must be deemed accessary to his death. But as I thought Mr. _Goode_ should have considered, that some of the poor invalids too might now and then be as subject to the asthma as he, it was a proper punishment, and I kept him there till he knew the duty of a soldier, as well as that of a mason; and as I would _his betters_, had they come down and ventured to have given out orders in a garrison under my command; but instead of getting me punished as a _certain gentleman_ aimed at, that able General _Lord Ligonier_ approved my conduct, and removed the man to another garrison, and would have dismissed him the ordnance service, had I not become a petitioner in his favour; for he was too fat and old to work, too proud and arrogant to beg, and he and _his advisers_ too contemptible to be angry with.--But I must return to the castle of _Ham_, to tell you what a dreadful black-hold there is in that tower; it is a trap called by the French _des Obliettes_, of so horrible a contrivance, that when the prisoners are to suffer in it, the mechanical powers are so constructed, as to render it impossible to be again opened, nor would it signify, but to see the body _molue_, i.e. ground to pieces. There were formerly two or three _Obliettes_ in this castle; one only now remains; but there are still several in the _Bastile_.--When a criminal suffers this frightful death, (for perhaps it is not very painful) he has no previous notice, but being led into the apartment, is overwhelmed in an instant. It is to be presumed, however, that none but criminals guilty of high crimes, suffer in this manner; for the state prisoners in the _Bastile_ are not only well lodged, but liberal tables are kept for them. An Irish officer was lately enlarged from the _Bastile_, who had been twenty-seven years confined there; and though he found a great sum of money in the place he had concealed it in a little before his confinement, he told Colonel C----, of Fitz-James's regiment, that "having out-lived his acquaintance with the world, as well as with men, he would willingly return there again." At _Ham_ the prisoners for debt are quite separated from the state prisoners; the latter are in the castle, the former in the tower. The death of _Lewis_ the XVth gave liberty to an infinite number of unhappy people, and to many who would have been enlarged before, but had been forgotten. When one of these unhappy people (a woman of fashion) was told she might go out; then, (said she) I am sure _Lewis_ the XVth is dead; an event she knew nothing of, tho' it was a full year after the King's death.--Things are otherwise conducted now than in his reign; a wicked vain woman then commanded with unlimited power, both in war and domestic concerns. In this reign, there are able, and I believe virtuous ministers.