event to which I owed my present situation.

"Am I then a prisoner?"

"To be sure, and quite right too!" answered my keeper.

"Does Madame de Sonnes know of this? Has she not sent here? May I not
see her?"

"Dost thou know any one here? Where does she live?"

"In the Rue de Martin. The house Albertas."

"Thou fool! there is no Rue de Martin in all Marseilles. Thou art
still feverish, I think, or dost thou not know that thou art in
Marseilles?"

"In Marseilles? What, in Marseilles am I? Am I not in Nismes? How
long have I been here?"

"May be three weeks. I can easily believe that thou, poor devil, dost
not know of it. Thou hast been raving in a burning fever till last
night. Thou must have a strong constitution. We thought we should
have to bury thee to-day."

"What am I to do here?"

"When thou art recovered thou wilt put on that dress; dost thou know
it?"

"That is a galley slave's dress. What? pray tell me, am I then--I
will--I cannot believe--have I been sentenced?"

"Perhaps so; only for twenty-nine years to the oars, as they say."

The fellow spoke too truly. As soon as I recovered, my terrible
sentence was announced to me. I was condemned to punishment in the
galleys for twenty-nine years, for menaces, and murderous attempts on
the life of the Mareschale de Montreval; also for the crime of being a
secret Protestant, and for having committed sundry peculations, for the
benefit of the heretics, in the office where I had influence, by virtue
of my situation.

I sighed, yet conscious of my innocence, put on the dress without pain.
My tears flowed only for the fate of Clementine. I endeavoured to send
her a few lines, which I wrote as a farewell, on a scrap of paper, with
a pencil I borrowed. But alas! I was too poor to bribe my keeper; he
took the paper, read it, and laughing, tore it to pieces, saying,
"There is no post for love letters here."

I was now put in chains, and led, together with some companions in
misfortune, to the galley appointed for us in the harbour. It was a
beautiful evening, and the city displayed its splendour in the radiance
of the setting sun. Amidst the dark green of the sloping mountains
surrounding the harbour, which was crowded with the vessels of all
nations, glistened innumerable snow-white villas, and between the
almond and olive trees of the Bastides, waved a thousand silken
pennons, displaying all the colours of the rainbow; while through the