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common to all, covered but not closed by a wooden lid. At noon they
brought them soup, a sort of warm and stinking water, David told me. They
stood leaning against the wall, and trampled upon the mattresses which
had been thrown on the floor, not having room to lie down on them. At
length, however, they pressed so closely to each other, that they
succeeded in lying down at full length. Their jailers had thrown them
some blankets. Some of them slept. At day break the bolts creaked, the
door was half-opened and the jailers cried out to them, "Get up!" They
went into the adjoining corridor, the jailer took up the mattresses,
threw a few buckets of water on the floor, wiped it up anyhow, replaced
the mattresses on the damp stones, and said to them, "Go back again."
They locked them up until the next morning. From time to time they
brought in 100 new prisoners, and they fetched away 100 old ones (those
who had been there for two or three days). What became of them?--At night
the prisoners could hear from their dungeon the sound of explosions, and
in the morning passers-by could see, as we have stated, pools of blood in
the courtyard of the Prefecture.
The calling over of those who went out was conducted in alphabetical
order.
One day they called David d'Angers. David took up his packet, and was
getting ready to leave, when the governor of the jail, who seemed to be
keeping watch over him, suddenly came up and said quickly, "Stay, M.
David, stay."
One morning he saw Buchez, the ex-President of the Constituent Assembly,
coming into his cell "Ah!" said David, "good! you have come to visit the
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