"
Magistrate: "Do you mean to say you have worn but one shirt all the
time?"
Prisoner: "Yes; when it was dirty, I washed it out in the kitchen. The
apartment I like best is the drawing-room."
Magistrate: "You are a sweep, are you?"
Prisoner: "Oh, no; it's only my face and hands that are dirty; that's
from sleeping in the chimneys.... I know my way all over the Palace, and
have been all over it, the Queen's apartments and all. The Queen is very
fond of politics."
He was such an amusing vagabond, with his jolly ways and boundless
impudence, and so young, that no very serious punishment was then meted
out to him, nor even on his second "intrusion," as it was mildly
denominated, when he was found crouched in a recess, dragged forth, and
taken to the police-station. This time he said he had hidden under a sofa
in one of the Queen's private apartments, and had listened to a long
conversation between her and Prince Albert. He was sent to the House of
Correction for a few months, in the hope of curing him of his "Palace-
breaking mania"; but immediately on his liberation, he was found prowling
about the Palace, drawing nearer and nearer, as though it had been built
of loadstone. But finally he was induced to go to Australia, where, it is
said, he grew up to be a well-to-do colonist.
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