“I replied to the inquisitor, that having been first imprisoned by the police, on the ground of having gone to England without passports, although I was not interrogated about this subject, but only with respect to my having entered into the order of freemasonry, I was led to conjecture that my being a freemason was the cause of my trial by the Inquisition. If, indeed, this was the crime of which I was accused, I was disposed to confess it, not only because it was true that I was a freemason, but with a view that I might obtain the mercy he, the inquisitor, had promised me; but if I was mistaken in my conjecture, and the crime I was accused of was different, I begged that its nature might be disclosed to me, and I would reply to the accusation as should be necessary. The inquisitor replied, that he could do no otherwise than praise my laudable resolution to confess my crimes; but it was his duty again to admonish me (and he said this with a great deal of apparent charity), that I ought to examine my conscience thoroughly, and not leave anything untold of all that I had done in any period of my life; that I had committed crimes whose cognisance belonged to that holy tribunal, and that I was accused of them, and informed against on that account; that I should remember his recommendation, that to confess my crimes was highly important to the clearing of my conscience; to the salvation of my soul, and to the successful issue of my cause; and that he, to do me favour, would send me back to my solitary prison, that I might have time to examine my conscience. I told him, that the greatest possible favour he could confer upon me was that of accelerating my cause; for having been more than six months in prison without being allowed to communicate with any one, my health was so seriously injured, that all I wished was to have a sentence, in order to get free from my painful situation and suspense; and, however rigorous that sentence might be, it would always be preferable, in my estimation, to being in a solitary prison, under circumstances that could only lead to an inevitable ruin, which was the more to be feared, as I was literally dying by inches in slow torments.