not being able to learn either our crime or our accusers, it is difficult for us to take any measures for our enlargement.  We cannot defend ourselves against a charge of which we are ignorant, nor combat the validity of a witness, who is not only allowed to remain secret, but is paid perhaps for his information.*

          * At this time informers were paid from fifty to an hundred
          livres for each accusation.

“We most probably owe our misfortune to some discarded servant or personal enemy, for I believe you are convinced we have not merited it either by our discourse or our actions:  if we had, the charge would have been specific; but we have reason to imagine it is nothing more than the indeterminate and general charge of being aristocrates.  I did not see my mother or sister all the day we were arrested, nor till the evening of the next:  the one was engaged perhaps with “Rosine and the Angola”, who were indisposed, and the other would not forego her usual card-party.  Many of our friends likewise have forborne to approach us, lest their apparent interest in our fate should involve themselves; and really the alarm is so general, that I can, without much effort, forgive them.

“You will be pleased to learn, that the greatest civilities I have received in this unpleasant situation, have been from some of your countrymen, who are our fellow-prisoners:  they are only poor sailors, but they are truly kind and attentive, and do us various little services that render us more comfortable than we otherwise should be; for we have no servants here, having deemed it prudent to leave them to take care of our property.  The second night we were here, these good creatures, who lodge in the next room, were rather merry, and awoke the child; but as they found, by its cries, that their gaiety had occasioned me some trouble, I have observed ever since that they walk softly, and avoid making the least noise, after the little prisoner is gone to rest.  I believe they are pleased with me because I speak their language, and they are still more delighted with your young favourite, who is so well amused, that he begins to forget the gloom of the place, which at first terrified him extremely.

“One of our companions is a nonjuring priest, who has been imprisoned under circumstances which make me almost ashamed of my country.—­After having escaped from a neighbouring department, he procured himself a lodging in this town, and for some time lived very peaceably, till a woman, who suspected his profession, became extremely importunate with him to confess her.  The poor man, for several days, refused, telling her, that he did not consider himself as a priest, nor wished to be known as such, nor to infringe the law which excluded him.  The woman, however, still continued to persecute him, alledging, that her conscience was distressed, and that her peace depended on her being able to confess “in the right way.”  At length he suffered himself to be prevailed upon—­the woman received an hundred livres for informing against him, and, perhaps, the priest will be condemned to the Guillotine.*

          * He was executed some time after.