"
And a few sentences further on a heart of stone must be moved by
what the archives of that grim prison-house revealed:--
"Old secrets come to view; and long-buried despair finds voice.
Read this portion of an old letter.
"'If for my consolation Monseigneur would grant me, for the sake
of God and the Most Blessed Trinity, that I could have news of my
dear wife; were it only her name on a card, to show that she is
alive! It were the greatest consolation I could receive; and I
should for ever bless the greatness of Monseigneur.'
"Poor prisoner, who namest thyself Queret-Demery, and hast no
other history,--she is dead, that dear wife of thine, and thou art
dead! Tis fifty years since thy breaking heart put this question;
to be heard now first, and long heard, in the hearts of men."
In the reign of Louis XV. alone, there were no less than fifteen
thousand _lettres de cachet_ issued, by which anyone could be
suddenly arrested, and, without trial, and, heedless of protest,
imprisoned perhaps for life in the Bastille.
In the excesses of the Reign of Terror three or four thousand persons
perished. Their deaths were spectacular, and have covered with
execrations their dreadful executioners.
But it is right that we should remember, Antony, the life-long agony
and the unutterable despair of the victims of that remorselessly cruel
system which the Revolution overthrew.
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