No amount of threatening could induce the occupant of the
bed to leave it, and Laurent was compelled to accept his new charge in
this way, knowing that he was safe somewhere in that dark and
abominable hole. Early next morning he was at the wicket again, and
saw a sight which caused him to send an immediate request to his
superiors to come and visit their captive. Two days later several
members of the Committee of General Safety repaired to the Temple, the
barrier and the wicket were torn down, and "in a dark room, from which
exhaled an odour of corruption and death, on a dirty unmade bed,
barely covered with a filthy cloth and a ragged pair of trousers, a
child of nine years old was lying motionless, his back bent, his face
wan and wasted with misery, and his features exhibiting an expression
of mournful apathy and rigid unintelligence. His head and neck were
fretted by purulent sores, his legs and arms were lengthened
disproportionately, his knees and wrists were covered with blue and
yellow swellings, his feet and hands unlike in appearance to human
flesh, and armed with nails of an immense length; his beautiful fair
hair was stuck to his head by an inveterate scurvy like pitch; and his
body, and the rags which covered him, were alive with vermin."
Mentally he was almost an imbecile; and in answer to all the questions
which were put to him, he only said once, "I wish to die." And this
was the son of Louis XVI., and the nearest heir to the throne of
France!

The commissaries having given some trifling directions, went their way
to concoct a report, leaving Laurent with very indefinite
instructions. But all the human feelings of the man were roused. He
sent at once for another bed, and bathed the child's wounds. He got an
old woman to cut his hair, and comb it out, and wash him, and
persuaded one of the municipals, who had been a kind of doctor, to
prescribe for the sores, and managed to persuade his superiors to send
a tailor, who made a suit of good clothes for the dauphin. At first
the boy had some difficulty in understanding the change, but as it
dawned upon him he was very grateful. Nor did Laurent's good work stop
here. Although the Revolution was less bloody than before, it was
still very jealous; and the keeper of the Temple was not permitted to
see his prisoner, except at meal times and rare intervals. Still he
contrived to obtain permission to carry him to the top of the Tower,
on the plea that fresh air was