once, and found Cornelius
still using the stick, with the knife under his foot.

At the sight of these witnesses, who could not know all the
circumstances which had provoked and might justify his offence,
Cornelius felt that he was irretrievably lost.

In fact, appearances were sadly against him.

In one moment Cornelius was disarmed, and Gryphus raised and supported;
and, bellowing with rage and pain, he was able to count on his back
and shoulders the bruises which were beginning to swell like the hills
dotting the slopes of a mountain ridge.

A protocol of the violence practiced by the prisoner against his jailer
was immediately drawn up, and as it was made on the depositions of
Gryphus, it certainly could not be said to be too tame; the prisoner
being charged with neither more nor less than with an attempt to murder,
for a long time premeditated, with open rebellion.

Whilst the charge was made out against Cornelius, Gryphus, whose
presence was no longer necessary after having made his depositions,
was taken down by his turnkeys to his lodge, groaning and covered with
bruises.

During this time, the guards who had seized Cornelius busied themselves
in charitably informing their prisoner of the usages and customs of
Loewestein, which however he knew as well as they did. The regulations
had been read to him at the moment of his entering the prison, and
certain articles in them remained fixed in his memory.

Among other things they told him that this regulation had been carried
out to its full extent in the case of a prisoner named Mathias, who
in 1668, that is to say, five years before, had committed a much less
violent act of rebellion than that of which Cornelius was guilty. He had
found his soup too hot, and thrown it at the head of the chief turnkey,
who in consequence of this ablution had been put to the inconvenience of
having his skin come off as he wiped his face.

Mathias was taken within twelve hours from his cell, then led to the
jailer's lodge, where he was registered as leaving Loewestein, then
taken to the Esplanade, from which there is a very fine prospect over
a wide expanse of country. There they fettered his hands, bandaged his
eyes, and let him say his prayers.

Hereupon he was invited to go down on his knees, and the guards of
Loewestein, twelve in number, at a sign from a sergeant, very cleverly
lodged a musket-ball each in his body.

In consequence of this proceeding, Mathias incontin