Chapter 1

At the request of a person who has claims on me that I must not disown,
I consent to look back through a long interval of years and to describe
events which took place within the walls of an English prison during the
earlier period of my appointment as Governor.

Viewing my task by the light which later experience casts on it, I think
I shall act wisely by exercising some control over the freedom of my
pen.

I propose to pass over in silence the name of the town in which is
situated the prison once confided to my care. I shall observe a similar
discretion in alluding to individuals--some dead, some living, at the
present time.

Being obliged to write of a woman who deservedly suffered the extreme
penalty of the law, I think she will be sufficiently identified if I
call her The Prisoner. Of the four persons present on the evening before
her execution three may be distinguished one from the other by allusion
to their vocations in life. I here introduce them as The Chaplain, The
Minister, and The Doctor. The fourth was a young woman. She has no claim
on my consideration; and, when she is mentioned, her name may appear.
If these reserves excite suspicion, I declare beforehand that they
influence in no way the sense of responsibility which commands an honest
man to speak the truth.