One of the latter
description we have abridged and adapted to our pages. The hero is
convicted of murder, upon such evidence as this:--"We found the poor
dead man dead at his feet, and the sword in his hand, covered with
blood,--the murdered man lies in the ante-room run through and through."
A pretty scene of justice ensues, the fact being that the murdered man
was a noted robber who had attacked the hero, and became worsted in the
affray. The sentence is solitary imprisonment for life:]
The unfortunate persons whose crimes have subjected them to the dreadful
punishment of solitary imprisonment for life, in any of the southern
parts of Spain, are most generally sent to Tarifa.[3] Along both sides
of the port, there is a mole nearly half a mile in length; at the
extremity of which on either side, and at the entrance of the harbour,
stands a huge and ancient Moorish tower, about a hundred and sixty feet
in height above the sea. In this tower, which contains six chambers,
one above another, prisoners for life are confined; and thither I was
accordingly conveyed. It is the policy of the Spanish laws, to render
the punishment of criminals subservient to public utility; and this is
in some degree effected even by solitary confinement.
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