitors to the
prison as curiosities.
So, practically a free man, Maurice Her
vey stood in the streets of London at o'clock
on tho second day of the new year. There
was little about him to attract attention.
By merciful and sensible dispensation, dur
ing the three months prior to his emancipa-
ton convict's hair is left to nature, so that
in these days of military crops Mr.. Hervey's
head, which no longer resembled Fitzroy
stormdrum, was not signal Of danger. The
suit of clothes which replaced the durable
prison dress was rough and lifting, but
not such as to create remark. In London
that night there must have been hundreds of
thousands of respectable men who looked
neither better nor worse than Maurice Her.
yey