As soon as I got into my new cell Lawrence had my arm-chair brought in, and went away, saying that he would have the remainder of my effects brought to me.  I sat on my arm-chair as motionless as a statue, waiting for the storm, but not fearing it.  What overwhelmed me was the distressing idea that all my pains and contrivances were of no use, nevertheless I felt neither sorry nor repentant for what I had done, and I made myself abstain from thinking of what was going to happen, and thus kept myself calm.

Lifting up my soul to God I could not help thinking that this misfortune was a Divine punishment for neglecting to escape when all was ready.  Nevertheless, though I could have escaped three days sooner, I thought my punishment too severe, all the more as I had put off my escape from motives of prudence, which seemed to me worthy of reward, for if I had only consulted my own impatience to be gone I should have risked everything.  To controvert the reasons which made me postpone my flight to the 27th of August, a special revelation would have been requisite; and though I had read “Mary of Agrada” I was not mad enough for that.

CHAPTER XXVIII

The Subterranean Prisons Known as the Wells—­Lawrence’s Vengeance—­I
Enter into a Correspondence With Another Prisoner, Father Balbi:  His
Character—­I Plan With Him a Means of Escape—­How I Contrived to Let Him
Have My Pike I Am Given a Scoundrelly Companion:  His Portrait.

I was thus anxious and despairing when two of the guards brought me my bed.  They went back to fetch the rest of my belongings, and for two hours I saw no one, although the door of my cell remained open.  This unnatural delay engendered many thoughts, but I could not fix exactly on the reason of it.  I only knew that I had everything to fear, and this knowledge made me brace up my mind so that I should be able to meet calmly all possible misfortunes.

Besides The Leads and The Fours the State Inquisitors also possess certain horrible subterranean cells beneath the ducal palace, where are sent men whom they do not wish to put to death, though they be thought worthy of it.

These subterranean prisons are precisely like tombs, but they call them “wells,” because they always contain two feet of water, which penetrates from the sea by the same grating by which light is given, this grating being only a square foot in size.  If the unfortunates condemned to live in these sewers do not wish to take a bath of filthy water, they have to remain all day seated on a trestle, which serves them both for bed and cupboard.  In the morning they are given a pitcher of water, some thin soup, and a ration of army bread which they have to eat immediately, or it becomes the prey of the enormous water rats who swarm in those dreadful abodes.  Usually the wretches condemned to The Wells are imprisoned there for life, and there have been prisoners who have attained