the least breath of air from any quarter.  Nevertheless, my situation did not disturb me to any great extent, as I must confess I thought I had got off cheaply.  In spite of his training, Lawrence had not thought of turning the armchair over; and thus, finding myself still possessor of the iron bar, I thanked Providence, and thought myself still at liberty to regard the bar as means by which, sooner or later, I should make my escape.

I passed a sleepless night, as much from the heat as the change in my prospects.  At day-break Lawrence came and brought some insufferable wine, and some water I should not have cared to drink.  All the rest was of a piece; dry salad, putrid meat, and bread harder than English biscuit.  He cleaned nothing, and when I asked him to open the windows he seemed not to hear me; but a guard armed with an iron bar began to sound all over my room, against the wall, on the floor, and above all under my bed.  I looked on with an unmoved expression, but it did not escape my notice that the guard did not sound the ceiling.  “That way,” said I to myself, “will lead me out of this place of torments.”  But for any such project to succeed I should have to depend purely on chance, for all my operations would leave visible traces.  The cell was quite new, and the least scratch would have attracted the notice of my keepers.

I passed a terrible day, for the heat was like that of a furnace, and I was quite unable to make any use of the food with which I had been provided.  The perspiration and the lack of nourishment made me so weak that I could neither walk nor read.  Next day my dinner was the same; the horrible smell of the veal the rascal brought me made me draw back from it instantly.  “Have you received orders,” said I, “to kill me with hunger and heat?”

He locked the door, and went out without a word.  On the third day I was treated in the same manner.  I asked for a pencil and paper to write to the secretary.  Still no answer.

In despair, I eat my soup, and then soaking my bread in a little Cyprus wine I resolved to get strength to avenge myself on Lawrence by plunging my pike into his throat.  My rage told me that I had no other course, but I grew calmer in the night, and in the morning, when the scoundrel appeared, I contented myself with saying that I would kill him as soon as I was at liberty.  He only laughed at my threat, and again went out without opening his lips.

I began to think that he was acting under orders from the secretary, to whom he must have told all.  I knew not what to do.  I strove between patience and despair, and felt as if I were dying for want of food.  At last on the eighth day, with rage in my heart and in a voice of thunder, I bade him, under the name of “hangman,” and in the presence of the archers, give me an account of my money.  He answered drily that I should have it the next day.  Then as he was about to go I took my bucket, and made as if I would go and empty it in the passage.