been discovered, they were sent to court, and Foucquet was closely watched and his person searched several times in the course of the day. Unable any longer to procure paper, he began to write in books, and made his private notes on his pocket handkerchiefs. It having also been discovered that he wrote on ribbons, SaintMars received orders to give him only black ones, to have his clothes lined with black, and to have a laundress detained in the citadel, for the purpose of washing his linen.

About this time another prisoner was brought to Pignerol, of whom, as he became the friend and companion of Foucquet, it is necessary we should give some account. This was Lauzun, to whom we alluded at the commencement of the article. He was on the point of being married to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, with the king's approbation, when the fickleness of the latter, or some other cause, induced him to forbid the marriage he had permitted, and Lauzun having disobeyed his orders, was first sent to the Bastille, and thence to Pignerol; and thus two men who had enjoyed the greatest possible favour at the same court, were, by a singular coincidence, and nearly at the same time, consigned to the same prison, and almost to the same dungeon. Lauzun was, unknown to either, placed in the room under that which was occupied by Foucquet, and the king wrote himself to Saint-Mars, desiring him to use all possible precautions, as his new prisoner was "capable of employing every means to regain his liberty." He was also ordered to deny him the use of pen, ink, and paper, and to inform the king by every post of the state of his prisoner.

About this time, the king for the first time allowed Foucquet to receive a letter from his wife and to answer it, provided the answer was submitted to the prince, that he might decide as to the propriety of its being delivered. Soon after the lady also received permission to write to her husband twice a year, and to receive answers, on condition that the correspondence should be sent to Louvois, the minister of state, that he might ascertain whether any mention was made of any but family affairs. To us, pity thus meanly dealt out, seems very contemptible, and almost worse than the severest cruelty; but doubtless to the poor wretch who had already been ten years immured in a dungeon, it was some comfort to hear from those he loved.

While Foucquet was receiving this consolation, his solitude was also relieved by the visit of his fellow prisoner Lauzun, who, notwithstanding the vigilance of his gaoler, contrived to make a passage from his room into that of his neighbour. But soon, concealment became unnecessary, and the king having thought proper to lessen the punishment of his prisoners, allowed them to see each other, and to take their meals and exercise together, in any part of the citadel a hint being at the same time given to Lauzun, that the soldiers who accompanied him in his walks carried firearms, that they had orders to fire upon him if he attempted to

escape, and that if he or Foucquet endeavoured to have any communication out of the citadel, they would again be as strictly confined as they formerly had been. Saint-Mars was desired, in the letter containing these directions, and which was addressed to him by Louvois, the king's minister, either to let his prisoners take their walks at different times, or if more convenient to him, that they should do so together; to be always present, in order to hear their conversation, and see that their intercourse was not of too close a nature. The time given them for walking, was two hours every day, and they were not only "to be allowed all becoming games which they might desire, either for pastime or for exercise," at which, however, Saint-Mars was to be present, but he was to allow his officers to "play with them at any of the said games which they should desire, provided they did so in his presence." How well SaintMars attended to these directions, and how faithfully he discharged his trust, may be supposed from the fact, that he received at that time, from his royal master, a present of 15,000 livres, as may be seen from the following order sent to the treasurer.

'Garde de mon trésor royal, monsieur Gedeon Dumetz, payez comptant au sieur de Saint-Mars, cappitaine de la compagnie d'infanterie, qui sert à la garde des sieurs Foucquet et Lauzun, la somme de quinze mil livres, que je luy ay accordée par gratiffication, en considération de ses services et pour luy donner moyen de me les continuer. Et rapportant par vous la présente avec quittance du dit sieur de Saint-Mars seulement, la dite somme de x6. 9 livres, sera employée au premier acquit de comptant, qui sera expédié par certiffication à vostre déscharge.

Fait à Saint-Germain en Laye, le 30 janvier 1679. Comptant au trésor-royal.

Bon.

LOUIS.'-p. 285.

