pleasing address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full
of enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable
leader of guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant
gave his prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his
table, and at first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This
officer was a Corsican and married; his wife was pretty and charming,
and he thought her, perhaps, not to be trusted--at any rate, he was as
jealous as a Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The
lady took a fancy to Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his
taste; perhaps they loved! Love in a prison is quick work. Did they
commit some imprudence? Was the sentiment they entertained something
warmer than the superficial gallantry which is almost a duty of men
towards women?

"Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the
story; it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself
justified in treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir
was placed in the dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and
fettered in accordance with the time-honored traditions of the
treatment lavished on captives. His cell, under the fortress-yard, was
vaulted with hard stone, the walls were of desperate thickness; the
tower overlooked the precipice.

"When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of
escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort
and the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the
trifles which in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours
and the days; he studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he
became absorbed in himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine;
then, at the end of a fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible