light, was terrified.  I imagined him to be confined for the remainder of his life.  I was almost distracted with the thought.  I wrote to Madam de Pompadour, beseeching her to release him or obtain an order to shut me up in the same dungeon.  I received no answer to my letter:  this was too reasonable to be efficacious, and I do not flatter myself that it contributed to the alleviation which, some time afterwards, was granted to the severities of the confinement of poor Diderot.  Had this continued for any length of time with the same rigor, I verily believe I should have died in despair at the foot of the hated dungeon.  However, if my letter produced but little effect, I did not on account of it attribute to myself much merit, for I mentioned it but to very few people, and never to Diderot himself.