The governor had surrendered just as he arrived. Nägueli, on leaving Berne, had written to him that he should answer with his head for the lives of the prisoners: he had, therefore, some hope of recovering them. Favre, Chamois, and the other Genevans hastily sprang from their boats, entered the castle, and in a minute they embraced the three envoys. But where was Bonivard? They seized the keys of the vaults, unlocked a sunk door, and entered. It was the hall of execution: beneath its rude arches were wheels, axes, pulleys, cords, and all the horrible instruments with which men were crippled or killed. The Genevans, without stopping, ran to the door of an inner vault, undid the bars, pulled back the bolts. The friends of the prior of Saint Victor sprang over the threshold, rushed into the gloomy dungeon, reached the column. 'Here he is! he is alive!' Bonivard fell into their arms. His friends found it difficult to recognize him. The features changed by suffering, the long unkempt beard, the hair falling over his shoulders—had changed his appearance.[736] 'Bonivard,' they said to him, 'Bonivard, you are free!' The prisoner, who seemed to be waking from a long sleep, did not think of himself: his first words were for the city he had loved so much. 'And Geneva?' he asked. 'Geneva is free too,' they replied. His chains were taken off, and, conducted by his friends, he crossed the door of that vast prison. The bright light which burst upon him affected his eyes which had been deprived of it for so many years, and he turned them mechanically towards the gloom of his dungeon. At last he recovered himself and bade farewell to his sepulchre. The crowd looked at him for some moments with emotion, and then rushed into that dismal cell, where the wretched man had suffered so long. Every one desired to see it, and for ages yet to come the traveller will visit it. The illustrious prisoner was delivered; the last fortress of tyranny was captured; the victory of the Reformation was complete. No traveller wandering along the picturesque shore of Montreux can fail to look at those walls, rising out of the water, without a feeling of horror for despotism and of gratitude for the Gospel. Those rocks, so long the witnesses of oppression, are now hailed with emotion and joy by the friends of the Word of God and liberty. Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar.[737] The flotilla was soon sailing back to Geneva with Bonivard and the three parlementaires on board. They were returning joyously through the help from on high, and in a short time they landed from their boats amid the joyful shouts of their fellow-citizens, and placed their feet on a free soil.[738] [725] Registres du Conseil du 3 Février 1536.—Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, pp. 210, 211, 213. [726] Letter from Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, to King Robert.—Guizot, _Civilisation en Europe_, p. 313.