But what must have been more pleasing to Foucquet than these indulgencies, was the information he received shortly after, that his son was bearer of a letter, in which the king allowed his family to visit him. They soon availed themselves of it, and towards the end of May, 1679, Foucquet again beheld his wife, his son, and his brother, whom he had not seen for nineteen years. Lauzun was likewise allowed to receive his family, and the king at the same time, permitted him to have in the fortress "quatre jeunes chevaux pour les monter dans la cour et sur le bastion du il avait contume de se promener."

Soon after this, a rupture took place between the two friends, on account, it is supposed, of Mademoiselle Foucquet having come to reside near her father. Louvois, who foresaw that this misunderstanding might be turned to advantage, by enabling him to learn from one of his prisoners the projects of the other, gave SaintMars strong injunctions, in a letter, dated November 28th, 1679, not to attempt a reconciliation between them. The precaution was, however, unnecessary; for poor Foucquet died, March 23, 1680,

after having remained more than seventeen years in confinement. Lauzun was liberated in the following year, and we now return to Pellisson, the first of this unhappy trio, whom we introduced to our readers.

Deprived of books, ink, and paper, Pellisson had for his only companion a stupid servant, who could offer his master no other means of amusement than the bagpipe on which he played. Soon, however, the prisoner made use of this instrument to procure himself another companion. He perceived in his dungeon a spider, and by feeding it to the sound of his servant's instrument, succeeded, after some months' perseverance in teaching it to leave its hole when it heard the instrument, to come and feed on the knees of its master. Of the pleasure thus afforded him, Pellisson was soon deprived. Bezemaux, the governor of the Bastille, entered one day his dungeon, and with a sarcastic smile, asked him how he spent his time. Pellisson tranquilly told him he had found himself a friend in his captivity; and giving the usual signal, the spider came to feed in his hand. The governor no sooner saw it, than he threw it on the ground and crushed it with his foot. Would not the darkest dungeon in his own Bastille, have been too good a place for such a wretch!

Every means having been tried, but in vain, to obtain or force from Pellisson, the secrets with which it was well known his master had intrusted him, all his friends, among whom were some of the most distinguished characters in France, used every possible effort to obtain his liberty, and his aged mother having represented to the king, that her unhappy son was every day losing his strength and his sight, for want of air and exercise, he was, at first, allowed to walk on the terrace of the castle, and was finally liberated in 1664, after more than three years' imprisonment.

And here we close our account of the captivity and sufferings of these three individuals, a narrative which we would not have carried to such a length, did we not feel assured that our readers would be as interested in it as ourselves. Upon the horrible nature of the system which warranted such proceedings, we need not offer any comment. True it is, that one of these men had offended, and that the two others might have rendered themselves obnoxious to the ruler of their country; yet can any offence, real or imaginary, warrant the cruelty of immuring within the walls of a dungeon, three fellow creatures; two for years, and one for life? But what must have still more embittered their fate, was the precaution taken to prevent their receiving any intelligence of what passed outside the walls of their dungeon: surely life, under such circumstances, was worse than death; and if we reflect, that this arbitrary power was placed in the hands of the most arbitrary of men, whose will was a law, and who were amenable to no one for the injustice they might commit, and the pain they chose to inflict, we cannot help repeating what we said at the

commencement of this article,-that great as were the evils which the French revolution inflicted, it has produced advantages equally great, by abolishing the greatest abuses; and so effectually has it done this, that Centuries must pass before any monarch, however despotic, shall attempt to build another Bastille, or issue another Lettre de Cachet.

