IT was nearly eleven o'clock as they ascended the jail steps and rang the bell for admittance. The jailer, a stout, rough-looking man, opened the iron door, and as Manuel was about to step over the stone sill, Dunn gave him a sudden push that sent him headlong upon the floor. "Heavens! what now?" inquired the jailer with a look of astonishment, and at the next moment Dunn raised his foot to kick Manuel in the face.

"You infernal beast!" said the jailer, "you are more like a savage than a man-you are drunk now, you vagabond," and jumped in between them to save him from the effect of the blow. As he did this, the gentleman who accompanied them from the "corner-shop," as a protection against Dunn's cruelty, fetched Dunn a blow on the back of the neck that made him stagger against a door, and created such confusion as to arouse the whole jail. Turning to Manuel, he, with the assistance of the jailer, raised him from the ground and led him into the jail-office. "Mister jailer," said Dunn, "the prisoner is mine until such times as you receipt the commitment, and I demand protection from you against this man. He has committed two violent assaults upon me, when I'd be doing me duty."

"You have violated all duty, and are more like an incarnate fiend. You first decoy men into rum-shops, and then you plunder and abuse them, because you think they are black and can get no redress. You abused that man unmercifully, because you knew his evidence was not valid against you!" said the gentleman, turning to the jailer, and giving him the particulars of what he saw in the "corner-shop," and what cruelties he had seen practised by Dunn on former occasions.

The jailer looked upon Manuel with commiseration, and handed him a chair to sit down on. The poor fellow was excited and fatigued, for he had eaten nothing that day, and been treated more like a brute than a human being from the time, he left the ship until he arrived at the jail. He readily accepted the kind offer, and commenced to tell the story of his treatment.

"You need' not tell me,--I know too much of that man already. It has long been a mystery to me why he is retained in office."--

Here Dunn interrupted. "Sure it's yer master I'd obey and not yerself, an' I'd do what I'd plase with prisoners, and, it's his business and not yeers. If ye had yer way, sure you'd be makin' white men of every nigger that ye turned a key upon."

"Give me none of your insolence," said the jailer. "You have no authority beyond my door. Your brutal treatment to prisoners has caused me an immense deal of trouble-more than my paltry pay would induce me to stay for. Suppose you were indicted for these outrages? What would be the result?" asked the jailer.

"Sure it's meself could answer for the sheriff, without yer bothering yerself. I'd not work for yer, but for him; and he's yer master anyhow, and knows all about it. Give me the receipt, and that's all I'd ax yer. When a nigger don't mind me, I just makes him feel the delight of a hickory stick."

"Yes, if you had the shame of a man in you, you'd not make a beast of yourself with liquor, and treat these poor stewards as if they were dogs," said the jailer.

"Indeed, ye might learn a thing or two if ye was a politician like meself, and belonged to the secession party. An' if his honor the sheriff-for he's a dacent man-knew ye'd be preachin' in that shape, ye wouldn't keep the jail f'nent the morning. Be letting me out, and make much of the nigger; ye have him there."

The jailer unlocked the door and allowed him to pass out, with a pertinent rebuke. This was but a trifling affair in Dunn's ear, for he knew his master's feelings too well, and was backed by him in his most intolerable proceedings. Returning to the office, he looked at the commitment, and then again at Manuel. "This is a 'contrary to law' case, I see, Mr. Manuel; you are a likely fellow too, to come within that," said he.

"Yes. If I understand him right, he's a shipwrecked sailor, belonging to a foreign vessel that was driven in here in distress," said the man. "It's a hard law that imprisons a colored seaman who comes here voluntarily; but it seems beyond all manner of precedent to imprison a shipwrecked man like this, especially when he seems so respectable. There are no circumstances to warrant the enforcement of such a law." Thus saying, he left the jail.

Be it said of the jailer, to his honor, so far as personal kindness went, he did his utmost--brought him water to wash himself, and gave him some clean clothes. After which, he was registered upon the criminal calendar as follows:--

"March 24, 1852.--Manuel Peirire.--[Committed by] Sheriff--Sheriff. Crime--Contrary to law."

