276 [=278]

[276]

[Letters Historical and Galant. Vol. 5.]

to hope to have recourse to the Customs or Laws in order to make the goodness of his Cause appear. Terrified with
"this new Method of providing for the Innocence of the accused, he thought proper to make use of Courage to free him
"self from his Confinement, but instead of using his Liberty to go into a foreign Country, running a thousand risques
"of losing it anew, tho he had exposed his Life to obtain it, he pursued it at Court, and was put off for nine months
"from time to time. And tho' your Majesty was Graciously pleased to declare in answer to his Petition, that
"you would inform your self of the Affair, Mr. de Pontcharlrain, Intendant of Paris, whose duty it was to
"take account of it, and who was wholly at the Devotion of the Archbishop of Sens, knew how to render all the
"Precautions of the Accused Useless. He was then forced as it were to put himself in the way to pass the Fron
"tiers. The Seizing of Mr. de Beringhen happen'd that moment, and the Abbot, who to conceal his flight was
"in disguise, was taken for being one of the English Party, and afterwards known not to be so. However having made
"his Escape, and being hotly pursued and retaken, because his strength failed him, he was beaten, robbed, loaded with
"Irons, put into Dungeons, and in some time transmitted from La fere to Soissons, and then to the Bastille, at a time
"not yet making himself known, every one published, that he was a Minister that had fled from the Cevennes for
"Refuge to Holland. At the Bastile, after undergoing several Examinations, All the Suspicion Conceived of him
"ought to have been dissipated for want of proof. Could he have had any Certainty of Justice, he would not only
"have soon seen an end of his trouble, and one would think he merited some amends: but, Sire, unknown to you, this
"is not the custom at the Bastille, tho' no body complained, tho' no person accused my nephew, he was obliged, with
"dangerous menaces to give an account of all the Days of his Life, without their allowing him to forget those which
"David desires of God that the remembrance of them may not be offered to his mind, after having been constrained
"to explain them. By Peoples enquiring into your Extraordinary Order against him, he has lost his reputation every
"where; for it was easily believed, that he was guilty of High Treason. But it was found, that in the whole Course
"of his Life all his Crimes were nothing but a Zeal, carried a little too far, for the state, and above all for Religion,
"And, Sire, my nephew was at that time very young, and I Submit to his Examination, for the truth of what
"I make bold to say to your Majesty in his defence. For as to Reexamination or Confronting Witnesses, tis not the
"Custom in the Bastille to use them in discharge of Innocence, for fear of proving too much by a greater eclaircise
"ment. What then was my Nephew to expect of this kind of excess, when so much Care was taken to destroy him?
"The title of a Kind of Crime unheard of till then, that of being restless and Enterprising. I should pass
"it in Silence if the Greatest Saints, in one sense, have not been so too, for there is a kind of Restlessness
"arising from the Love of Virtue: However, methinks, Lacedaemon was well enough pleased with the Boldness
"and Vivacity of her Citizens: She regarded Softness or Indolence as a Vice Subject to be punished by the Laws
"which in reality benums the State, and does nothing but ruin it. And shall not Promptitude, Fire, Ardour and
"Courage be accounted Vertues, which are as it were the Soul of Actions? Would to Heaven, Sire, your Subjects
"were to be charged with nothing but these; The Dignity of the French Name would be sure of being always main
"tained. But to have Courage and resolution, or to be capable of doing ill, is reckoned the Same as actually
"doing it: And farther, he is a Malcontent, say some, he has been ill used, and that is enough to continue
"the ill usage ---- Upon these Maxims it is, that in a time of need, Your Majesty, Sire, is thrown into very
"great Expences, to make a multitude of Innocents perish under Walls, to the great prejudice doubtless of you
"Glory and Goodness! And will your Majesty take no Compassion? All desire they may be brought to their try-
"als, that they may be dispatched if guilty, for their Lives are but a Series of pining away. So just a request
"is not listned to; is the Prisoners tiresome Repetition! Be quiet, is the usual Answer; as if the fire of
"a Chagrin that never wastes away, were so easy a thing to reconcile with Repose. In the mean time above two years
"had already pass'd, Sire, without it being possible for my Nephew to send any account of himself either to me
"or a soul else. He judged well, that all he had heard at Bishop's Fort, in relation to the Bastille, was
"greatly beyond all the Disgrace he underwent there: His former Fatigues had already prejudiced his health,
"And the hardships of a Prison did not restore it: A Dampness, the Want of Air; a Covetous day that did not
"shew it self but with regret through Chinks, where the Walks were above twelve feet thick; the being secluded
"absolutely from all Society, so painful to a Man of Life; that Entire Solitude which leaves the Heart with
"out Support, when the Imagination that is not distracted applyes it self to nothing but increasing it's Torments;
"And above all, the terrible uneasiness of seeing no end of them, which makes so many lose their Senses, and