MIRABEAU.

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— the visits of some of the superiors, who became hisfriends—such were the licences permitted him ; but wefind him complaining that hewas forbidden to sing in hiscell, and detailing the frightful physical sufferings, towhich he was the victim through confinement. A Stateprisoner would have been treated with yet greater rigour;and the sense of this, and the knowledge that otherswhose crimes were often their virtues, were his fellow-sufferers, lighted up a horror of despotism in his heart,which made him ever after its determined and bitterenemy.

With all his energy and fortitude, Miraheau bore upwith difficulty under the hardships of his dungeon :at one time, he resolved on suicide, and was saved onlyby the remonstrances of M. le Noir, whose kindness tohis prisoner was zealous and unalterable. Consentingto live, he found study his sole resource, and he dedi-cated himself with ardour, and to the injury of hishealth, to his pen. His works during his imprisonmentwere numerous. He translated the “ Kisses” of JohannesSecundus , with abundant notes, containing extracts fromall the erotic poets of antiquity. He wrote a treatise onmythology; an essay on the French language; an-other on ancient and modern literature ; works under-taken for the instruction and amusement of madame deMonnier. His “ Essay on Lettres-de-cachet and StatePrisons” belongs also to this period.

His father, meanwhile, felt no compunction, nodoubt as to the justice of his conduct; no pitysoftened his heart, nor did he by any notice of his sonanswer his many supplications. He declared that,having searched and purified his heart each day beforeGod , he is only the more determined to persist; andthe resolution in which he was to persist was that ofsuffering his son to languish and perish in his dungeon.

A circumstance happened, however, to change this ® ct-resolve. His grandson, the only son of Gabriel-Honore,died. The mother resided with her child at her^j^father’s chateau. She was surrounded by relations, 29.