“But withal, in my hearing, he commanded Areta that none should come near me, except the slave, nor any food be given me but three ounces of musted brown bread every second day, and a fuleto, or English pint of water, neither any bed, pillow, or coverlet to be allowed me. ‘And close up,’ said he, ‘this window in his room, with lime and stone; stop the holes of the doors with double mats, hanging another lock on it; and to withdraw visible and sensible comfort from him, let no tongue nor feet be heard near him till I have my designs accomplished. And thou, Hazier, I charge thee, at thy incomings to have no conference with him, nor at thy outgoings abroad to discover him to the English factors, as thou wilt answer upon thy life, and the highest tortures that can be devised.’ These directions delivered, and, alas! too accessory to me in the performance, my room was made a dark drawn dungeon, my body the anatomy of merciless hunger, my comfortless hearing the receptacle of sounding bells, my eye wanting light, a loathsome languishing in despair, and my ground-lying body the woeful mirror of misfortunes, every hour wishing another’s coming, every day the night, and every night the morning. My body grew weak and infirm, insomuch that the governor, after his answers received from Madrid, made haste to put in execution his bloody and merciless purpose before Christmas holyday; lest, ere the expiring of the twelfth day, I should be utterly famished, and unable to undergo my trial without present perishing. By God’s permission, the forty-seventh day after my first imprisonment, and five days before Christmas, about two o’clock in the morning, I heard the noise of a coach in the street; within a while I heard the locks of my prison door opening; whereupon, bequeathing my soul to God, I humbly implored his gracious mercy and pardon for my sins; for neither in the former night, nor in this, could I get any sleep, such was the force of my gnawing hunger, and the portending heaviness of my presaging soul.