Now the jailer had done his duty, so far as his feelings were concerned; but, such were the stern requirements of the law, and his functions so restricted by Mr. Grimshaw, that he dare not make distinctions. He called Daley, one of the criminal assistants, and ordered him to show the prisoner his room.

"Here, my boy, take yer blanket," said Daley; and throwing him a coarse, filthy-looking blanket, told him to roll it up and follow him. "It's on the second floor we'll put ye, among the stewards; there's a nice lot on 'em to keep yer company, and ye'll have a jolly time, my boy." Manuel followed through the second iron door until he came to a large door secured with heavy bolts and bars, which Daley began to withdraw and unlock. "Don't be takin' it amiss; it's a right good crib, savin' the' bed, an' it's that's the worst of it. Bad luck to old Grimshaw, an' himself thinks everybody's bones be's as tuf as his own," said Daley, and threw open the heavy doors, sending forth those ominous prison sounds. "All here? Ah! yer a pretty set of lambs, as the British consul calls yees. Have ye ever a drop to spare?" At this, three or four respectable-looking black men came to the door and greeted Manuel. "Come, talk her out, for th' auld man'll be on the scent." At this, one of the confined stewards, a tall, good-looking mulatto man, ran his hand into a large opening in the wall, and drew forth a little soda-bottle filled with Monongahela whisky. Without giving reasonable time for politeness, Daley seized the bottle, and putting it to his mouth, gauged about half its contents into his homony dept, smacked his lips, wiped his mouth with his cuff, and, passing the balance back, shut and rebolted the door, after saying, "Good luck till yees, an' I wish yees a merry time." The reader may imagine what provision the State or the sheriff had made for the comfort of these poor men, one of whom was imprisoned because it was "contrary to law" to be driven into the port of Charleston in distress, and the rest, peaceable, unoffending citizens belonging to distant States and countries, and guilty of no crime, when we describe the room and regimen to which they were subjected. The room was about twenty-six feet long and ten feet wide. The brick walls were plastered and colored with some kind of blue wash, which, however, was so nearly obliterated with dirt and the damp of a southern climate, as to leave but little to show what its original color was. The walls were covered with the condensed moisture of the atmosphere, spiders hung their festooned network overhead, and cockroaches and ants, those domesticated pests of South Carolina, were running about the floor in swarms, and holding all legal rights to rations in superlative contempt. Two small apertures in the wall, about fourteen inches square, and double-barred with heavy flat iron, served to admit light and air. The reader may thus judge of its gloomy appearance, and what a miserable unhealthy cell it must have been in which to place men just arrived from sea. There was not the first vestige of furniture in the room, not; even a bench to sit upon, for the State, with its gracious hospitality, forgot that men in jail ever sit down; but it was in keeping with all other things that the State left to the control of its officials.

"Am I to be punished in this miserable place? Why, I cannot see where I'm going; and have I nothing to lay down upon but the floor, and that creeping with live creatures?" inquired Manuel of those who were already inured to the hardship.

"Nothing! nothing! Bring your mind to realize the worst, and forget the cruelty while you are suffering it; they let us out a part of the day. We are locked up to-day because one of the assistants stole my friend's liquor, and he dared to accuse him of the theft, because he was a white man," said a tall, fine-looking mulatto man by the name of James Redman, who was steward on board a Thomastown (Maine) ship, and declared that he had visited Charleston on a former occasion, and by paying five dollars to one of the officers, remained on board of the ship unmolested.

"And how long shall I have to suffer in this manner?" inquired Manuel. "Can I not have my own bed and clothing?"

"Oh, yes," said Redman; "you can have them, but if you bring them here, they'll not be worth anything when you leave; and the prisoners upon this floor are so starved and destitute, that necessity forces them to steal whatever comes in their way; and the assistants are as much implicated as the prisoners. You'll fare hard; but just do as we do in a calm, wait for the wind............