and water of affliction. He was threatened with torture to make him
deliver up some papers compromising to Louis XIV. It was expressly
commanded that he should have nothing beyond the barest necessaries
of life. He was to be kept dans la dure prison. In brief, he was
used no better than the meanest of prisoners. The awful life of
isolation, without employment, without books, without writing
materials, without sight or sound of man save when Saint-Mars or his
lieutenant brought food for the day, drove captives mad.

In January 1680 two prisoners, a monk* and one Dubreuil, had become
insane. By February 14, 1680, Mattioli was daily conversing with
God and his angels. 'I believe his brain is turned,' says Saint-
Mars. In March 1680, as we saw, Fouquet died. The prisoners, not
counting Lauzun (released soon after), were now five: (1) Mattioli
(mad); (2) Dubreuil (mad); (3) The monk (mad); (4) Dauger, and (5)
La Riviere. These two, being employed as valets, kept their wits.
On the death of Fouquet, Louvois wrote to Saint-Mars about the two
valets. Lauzun must be made to believe that they had been set at
liberty, but, in fact, they must be most carefully guarded IN A
SINGLE CHAMBER. They were shut up in one of the dungeons of the
'Tour d'en bas.' Dauger had recently done something as to which
Louvois writes: 'Let me know how Dauger can possibly have done what
you tell me, and how he got the necessary drugs, as I cannot suppose
that you supplied him with them' (July 10, 1680).**

*A monk, who may have been this monk, appears in the following
essay.

**Lair, Nicholas Foucquet, ii. pp. 476, 477.