rsed walls, appear to be crying out and questioning. The questions
remain unanswered, but they tell me that I am not alone; that I need
only cry for help in order, if need be, to put the entire prison in a
state of revolt. This idea soothes my nerves, and I lie close against
the humid wall, behind which I feel there is an unknown but blessed
protection, and with my face pressed into the hard horsehair pillow, I
give vent to my first prisoner's tears; tears of agony and impotent
revolt, tears of farewell to life.

By daylight the appearance of my cell is not improved. The narrow door
made from rough oak is crossed on the inside with iron bars, while those
on the outside, together with the locks and padlocks, render it almost
as solid as the walls. As to the latter, white at night, they appear in
the day, thanks to the moisture with which they are covered, a bluish
grey. The window, placed high in a niche of the wall, is about twenty
inches square, and is protected on the inner side by a grating. It is
double, composed of eight small panes, those on the inner side being of
fluted ground-glass, so that it is impossible to see what is going on
outside. As the window is never opened, the dust has accumulated, and
the light that now filters through is dull and grey. Grey are the stone
blocks of which the floor is composed; grey the oak door, the furniture,
and the walls; grey the narrow bed, with coarse grey covering, and all
this grey, of which afterwards I learned to distinguish the shades,
constitutes a cloud which presses and weighs upon the prisoner. Later
on, in the Swiss mountains, it sometimes happened that I was enveloped
in a cloud which, intercepting light and sound, cut me off from the rest
of the world. A sojourn in one of these clouds gives to the surprised
traveller, by reason of its rarity, a series of curious impressions. But
twenty-seven months in a cloud is a long time! A very long time! Three
times each day, with a noise of falling iron, the door of my cell
opened, and on the threshold appeared two men in blue uniforms braided
with silver, and armed with swords and revolvers. A third, dressed as an
orderly, entered my cell carrying a tray, on which, morning and evening,
was placed a glass, a teapot, sugar, and bread--at noon, a bowl of soup,
and a plate containing the daily ration of meat and vegetables, all cut
in small pieces. In the morning the orderly swept out my cell, filled my
water-jug, and, if so d