ght of
this new imprisonment I tossed on my wretched bed in pain and misery. A
strange and surly soldier came and went, bringing bread and water; but
when I asked that a physician be sent me, he replied, with a vile
oath, that the devil should be my only surgeon. Soon he came again,
accompanied by another soldier, and put irons on me. With what quietness
I could I asked him by whose orders this was done; but he vouchsafed no
reply save that I was to "go bound to fires of hell."

"There is no journeying there," I answered; "here is the place itself."

Then a chain was roughly put round my injured ankle, and it gave me such
agony that I turned sick, but I kept back groaning, for I would not have
these varlets catch me quaking.

"I'll have you grilled for this one day," said I. "You are no men, but
butchers. Can you not see my ankle has been sorely hurt?"

"You are for killing," was the gruff reply, "and here's a taste of it."

With that he drew the chain with a jerk round the hurt member, so that
it drove me to madness. I caught him by the throat and hurled him back
against the wall, and snatching a pistol from his comrade's belt aimed
it at his head. I was beside myself with pain, and if he had been
further violent I should have shot him. His fellow dared not stir in his
defence, for the pistol was trained on him too surely; and so at last
the wretch, promising better treatment, crawled to his feet, and made
motion for the pistol to be given him. But I would not yield it, telling
him it should be a guarantee of truce. Presently the door closed behind
them, and I sank back upon the half-fettered chains.

I must have sat for more than an hour, when there was a noise without,
and there entered the Commandant, the Marquis de Montcalm, and the
Seigneur Duvarney. The pistol was in my hand, and I did not put it down,
but struggled to my feet, and waited for them to speak.

For a moment there was silence, and then the Commandant said, "Your
guards have brought me word, Monsieur le Capitaine, that you are
violent. You have resisted them, and have threatened them with their own
pistols."

"With one pistol, monsieur le commandant," answered I. Then, in bitter
words, I told them of my treatment by those rascals, and I showed them
how my ankle had been tortured. "I have no fear of death," said I, "but
I will not lie and let dogs bite me with 'I thank you.' Death can come
but once, it is a damned brutality to make one die a hu