entire
separation of the king from the rest of his family. No language can
express the consternation of the sufferers in view of this cruel
measure. Without mercy, the officers immediately executed the barbarous
command, by tearing the king from the embraces of his agonized wife and
his grief-distracted children. The king, overwhelmed with anguish in
view of the sufferings which his wife and children must endure, most
earnestly implored them not to separate him from his family. They were
inflexible and, hardly allowing the royal family one moment for their
parting adieus, hurried the king away. It was the dark hour of a gloomy
night. The few rays of light from the lanterns guided them through
narrow passages, and over piles of rubbish to a distant angle of the
huge and dilapidated fortress, where they thrust the king into an
unfurnished cell, and, locking the door upon him, they left him with one
tallow candle to make visible the gloom and the solitude. There was, in
one corner, a miserable pallet, and heaps of moldering bricks and mortar
were scattered over the damp floor. The king threw himself, in utter
despair, upon this wretched bed, and counted, till the morning dawned,
the steps of the sentinel pacing to and fro before his door. At length a
small piece of bread and a bottle of water were brought him for his
breakfast.

The anguish of the queen in the endurance of this most cruel separation
was apparently as deep as human nature could experience. Her woe
amounted to delirium. Pale and haggard, she walked to and fro,
beseeching her jailers that they would restore to her and to her
children the husband and the father. Her pathetic entreaties touched
even their hearts of stone. "I do believe," said one of them, "that
these infernal women will make even me weep." After some time, they
consented that the king should occasionally be permitted to partake his
meals with his family, a guard being always present to hear what they
should say. Immediately after the meal, he was to be taken back to his
solitary imprisonment.

Such was the condition of the royal family during a period of about four
months, varied by the capricious mercy or cruelty of the different
persons who were placed as guards over them. Their clothes became
soiled, threadbare, and tattered; and they were deprived of all means of
repairing their garments, lest they should convert needles and scissors
into instruments of suicide. The king was not allowed t