ught
himself in as my debtor to the amount of thirty livres, which however, I
could not put into my pocket. I left the money in his hands, telling him
to lay it out on masses on my behalf, feeling sure that he would make
quite a different use of it, and he thanked me in a tone that persuaded
me he would be his own priest. I gave him the money every month, and I
never saw a priest's receipt. Lawrence was wise to celebrate the
sacrifice at the tavern; the money was useful to someone at all events.

I lived from day to day, persuading myself every night that the next day
I should be at liberty; but as I was each day deceived, I decided in my
poor brain that I should be set free without fail on the 1st of October,
on which day the new Inquisitors begin their term of office. According to
this theory, my imprisonment would last as long as the authority of the
present Inquisitors, and thus was explained the fact that I had seen
nothing of the secretary, who would otherwise have undoubtedly come to
interrogate, examine, and convict me of my crimes, and finally to
announce my doom. All this appeared to me unanswerable, because it seemed
natural, but it was fallacious under the Leads, where nothing is done
after the natural order. I imagined the Inquisitors must have discovered
my innocence and the wrong they had done me, and that they only kept me
in prison for form's sake, and to protect their repute from the stain of
committing injustice; hence I concluded that they would give me my
freedom when they laid down their tyrannical authority. My mind was so
composed and quiet that I felt as if I could forgive them, and forget the
wrong that they had done me. "How can they leave me here to the mercy of
their successors," I thought, "to whom they cannot leave any evidence
capable of condemning me?" I could not believe that my sentence had been
pronounced and confirmed, without my being told of it, or of the reasons
by which my judges had been actuated. I was so certain that I had right
on my side, that I reasoned accordingly; but this was not the attitude I
should have assumed towards a court which stands aloof from all the
courts in the world for its unbounded absolutism. To prove anyone guilty,
it is only necessary for the Inquisitors to proceed against him; so there
is no need to speak to him, and when he is condemned it would be useless
to announce to the prisoner his sentence, as his consent is not required,
and they prefer to le