It seems to have been thought by no means necessary that a prisoner, who was deprived of all earthly comforts, should receive consolation from regular attendance on religious worship. The chapel was a miserable hole, of about seven or eight feet square, under the pigeon-house of the king’s lieutenant. “In this chapel,” says one who had been a captive, “are five small niches or closets, with strong locks, of which three are formed in the wall; the others are only wainscot. Every prisoner admitted to hear mass is put in by himself,[1] and can neither see objects nor be seen of any. The doors of these niches are secured by two bolts on the outside, and lined within by iron bars; they are also glazed; but before each is hung a curtain, which is drawn back at the Sanctus, and again closed at the concluding prayer. Five prisoners only being admitted at each mass, it follows that no more than ten can assist at that ceremony in a day. If there be a greater number than this in the Castle, they either do not go at all, or go alternately; because there are generally found some who have a constant permission.” There was a confessor in the fortress; but it is scarcely possible that a prisoner could repose entire confidence in a spiritual director who was in the pay of his oppressors. Though it is going much too far to say, as M. Linguet does, that such a man is “a cowardly double-dealer who prostitutes the dignity of his character,” it must be owned that some doubts and suspicions as to him might naturally arise; it matters not that they would be unjust, the possibility of their being excited ought to have been carefully avoided. Let us now turn to the concise but terrible instrument, by virtue of which an individual was consigned to captivity, perhaps for life. This was the _lettre de cachet_, or sealed letter, so called to distinguish it from the _patent_ or open letter, which was merely folded. In former days, such epistles were called _lettres closes_, or _clauses_. The name was not given to all sealed up missives, but only to those which contained some command or information from the sovereign. They were signed by the king, and countersigned by one of the secretaries of state. The same appellation was originally given to all letters of the kind described; but, in latter times, it was principally if not wholly applied, at least in common parlance, to royal orders of exile and imprisonment. The oldest recorded mandate of this species is that which Thierry the Second issued, at the instigation of Brunehaut, against St. Columbanus, who had severely censured the vices of the mother and the son. It directed that he should be removed from the monastery of Luxeuil, and banished to Besançon, where he was to remain during the king’s pleasure. The saint yielded only to force, and, as soon as the guards were withdrawn, he retired to his convent. Violence, however, at length compelled him to quit the dominions of the licentious Thierry.