{"id":"01KG8AKT62ZVCX1Q5QRNAKFEMX","cid":"bafkreidjwvuot4glpklqh3ieyoys4kf4jmyuf7cunrgoag52cm5besjuw4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7254,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7190,"text":"refused, unless I would pay for it. But I had no money. So as my\r\nboarding-house was some way off, and it would be lost time to run to\r\nthe ship for my big iron pot; under the impulse of the moment, I\r\nhurried to one of the Boodle Hydrants, which I remembered having seen\r\nrunning near the scene of a still smoldering fire in an old rag house;\r\nand taking off a new tarpaulin hat, which had been loaned me that day,\r\nfilled it with water.\r\n\r\nWith this, I returned to Launcelott’s-Hey; and with considerable\r\ndifficulty, like getting down into a well, I contrived to descend with\r\nit into the vault; where there was hardly space enough left to let me\r\nstand. The two girls drank out of the hat together; looking up at me\r\nwith an unalterable, idiotic expression, that almost made me faint. The\r\nwoman spoke not a word, and did not stir. While the girls were breaking\r\nand eating the bread, I tried to lift the woman’s head; but, feeble as\r\nshe was, she seemed bent upon holding it down. Observing her arms still\r\nclasped upon her bosom, and that something seemed hidden under the rags\r\nthere, a thought crossed my mind, which impelled me forcibly to\r\nwithdraw her hands for a moment; when I caught a glimpse of a meager\r\nlittle babe—the lower part of its body thrust into an old bonnet. Its\r\nface was dazzlingly white, even in its squalor; but the closed eyes\r\nlooked like balls of indigo. It must have been dead some hours.\r\n\r\nThe woman refusing to speak, eat, or drink, I asked one of the girls\r\nwho they were, and where they lived; but she only stared vacantly,\r\nmuttering something that could not be understood.\r\n\r\nThe air of the place was now getting too much for me; but I stood\r\ndeliberating a moment, whether it was possible for me to drag them out\r\nof the vault. But if I did, what then? They would only perish in the\r\nstreet, and here they were at least protected from the rain; and more\r\nthan that, might die in seclusion.\r\n\r\nI crawled up into the street, and looking down upon them again, almost\r\nrepented that I had brought them any food; for it would only tend to\r\nprolong their misery, without hope of any permanent relief: for die\r\nthey must very soon; they were too far gone for any medicine to help\r\nthem. I hardly know whether I ought to confess another thing that\r\noccurred to me as I stood there; but it was this—I felt an almost\r\nirresistible impulse to do them the last mercy, of in some way putting\r\nan end to their horrible lives; and I should almost have done so, I\r\nthink, had I not been deterred by thoughts of the law. For I well knew\r\nthat the law, which would let them perish of themselves without giving\r\nthem one cup of water, would spend a thousand pounds, if necessary, in\r\nconvicting him who should so much as offer to relieve them from their\r\nmiserable existence.\r\n\r\nThe next day, and the next, I passed the vault three times, and still\r\nmet the same sight. The girls leaning up against the woman on each\r\nside, and the woman with her arms still folding the babe, and her head\r\nbowed. The first evening I did not see the bread that I had dropped\r\ndown in the morning; but the second evening, the bread I had dropped\r\nthat morning remained untouched. On the third morning the smell that\r\ncame from the vault was such, that I accosted the same policeman I had\r\naccosted before, who was patrolling the same street, and told him that\r\nthe persons I had spoken to him about were dead, and he had better have\r\nthem removed. He looked as if he did not believe me, and added, that it\r\nwas not his street.\r\n\r\nWhen I arrived at the docks on my way to the ship, I entered the\r\nguard-house within the walls, and asked for one of the captains, to\r\nwhom I told the story; but, from what he said, was led to infer that\r\nthe Dock Police was distinct from that of the town, and this was not\r\nthe right place to lodge my information.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRKNBP7BQ7AC8F90RW5Q","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT62Q46V313E8H2ECKTC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZC0CJK58P6FTWV5R0C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.578Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.117Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}