appropriate in speaking of this terrible body. I told the gaoler that my
dinner would suffice for the two of us, and that he could employ the
young man's allowance in saying masses in his usual manner. He agreed
willingly, and having told him that he was lucky to be in my company, he
said that we could walk in the garret for half an hour. I found this walk
an excellent thing for my health and my plan of escape, which, however, I
could not carry out for eleven months afterwards. At the end of this
resort of rats, I saw a number of old pieces of furniture thrown on the
ground to the right and left of two great chests, and in front of a large
pile of papers sewn up into separate volumes. I helped myself to a dozen
of them for the sake of the reading, and I found them to be accounts of
trials, and very diverting; for I was allowed to read these papers, which
had once contained such secrets. I found some curious replies to the
judges' questions respecting the seduction of maidens, gallantries
carried a little too far by persons employed in girls' schools, facts
relating to confessors who had abused their penitents, schoolmasters
convicted of pederasty with their pupils, and guardians who had seduced
their wards. Some of the papers dating two or three centuries back, in
which the style and the manners illustrated gave me considerable
entertainment. Among the pieces of furniture on the floor I saw a
warming-pan, a kettle, a fire-shovel, a pair of tongs, some old
candle-sticks, some earthenware pots, and even a syringe. From this I
concluded that some prisoner of distinction had been allowed to make use
of these articles. But what interested me most was a straight iron bar as
thick as my thumb, and about a foot and a half long. However, I left
everything as it was, as my plans had not been sufficiently ripened by
time for me to appropriate any object in particular.

One day towards the end of the month my companion was taken away, and
Lawrence told me that he had been condemned to the prisons known as The
Fours, which are within the same walls as the ordinary prisons, but
belong to the State Inquisitors. Those confined in them have the
privilege of being able to call the gaoler when they like. The prisons
are gloomy, but there is an oil lamp in the midst which gives the
necessary light, and there is no fear of fire as everything is made of
marble. I heard, a long time after, that the unfortunate Maggiorin was
there for five yea