“Next day, the familiars came to conduct me before the three inquisitors; they presented me with a yellow mantle to put on, but I disdainfully rejected this Satanic livery. However, they persuaded me that submission was the only means by which I could hope to recover my liberty. I appeared, therefore, clad in yellow, with a waxtaper in my hand, before these three priests of Pluto. In the chamber was displayed the banner of the Holy Office, on which were represented a gridiron, a pair of pincers, and a pile of wood, with these words--‘JUSTICE, CHARITY, MERCY.’ What an atrocious piece of irony! I was tempted more than once to singe, with my blazing taper, the hideous visage of one of these Jacobins, but my good genius prevented me. One of them advised me, with an air of mildness, to confess my sins. ‘My great sin,’ replied I, ‘is to have entered a country where the priests trample humanity under foot, and assume the cloak of religion to persecute virtue and innocence.’ ‘Is that all you have to say?’ ‘Yes, my conscience is free from alarm, and from remorse. Tremble! if the regiment to which I belong should hear of my imprisonment, they would trample over ten regiments of Spaniards to rescue me from your barbarity.’ ‘God alone is master; our duty is to watch over his flock, as faithful shepherds; our hearts are afflicted at it, but you must return to your prison till you think proper to make a confession of your fault.’ I then retired, casting upon my judges a look of contempt and indignation. “As soon as I returned to my prison, I most anxiously considered what could be the cause of this severe treatment. I was far from suspecting that it could be owing to my answer to the mendicant friar, concerning the Virgin and her lights.” [One of these having come to his chamber, presenting a purse, and begging a contribution for the tapers to be lighted in honour of the Virgin; he replied, “My good father, the Virgin has no need of lights; she needs only to go to bed at an early hour.”] “However, M. Aubert, being persuaded that the Inquisition alone had been the cause of my disappearance, placed spies upon all their steps. One of these informed him that three monks of the Dominican order were about to set out for Rome, being deputed to the conventual assembly, which was to be held there. He immediately wrote to M. de Colet, commandant at Perpignan, to inform him how I had disappeared, of his suspicions as to the cause, and of the passage of the three Jacobins through Perpignan, desiring him to arrest them, and not set them at liberty, till I should be released.