The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...Sala, George Augustus
General
The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...
Sala, George Augustus
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
After many Days, he was removed from Versailles to Paris; but his Legs
were so bad with the Burning, that they were obliged to carry him away
on a Mattress. So to Paris; the Journey taking Six Hours, through his
great attendance of Guards and the thickness of the Crowd. He was had to
the Prison of the Conciergerie, and put into a Circular Dungeon in the
Tower called of Montgomery--the very same one where Ravaillac, that
killed Henry the Fourth, had formerly lain. There they put him into a
kind of Sack of Shamoy Leather, leaving only his Head free; and he was
tied down to his bed--which was a common Hospital Pallet--by an immense
number of Leathern Straps, secured by Iron Rings to the Floor of his
Dungeon. But what Dr. Goldsmith, the Poetry-writer, means by "Damiens'
Bed of Steel," I'm sure I don't know. At the head and foot of his Bed an
Exempt kept watch Night and Day, and every three-quarters of an hour
the Guard was relieved; so that the Miserable Creature had little chance
of Sleeping. He would have sunk under all this Cruelty, but that they
kept him up with Rich Meats and Generous Wines, which they had all but
to force down his Throat.
But while all this was being done to Damiens, other steps were being
taken by Justice, the which narrowly concerned me. As he would denounce
no Accomplices, real or imaginary, the Police did their best to find out
his Confederates for themselves, and by diligent Inquiry made themselves
acquainted with all Damiens' movements for days before he committed his
Crime. They found out the Wine-shop where he had refused to pay his
Reckoning and made a Disturbance; and learning from the people of the
House what manner of Man had paid for him and taken him away, they were
soon on _my_ track. One night, just before the Ballet began, I was taken
by two Exempts; and, in the very play-acting dress as Cerberus that I
wore, was forced into a Sedan, and taken, surrounded by Guards, to the
Prison of the Chatelet. I thought of appealing to our Ambassador in
Paris, and proving that I was a faithful Subject of King George; but, as
it happened, I owed my safety to one who disowned that Monarch, and kept
all his Allegiance for King James. For old Mr. Lovell, hearing of my
Arrest, and importuned by poor Pretty Miss Lilias, who was kind enough
to shed many Tears on the occasion, hurried off to his Eminence the
Cardinal de ----, who was all but supreme at Court, and with whom he had
great Influence. The Cardinal listens to him very graciously, and by and
by comes down the President Pasquier to interrogate me, to whom I told a
plain Tale, setting forth how I had been unfortunate in Business in
Holland and Flanders, and was earning an honest Livelihood by playing a
Dog in a Pantomime. The people in the Wine-shop could not but bear me
out in stating that I had come across the Red-faced Man by pure
Accident, and was no Friend of his. It was moreover established by the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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