liberty of the court, which happens sufficiently often--To visit all the chambers and to search everywhere, even all the prisoners and their clothing--It is also necessary to examine everything which comes from without for the prisoners confined here, and their clothing that goes out, in order to be mended or washed--Amongst the number of prisoners there are some who daily find themselves in necessity or need of something, or else of some complaint of their food, or of the bad usage of the turnkeys who attend upon them, which prisoners in their distress are compelled to beat their doors so as to give notice of their wants; these are occasions which often happen and cause a great noise, so that it is necessary to go and make frequent visits--It is necessary to pay attention to the food given the prisoners, being very often bad, with bad wine and dirty table-linen--To frequently examine all the plate usually used for the prisoners confined here, _who very often write on the dishes and plates in order to give news of themselves to one another_--To keep guard over and carefully observe all the persons who enter the Bastille, especially the women and girls who come to see the prisoners who are in the liberty of the court--On the principal festivals of the year it is necessary to take every care to make those prisoners who are allowed by orders to do so, confess, hear mass, and communicate--To go several times during the day and the evening on to the platforms outside the château, in order to prevent the prisoners in one tower talking to those in another, and to send soldiers in the neighbourhood of the Bastille in order to arrest the persons who make signs to the prisoners whom they know, and very often these are prisoners who have received their liberty wishing to render service to those who remain, there being communication everywhere, and the cause of all these disorders.” [290] A single example will suffice. The person confined in the Bastille a few days before the Iron Mask is, according to Dujonca, the famous Madame Guyon, and a letter from Count de Pontchartrain to Saint-Mars, of November 3, 1698, says: “As for Madame Guyon, it is not necessary to do anything with reference to her except by the advice of the Archbishop:”--Imperial Archives, Registers of the Secretary’s office of the King’s Household. CHAPTER XIV.