ART. IV.-History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the year, A. D. 1612. Translated from the Original Persian of Mahomed Kasim Ferishta. By John Briggs, M. R. A. S. LieutenantColonel of the Madras Army. 8vo. London: Longman and Co. 1829. THE Arabian chapter is beyond all question one of the most remarkable in the book of History. The elevation of the standard of the prophet, was a signal which set the whole world in motion. To rise up among the statues and temples of Greece, like the green ivy that at length hides the ruin-to grasp the entire continent of Africa, from the edges of its four seas-to penetrate into the populous depths of Europe, by its Mediterranean avenue, and look frowning on the busy scene from the towers of the Alhambra-to spread, like a shadow, over the vast countries of India, and darken even idolatry with a more horrid gloom-all was but the work of a few centuries to the wild followers of Mohamed. In that middle station in the progress of society, when the virtues of civilization have not been attained, and those of barbarism are lost, the invaders were everywhere unwelcome guests. To the timid negro they were terrestrial gods, whose inflictions were the more painful that the sufferer dared not writhe; by the chivalrous European they were held, on account of their faith, in religious horror; and to the idolatrous but tolerant Indian, they were the objects-and well they earned the sentiment of unextinguishable hate. A national taint seems to have framed their character in each of the three continents. Cruelty and rapacity, the common vices of barbarians, having received the sanction of divine law, were in them unappeasable and insatiable. To convert and to slay, were duties equally agreeable; for these were the alternatives offered by their faith. Conquest, whether achieved by treachery or the sword, was alike honourable; for their enemies were the enemies of heaven. Their learning was sufficient, for it enabled them to read the law of blood in the Koran; in politeness they had made considerable advances, and they could lie with facility; while in religion they were so devout as never to murder or steal, but in the name of God and their prophet.

Although the Persians, Toorks, Afgans, French, Dutch, and English, have all played their parts in the grand theatre of India, the Arabs first raised the curtain for that succession of tragedies which has ever since deluged the stage with blood. From the first

attempts of that people by the way of Persia, a complete history of India to the present time, would fill a library; but that part of the period preceding the collision of the Christian with the Mahomedan powers, including a space of considerably more than five hundred years, has hitherto been almost a blank. The bitter reproach which the veteran Anguetil Dusserron threw out against the English was, in fact, not undeserved-nor up to the present time has it been altogether wiped away. Always fables, episodes, scraps!" cried the indignant enthusiast, " or a book or two translated without commentary, such as Williams and Jones have done for India, and Hyde for Persia-it is to keep Europe in infancyto possess the treasure of science, and keep the door shut." Dusserron alluded more particularly to our deficiency in Sanscrit literature; but it is much more surprising that the only good history existing of the Mahomedan power in India, should have been suffered till now to remain locked up from the European reader, in Persian manuscripts.

Colonel Dow's partial translation of Ferishta, was so injudiciously interpolated with his own observations, that Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke could not believe the history to be genuine; and Dr. Lertt's translation, although said to be correct so far as it went, included only a small portion of the work. Under these circumstances, the arduous attempt of Colonel Briggs, the author before us, was in the highest degree praiseworthy; and his successful execution of the task, insures to him the gratitude of every lover of history. His work is the very beau ideal of translation from the Oriental languages. We are neither startled in every line by that strangeness of expression which calls the attention of the reader from the events related to the book which relates them, nor is any uncomfortable feeling of doubt insinuated into our minds, by the accustomed smoothness of European phraseology. A happy medium is preserved throughout; and we are reminded that the author was an Oriental of the 16th century, only by tokens sufficient to insure our assent to the genuineness of the work. It is to accident that we are indebted for this complete translation of Ferishta, for it was Colonel Briggs's intention to have published an original history, making use of the labours of the Persian merely as part of his materials. The event which rendered his plans abortive, and destroyed at a blow the hopes of many years, is related in the preface, in the following simple and manly language.

'The war which broke out in India in 1817, rendered it necessary for me to accompany the army that marched to Malwa. I left my library and manuscripts at Poona, with the exception of the translation of Ferishta, which had been sent to Mr. Wm. Erskine at Bombay. On the 5th of November, 1817, the Peshwa attacked the Poona residency, driving before his troops the members of the resident's establishment, among whom were several English ladies and their children; and after sacking the place, the troops set fire to the houses, and burned them with their