made a great cage of wood of solid beams, timbers and
wall-plates, measuring nine feet in length by eight in breadth, and of
the height of seven feet between the partitions, smoothed and clamped
with great bolts of iron, which has been placed in a chamber situated in
one of the towers of the Bastille Saint-Antoine, in which cage is placed
and detained, by command of the king our lord, a prisoner who formerly
inhabited an old, decrepit, and ruined cage. There have been employed
in making the said new cage, ninety-six horizontal beams, and fifty-two
upright joists, ten wall plates three toises long; there have been
occupied nineteen carpenters to hew, work, and fit all the said wood in
the courtyard of the Bastille during twenty days."

"Very fine heart of oak," said the king, striking the woodwork with his
fist.

"There have been used in this cage," continued the other, "two hundred
and twenty great bolts of iron, of nine feet, and of eight, the rest of
medium length, with the rowels, caps and counterbands appertaining to
the said bolts; weighing, the said iron in all, three thousand, seven
hundred and thirty-five pounds; beside eight great squares of iron,
serving to attach the said cage in place with clamps and nails weighing
in all two hundred and eighteen pounds, not reckoning the iron of the
trellises for the windows of the chamber wherein the cage hath been
placed, the bars of iron for the door of the cage and other things."

"'Tis a great deal of iron," said the king, "to contain the light of a
spirit."

"The whole amounts to three hundred and seventeen livres, five sols,
seven deniers."

"_Pasque-Dieu_!" exclaimed the king.

At this oath, which was the favorite of Louis XI., some one seemed
to awaken in the interior of the cage; the sound of chains was heard,
grating on the floor, and a feeble voice, which seemed to issue from the
tomb was uplifted. "Sire! sire! mercy!" The one who spoke thus could not
be seen.

"Three hundred and seventeen livres, five sols, seven deniers," repeated
Louis XI. The lamentable voice which had proceeded from the cage had
frozen all present, even Master Olivier himself. The king alone wore
the air of not having heard. At his order, Master Olivier resumed his
reading, and his majesty coldly continued his inspection of the cage.

"In addition to this there hath been paid to a mason who hath made the
holes wherein to place the gratings of the windows, and the floor of
the cham