might sit and recline against the wall. Opposite the ring to which I was fastened, the light was admitted through a semicircle aperture, one foot high, and two in diameter. This aperture ascended, to the centre of the wall, which was six feet thick, and at this central part was a close iron grating, from which, outward, the aperture descended, and its two extremities were again secured by strong iron bars. My dungeon was built in the ditch of the fortification, and the aperture by which the light entered was so covered by the wall of the rampart, that instead of finding immediate passage, the light only gained admission by reflection.-This, considering the smallness of the aperture, and the impediments of grating and iron bars must needs make the obscurity great, yet my eyes in time, became so accustomed to this glimmering, that I could see a mouse run. In winter, however, when the sun did not shine into the ditch, it was eternal night with me. Between the bars and the grating was a glass window, with a small central casement, which might be opened to admit air. My night table was daily removed, and beside me stood a jug of water. The name TRENCK was built in the wall, in red brick, and under my feet was a tomb-stone, with the name of TRENCK also cut on it, and carved with a death's head.The doors to my dungeon were double, of oak, two inches thick: without these was an open space or front cell, in which was a window, and this space was likewise shut in by double doors.— The ditch in which this dreadful den was built, was inclosed on both sides by pallisadoes, twelve feet high, the key of the door of which was entrusted to the officer of the guard, it being the king's

intention to prevent all possibility of speech or communication with the centinels. The only motion I had the power to make was that of jumping upwards, or swinging my arms, to procure myself warmth. When more accustomed to these fetters, I was likewise capable of moving from side to side, about four feet, but this pained my shia bones.

The cell had been finished with lime and plaister but eleven days, and every body supposed it would be impossible I should exist in those damps above a fortnight. I remained six months continually immersed in water, that trickled upon me from the brick arches under which I was; and I can safely affirm, that, for the first three months I was never dry yet did I continue in health. I was visited daily at noon, after relieving guard, and the doors were then obliged to be left open for some minutes, otherwise the dampness of the air put out their cailles.

This was my situation, and here I sat, destitute of friends, helplessly wretched, preyed on by all the torture of thought, that continually suggested the most gloomy, the most dreadful images. My heart was not yet wholly turned stone, my fortitude was sunken to despondency; my dungeon was the very cave of despair; yet was my arm restrained, yet was this excess of misery endured.

How then may hope be wholly eradicated from the heart of man! My fortitude, after some time, began to revive; I glowed with the desire of convincing the world i was capable of suffering what man had never suffered before, perhaps of, at last emerging from this load of wretchedness, triumphant over my enemies.

So long, and ardently did my fancy dwell on this picture, that my mind, at length, acquired a heroism, which Socrates himself certainly never possessed.

Age had benumbed his sense of pleasure, and he drank the poisonous draught with cool indifference; I was young, inured to high hopes, yet now beholding deliverance impossible, or at a distance.

About noon my den was opened. Sorrow and compassion were painted on the countenance of my keepers. No one spoke. No one bid me good

morrow.

Dreadful indeed was their arrival, for unaccustomed to the monstrous bolts and bars, they kept resounding for a full half hour, before such soulchilling, such hope-murdering impediments were removed.

It was the voice of tyranny that thundered!

My night table was taken out, a camp-bed, matrass, and blankets, were brought me; a jug of water set down, and, beside it, an ammunition loaf of six pounds weight. "That you may no more complain of hunger," said the town major, you shall have as much bread as you can eat." The door was shut, and I again left to my thoughts." What a strange thing is that called happiness; how shall I express my extreme joy, when after eleven months of intolerable hunger, I was again indulged with a full feast of coarse ammunition bread? The fond lover never rushed more eagerly to the arms of his bride; the famished tyger more ravenously on his prey, than I upon this loaf'; I eat, rested, surveyed the precious morsel, eat again, and abso lutely shed tears of pleasure.Breaking bit a ter bit, I had, by evening, devoured all my loaf.

Oh nature, what delight hast thou combined with the gratification of thy wants! Remember this, ye who rack invention to excite appetite, and which yet you cannot procure; remember how simple are the means that will give a crust of mouldy bread a flavour more exquisite than all the spices of the east, or all the profusion of land or sea remember this, grow hungry, and indulge your sensuality.

Alas! my enjoyment was of short duration. I 500n found that excess is followed by pain and repentance. My fasting had weakened digestion, and rendered it inactive. My body swelled; my water jug was emptied, cramps, cholics, and at length inordinate thirst racked me all the night. I began to pour curses on those who seemed to refine on torture, and after starving me so long, to invite me to gluttony. Could I not have reclined on my bed, I should have been driven this night to desparation: yet even this was but a partial relief, for, not accustomed to my enormous fetters, I could not extend myself in them in the same manner I was afterwards taught to do by habit. I dragged them, however, so together as to enable me to sit down on the bare matrass. This of all my nights of sufferings stands foremost. When they opened my dungeon next day, they found me in a truly pitiable situation, wondering at my appetite, brought me another loaf-I refused to accept it, believing I never more should have occasion for bread: they, however, left me one, gave me water, shrugged up their shoulders, wished me farewell; as according to all appearance, they never expected to find me alive, and shut all the doors

without asking whether I wished or needed further assistance.

Three days had passed before I could again eat a morsel of bread: brave in health, now in a sick body, became pusillanimous, so that I determined on death. The irons every where round my body, and their weight was insupportable; nor could I imagine it was possible I should habituate myself to them, or endure them long enough to expect deliverance. Peace was a very distant prospect.The king had commanded that such a prison should be built as should exclude all necessity of a centinel, in order that I might not converse with and seduce them from their duty; and, in the first days of despair, deliverance appeared impossible; and the fetters, the war, the pain I felt, the place, the length of time, each circumstance seemed equally impossible to support. A thousand reasons convinced me it was necessary to end my sufferings. I shall not enter into theological disputes; let those who blame me imagine themselves in my situation: or rather let them first actually endure my miseries, and then let them reason. I had often braved death in prosperity, and at this moment it seemed a blessing.

Full of these meditations, every minute's patience appeared absurdity, and resolution meanness of soul, yet I wished my mind should be satisfied that reason, not rashness, had induced the act.

I therefore determined, that I might examine the question coolly, to wait a week longer, and die on the fourth of July. In the mean time I revolved in my mind what possible means there were of escape.

The next day I observed, as the four doors were