gravity that he was
come, by virtue of a warrant for my imprisonment, to
carry me to the Grand Chatelet. I requested him again and
again to inform me of the crime laid to my charge; but
all his answer was, that _I must follow him_. I begged
him to give me leave to write to Lord Albemarle, the
English Ambassador, promising to obey the warrant if his
Excellency was not pleased to answer for my forthcoming.
But the Commissary refused me the use of pen and ink,
though he consented that I should send a verbal message
to his Excellency, telling me at the same time that he
would not wait the return of the messenger, because his
orders were to carry me instantly to prison. As
resistance under such circumstances must have been
unavailable, and might have been blameable, I obeyed the
warrant by following the Commissary, after ordering one
of my domestics to inform my Lord Albemarle of the
treatment I underwent.

"I was carried to the Chatelet, where the jailors,
hardened by their profession, and brutal for their
profit, fastened upon me as upon one of those guilty
objects whom they lock up to be reserved for public
punishment; and though neither my looks nor my behaviour
betrayed the least symptom of guilt, yet I was treated as
a condemned criminal. I was thrown into prison, and
committed to a set of wretches who bore no character of
humanity but its form. My residence--to speak in the jail
dialect--was in the SECRET, which is no other than the
dungeon of the prison, where all the furniture was a
wretched mattress and a crazy chair. The weather was
cold, and I called for a fire; but I was told I could
have none. I was thirsty, and called for some wine and
water, or even a draught of water by itself, but was
denied it. All the favour I could obtain was a promise to
be waited on in the morning; and then was left by myself
under a hundred locks and bolts, with a bit of candle,
after finding that the words of my jailors were few,
their orders peremptory, and their favours unattainable.

"I continued in this dismal dungeon till the 2nd of
November, entirely ignorant of the crime I was accused
of; but at nine in the morning of that day, I was carried
before a magistrate, where I underwent an examination by
which I understo