You may expel me if you please, but any attempt to do
so shall be resisted with all the bodily strength of which I am
possessed."
"Your worship is right," said the alcayde with a bow, but in a low
voice.
Sir George, on hearing of this affair, sent me a letter in which he
highly commanded my resolution not to leave the prison for the
present, at the same time begging me to let him know if there were
anything that he could send me from the embassy to render my
situation more tolerable.
I will now leave for the present my own immediate affairs, and
proceed to give some account of the prison of Madrid and its
inmates.
The Carcel de la Corte, where I now was, though the principal
prison of Madrid, is one which certainly in no respect does credit
to the capital of Spain. Whether it was originally intended for
the purpose to which it is at present applied, I have no
opportunity of knowing. The chances, however, are, that it was
not; indeed it was not till of late years that the practice of
building edifices expressly intended and suited for the
incarceration of culprits came at all into vogue. Castles,
convents, and deserted palaces, have in all countries, at different
times, been converted into prisons, which practice still holds good
upon the greater part of the continent, and more particularly in
Spain and Italy, which accounts, to a certain extent, for the
insecurity of the prisons, and the misery, want of cleanliness, and
unhealthiness which in general pervade them.
