Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/401

 The Eve of the French Revolution 363 While it was desired that their cells should be absolutely dark, it was necessary to admit enough air to sustain life. Accord- ingly hollow pillars were constructed which established some connection with the outer air without letting in any light. The victims that are cast into these damp cells, which necessarily become foul after a few days, are fastened to the wall by a heavy chain and are supplied with nothing but a little straw, and bread and water. Your Majesty will find it difficult to believe that a man simply suspected of smuggling should be kept in such a place of horror for more than a month. According to the testimony of Monnerat himself, and the deposition of a witness, it appears that after emerging from his subterranean cell, which he calls "the black dungeon," he was kept for a long time in another less dark. This pre- caution was taken for the welfare of the prisoner, since expe- rience has shown — perhaps at the cost of a number of lives — that it is dangerous to pass too suddenly from the black dungeon to the open air and the light of day. Monnerat, upon being released from prison, brought suit for damages against the farmers general. Up to that point the question was one of an individual. But the arrest was illegal in form and the imprisonment a real injustice. If this man was a smuggler, he should have been punished accord- ing to the laws, which are very severe in this matter. But when your Majesty grants an order for the imprisonment of one suspected of smuggling, it is not your intention to have the suspected person kept in confinement for nearly two years waiting for proofs of his guilt. Now Monnerat has always maintained, both during and since his imprisonment, that he was not even the person for whom the order was obtained. . . . According to the prevailing system, whenever the farmer of the revenue has no proof of smuggling except such as the courts would regard as suspicious and insufficient, he resorts to your Majesty's orders, called lettres de cachet, in order to punish the offense. . . . [By means of these arbitrary orders the most sacred rights (Condensed.) are violated, and the victim has no means of learning who is