fits. On reaching Marseilles he was confined in the hospital
prison used for common felons and galley-slaves. It was called the
Chamber of Darkness, because of its want of light. The single
apartment contained two hundred and thirty prisoners. Some of them
were chained together, two and two; others, three and three. The
miserable palliasses on which they slept had been much worn by the
galley-slaves, who had used them during their illnesses. The women
were separated from the men by a linen cloth attached to the ceiling,
which was drawn across every evening, and formed the only partition
between them.

As may easily be supposed, the condition of the prisoners was
frightful. The swearing of the common felons was mixed with the
prayers of the Huguenots. The guards walked about all night to keep
watch and ward over them. They fell upon any who assembled and knelt
together, separating them and swearing at them, and mercilessly
ill-treating them, men and women alike. "But all their strictness and
rage," says De Pechels, "could not prevent one from seeing always, in
different parts of the dungeon, little groups upon their knees,
imploring the mercy of God and singing His praises, whilst others kept
near the guards so as to hinder them from interfering with the little
bands of worshippers."

At length the time arrived for the embarkation of the Huguenots for
America. On the 18th of September, 1687, De Pechels, with fifty-eight
men and twenty-one women, was put on board a _flute_ called the
_Mary_--the French _flute_ consisting of a heavy narrow-sterned
vessel, called in England a "pink." De Pechels was carefully separated
from all with whom he had formed habits of intimacy, and whose
presence near him would doubtless have helped him to bear the
bitterness of his fate. On the same day, ninety prisoners of both
sexes were embarked in another ship, named the _Concord_, bound for
the same destination. The two vessels set sail in the first place for
Toulon, in order to obtain an escort of two ships-of-war.

The voyage was very disastrous. Three hours after the squadron had
left Toulon, the _Mary_ was nearly dashed against a rock, owing to the
roughness of the weather. Three days after, a frightful storm arose,
and dashed the prisoners against each other. All were sick; indeed, De
Pechels' malady lasted during the entire voyage. The squadron first
cast anchor amongst the Formentera Islands, off the coast of Spain,
where they too