y!

During the two mortal hours of suspense, full of sombre thoughts and the
most melancholy ideas, I could not help fancying that I was going to be
plunged in one of these horrible dens, where the wretched inhabitants
feed on idle hopes or become the prey of panic fears. The Tribunal might
well send him to hell who had endeavoured to escape from purgatory.

At last I heard hurried steps, and I soon saw Lawrence standing before
me, transformed with rage, foaming at the mouth, and blaspheming God and
His saints. He began by ordering me to give him the hatchet and the tools
I had used to pierce the floor, and to tell him from which of the guards
I had got the tools. Without moving, and quite calmly, I told him that I
did not know what he was talking about. At this reply he gave orders that
I should be searched, but rising with a determined air I shook my fist at
the knaves, and having taken off my clothes I said to them, "Do your
duty, but let no one touch me."

They searched my mattress, turned my bed inside out, felt the cushions of
my arm-chair, and found nothing.

"You won't tell me, then, where are the instruments with which you made
the hole. It's of no matter, as we shall find a way to make you speak."

"If it be true that I have made a hole at all, I shall say that you gave
me the tools, and that I have returned them to you."

At this threat, which made his followers smile with glee, probably
because he had been abusing them, he stamped his feet, tore his hair, and
went out like one possessed. The guards returned and brought me all my
properties, the whetstone and lamp excepted. After locking up my cell he
shut the two windows which gave me a little air. I thus found myself
confined in a narrow space without the possibility of receiving the least
breath of air from any quarter. Nevertheless, my situation did not
disturb me to any great extent, as I must confess I thought I had got off
cheaply. In spite of his training, Lawrence had not thought of turning
the armchair over; and thus, finding myself still possessor of the iron
bar, I thanked Providence, and thought myself still at liberty to regard
the bar as means by which, sooner or later, I should make my escape.

I passed a sleepless night, as much from the heat as the change in my
prospects. At day-break Lawrence came and brought some insufferable wine,
and some water I should not have cared to drink. All the rest was of a
piece; dry salad, putrid meat, a