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I asked her to go with me, and putting my arm around her waist, she walked with me across the ward to the window looking South. Here we conversed confidentially, freely. She said:

"Oh! Mrs. Packard, I have suffered everything but death since we were parted "

"But how has your face become so disfigured by sores, and what causes your eyes to be so inflamed?"

"I fainted, and fell down stairs, and they poured camphor so profusely over my face, and into my eyes and ears, that I have, in consequence, been blind and deaf for some time."

I do not know whether her chin, which was red and raw, was thus caused or not. She said the fall had caused her to miscarry, and thus, thought I, you have had to bear this burden in addition to the load of sorrows already heaped upon your tender, weak person. Said I:

"Have you any hope of getting out of this place -- of ever being taken to your friends?"

"No! none at all! Hopeless, endless torment is all that is before me! Oh, if I could only get out of this place, I would walk to my father's house. It is only fourteen miles south, here," pointing out of the window, "but Oh, these iron bars! I cannot escape through them."

How I did pity her! But I could only say, as I do to others:

"Do try to be patient as you can; for I do hope this house will not long stand, and that in its destruction, we may be delivered out of this place of torment."

I had no other tangible hope to offer her drooping heart, already deadly sick from hope too long deferred. She said:

"I wish I could get into the ward with you; I will ask Dr. McFarland, to-morrow, to remove me there."

"Alas!" thought I, "no request of yours will be heeded, as a source of relief to you; for it is not to relieve, but to torment you that you are kept here. Could I but inform your parents of their dear daughter's sad fate, surely they would come to your rescue."

Then I thought of the letter I had sent to Mrs. Timmons' friends in her behalf, and how, like deaf adders, they would not hear, or would not believe my statements, unless endorsed by Dr. McFarland. I turned away, sick at heart, at sight of woes I could not mitigate or remove.

Oh, when will the prisoner's bonds be loosed and the lawful captive be delivered?

Notwithstanding, I think I offered to intercede for her, while, at the same time, I knew it would be utterly fruitless, as I have so often tried reason, argument and entreaty, only to find it useless.

"Yes, sister, I cannot but congratulate you on what I believe to be your happy exchange; for I do not think you can find, in all the universe, a worse place of torment than you found here. May'st thou find that rest in death that was denied thee on earth.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
Changes and how brought about.

After occupying the old Eighth ward about a year, we were all summarily ordered to move into the new Eighth. During the summer of 1861, this new and airy part of the building was my home, although the patients were not materially changed in character.

Again, in the last of the autumn, we were all removed into the old Seventh. Now the class of patients was changed to a more quiet class, and some of them, like Mrs. Timmons, sane and intelligent. Besides, we were now taking our meals in the dining-room of the new Seventh -- the class of prisoners with whom I associated the first four months.

I felt that I was in the region of the intelligent world again, for part of the occupants of the new Seventh, were just as sane as most boarding school girls, or hotel boarders, generally. I seldom saw anything here, that would, outside of an Asylum, be considered insanity, or anything like it.

I can assure my reader that I was fully prepared to appreciate a return to civilized society, and this change was, there-fore, to me a harbinger of good tidings. I could talk with my old associates at the other table, while at the table, and our fare and table arrangements were much alike now, which, of course, was a great improvement on our former style.

I was allowed a good room by myself, and this being the first time for one year this privilege was granted, I had much to be thankful for.

Another change affecting my prison life, took place about two months after Miss Lynch obtained permission to take me to ride, which occasioned the prison doors to be closed entirely upon me.

I felt it to be my duty to enter a protest against my imprison-ment, and in doing so, asked Dr. Sturtevant, our Chaplain, to be my witness in the reception-room.

It was Sabbath, after chapel service that I went to him and asked him to meet me in the reception-room.

He consented, and we parted, he going down with Dr. McFarland and Dr. Tenny one flight of stairs, while I went down the opposite. When about two-thirds of the way down, Dr. McFarland met me, and seizing my arm, ordered me back to my ward. I remained motionless.

He then applied force, saying:

"Have you no feet?"

"I have no feet to walk into prison with." He then tried to drag me back. But when he saw Dr. Sturtevant looking at us, he let go his hold of my arm, and I dropped from his grasp upon the floor below.