Condemned to death!
Well, why not? I remember once reading, “All mankind are condemned to
death, with indefinite respites.” How then is my position altered?
Since my sentence was pronounced, how many are dead who calculated upon
a long life! How many are gone before me, who, young, free, and in good
health, had fully intended to be present at my execution! How many,
between this and then, perhaps, who now walk and breathe in the fresh
air any where they please, will die before me!
And then, what has life for me, that I should regret? In truth, only the
dull twilight and black bread of a prison, a portion of meagre soup from
the trough of the convicts; to be treated rudely,--_I_, who have been
refined by education; to be brutalized by turnkeys without feeling; not
to see a human being who thinks me worthy of a word, or whom I could
address; incessantly to shudder at what I have done, and what may be
done to me,--these are nearly the only advantages of which the
executioner can deprive me!
Ah! still it is horrible.