There the slender
hand of the unfortunate Jane Grey, whose fate was to draw tears from
future generations, might be contrasted with the bolder touch which
impressed deep on the walls the Bear and Ragged Staff, the proud
emblem of the proud Dudleys. It was like the roll of the prophet, a
record of lamentation and mourning, and yet not unmixed with brief
interjections of resignation, and sentences expressive of the firmest
resolution.[Footnote: These memorials of illustrious criminals, or of
innocent persons who had the fate of such, are still preserved, though
at one time, in the course of repairing the rooms, they were in some
danger of being whitewashed. They are preserved at present with
becoming respect, and have most of them been engraved.--_See_ BAYLEY'S
_History and Antiquities of the Tower of London._]
In the sad task of examining the miseries of his predecessors in
captivity, Lord Glenvarloch was interrupted by the sudden opening of
the door of his prison-room. It was the warder, who came to inform
him, that, by order of the Lieutenant of the Tower, his lordship was
to have the society and attendance of a fellow-prisoner in his place
of confinement. Nigel replied hastily, that he wished no attendance,
and would rather be left alone; but the warder gave him to understand,
with a kind of grumbling civility, that the Lieutenant was the best
judge how his prisoners should be accommodated, and that he would have
no trouble with the boy, who was such a slip of a thing as was scarce
worth turning a key upon.
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