to madness. The fever and the fetters together flayed my body
so that it appeared like one continued wound--Enough! Enough! The
malefactor extended living on the wheel, to whom the cruel executioner
refuses the last stroke--the blow of death--must yet, in some short
period, expire: he suffers nothing I did not then suffer; and these, my
excruciating pangs, continued two dreadful months--Yet, can it be
supposed? There came a day! A day of horror, when these mortal pangs
were beyond imagination increased. I sat scorched with this intolerable
fever, in which nature and death were contending; and when attempting to
quench my burning entrails with cold water, the jug dropped from my
feeble hands, and broke! I had four-and-twenty hours to remain without
water. So intolerable, so devouring was my thirst, I could have drank
human blood! Ay, in my madness, had it been the blood of my father!

* * * * * *

Willingly would I have seized my pistols, but strength had forsaken me, I
could not open the place I was obliged to render so secure.

My visitors next day supposed me gone at last. I lay motionless, with my
tongue out of my mouth. They poured water down my throat, and I revived.

Oh, God! Oh, God! How pure, how delicious, how exquisite was this
water! My insatiable thirst soon emptied the jug; they filled it anew,
bade me farewell, hoped death would soon relieve my mortal sufferings,
and departed.

The lamentable state in which I lay at length became the subject of
general conversation, that all the ladies of the town united with the
officers, and prevailed on the tyrant, Borck, to restore me my bed.

Oh, Nature, what are thy operations? From the day I drank water in such
excess I gathered strength, and to the astonishment of every one, soon
recovered. I had moved the heart of the officer who inspected my prison;
and after six months, six cruel months of intense misery, the day of hope
again began to dawn.

One of the majors of the day entrusted his key to Lieutenant Sonntag, who
came alone, spoke in confidence, and related his own situation,
complained of his debts, his poverty, his necessities; and I made him a
present of twenty-five louis-d'ors, for which he was so grateful that our
friendship became unshaken.

The three lieutenants all commiserated me, and would sit hours with me,
when a certain major had the inspection; and he himself, after a time,
would even pass half the day with me. He, too,