ABSTRACT
Torn from the visions hope had been flattering me with, I was plunged into this dreary abode. In the fourth room on my left, I saw by the glimmering of a lamp the Marquis D****.6 He was reading; dejection had robbed his eyes of their brilliancy, his features were fixed by despair – I paused – One of the guards, I thought, looked sorrowfully at the Marquis, who raising his eyes towards Heaven, exclaimed, ‘O merciful God! how long must I bear this thirst?’ – A sigh broke from my bosom, but it availed not my friend, I was conducted to my cell, and left in awful silence to gloomy meditation; yet pity, heavenly pity! had touched the strongest fibre of my heart, and I forgot for some moments I came here to die. – After a night of weariness I arose; the sun had not gilded the grates of my prison, nor had the lark indulged her first rapture, when the groan of anguish left the burthened heart of some one near me – I listened – silence ensued, and after an interval of near ten minutes heard a door unlock – It was the door of the Marquis.
