{"id":"01KG8AKG998MPZDGT61YW8FRW4","cid":"bafkreierh67knxrtz5febyd6emhv6fjehovvhwm7y76l66kkgnfczde6nu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":966,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.590Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":901,"text":"CHAPTER IV.\r\nFURTHER WANDERINGS OF THE REFUGEE, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF A GOOD KNIGHT\r\nOF BRENTFORD WHO BEFRIENDED HIM.\r\n\r\n\r\nAt nightfall, on the third day, Israel had arrived within sixteen miles\r\nof the capital. Once more he sought refuge in a barn. This time he\r\nfound some hay, and flinging himself down procured a tolerable night’s\r\nrest.\r\n\r\nBright and early he arose refreshed, with the pleasing prospect of\r\nreaching his destination ere noon. Encouraged to find himself now so\r\nfar from his original pursuers, Israel relaxed in his vigilance, and\r\nabout ten o’clock, while passing through the town of Staines, suddenly\r\nencountered three soldiers. Unfortunately in exchanging clothes with\r\nthe ditcher, he could not bring himself to include his shirt in the\r\ntraffic, which shirt was a British navy shirt, a bargeman’s shirt, and\r\nthough hitherto he had crumpled the blue collar out of sight, yet, as\r\nit appeared in the present instance, it was not thoroughly concealed.\r\nAt any rate, keenly on the look-out for deserters, and made acute by\r\nhopes of reward for their apprehension, the soldiers spied the fatal\r\ncollar, and in an instant laid violent hands on the refugee.\r\n\r\n“Hey, lad!” said the foremost soldier, a corporal, “you are one of his\r\nmajesty’s seamen! come along with ye.”\r\n\r\nSo, unable to give any satisfactory account of himself, he was made\r\nprisoner on the spot, and soon after found himself handcuffed and\r\nlocked up in the Bound House of the place, a prison so called,\r\nappropriated to runaways, and those convicted of minor offences. Day\r\npassed dinnerless and supperless in this dismal durance, and night came\r\non.\r\n\r\nIsrael had now been three days without food, except one two-penny loaf.\r\nThe cravings of hunger now became sharper; his spirits, hitherto arming\r\nhim with fortitude, began to forsake him. Taken captive once again upon\r\nthe very brink of reaching his goal, poor Israel was on the eve of\r\nfalling into helpless despair. But he rallied, and considering that\r\ngrief would only add to his calamity, sought with stubborn patience to\r\nhabituate himself to misery, but still hold aloof from despondency. He\r\nroused himself, and began to bethink him how to be extricated from this\r\nlabyrinth.\r\n\r\nTwo hours sawing across the grating of the window, ridded him of his\r\nhandcuffs. Next came the door, secured luckily with only a hasp and\r\npadlock. Thrusting the bolt of his handcuffs through a small window in\r\nthe door, he succeeded in forcing the hasp and regaining his liberty\r\nabout three o’clock in the morning.\r\n\r\nNot long after sunrise, he passed nigh Brentford, some six or seven\r\nmiles from the capital. So great was his hunger that downright\r\nstarvation seemed before him. He chewed grass, and swallowed it. Upon\r\nfirst escaping from the hulk, six English pennies was all the money he\r\nhad. With two of these he had bought a small loaf the day after fleeing\r\nthe inn. The other four still remained in his pocket, not having met\r\nwith a good opportunity to dispose of them for food.\r\n\r\nHaving torn off the collar of his shirt, and flung it into a hedge, he\r\nventured to accost a respectable carpenter at a pale fence, about a\r\nmile this side of Brentford, to whom his deplorable situation now\r\ninduced him to apply for work. The man did not wish himself to hire,\r\nbut said that if he (Israel) understood farming or gardening, he might\r\nperhaps procure work from Sir John Millet, whose seat, he said, was not\r\nremote. He added that the knight was in the habit of employing many men\r\nat that season of the year, so he stood a fair chance.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJHFMR6R4CCG9PCNQ5FDA","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKG9BZDVJ5XW1RCD0069Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.441Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:13.505Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}