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cemetery was but twenty paces from the jail. On the high wall was
affixed a gallows; on the low one was sculptured a Death's head. Neither
of these walls made its opposite neighbour more cheerful.
CHAPTER VI.
THE KIND OF MAGISTRACY UNDER THE WIGS OF FORMER DAYS.
Any one observing at that moment the other side of the prison--its
façade--would have perceived the high street of Southwark, and might
have remarked, stationed before the monumental and official entrance to
the jail, a travelling carriage, recognized as such by its imperial. A
few idlers surrounded the carriage. On it was a coat of arms, and a
personage had been seen to descend from it and enter the prison.
"Probably a magistrate," conjectured the crowd. Many of the English
magistrates were noble, and almost all had the right of bearing arms. In
France blazon and robe were almost contradictory terms. The Duke
Saint-Simon says, in speaking of magistrates, "people of that class." In
England a gentleman was not despised for being a judge.
There are travelling magistrates in England; they are called judges of
circuit, and nothing was easier than to recognize the carriage as the
vehicle of a judge on circuit. That which was less comprehensible was,
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