THE

LIFE

OF

HENRI MASERS DE LATUDE.

THE sufferings of M. Latude, during thirty-five years of imprisonment in various places, and the address and courage, with which he three times escaped from the hands of his Persecutors, will render a short account of him very interesting; the following is extracted from a History, written by himself, and published in 1793, now very scarce, in Paris.

M. Latude was born in 1725, at the chateau of his father, the Marquis de Latude, in Languedoc. A taste for mathematical pursuits distinguished him very early, and his parents encouraged it by sending him to Bergen-op-Zoom, and placing him under the care of M. Dumai, Engineer in Chief. The peace of 1748 stopped his expected promotion, and he was sent to Paris, at the age of twentythree, to follow his mathematical studies, and finish his education.

Full of ambition and high spirits, he sighed for distinction, but he had no interest to push him forward; at length he endeavoured to gain himself a protector by the following wild scheme.

Madame de Pompadour was the reigning favorite, and so absolutely governed Louis the Fifteenth and his Court, that she could make, or unmake, the fortune of any man by a word-but she was proud, cruel, and consequently detested. Latude thought he might avail himself of this public indignation, of which she was well informed, pretend a plot against her life, and secure her favor by making the discovery; he therefore sent by the post a small box of common powder, perfectly harmless, then waited on the Lady, and informed her that such a thing was coming to her, and made up a very alarming story of a conspiracy tó poison her. The Marquise expressed the most lively gratitude, and offered him a purse of gold, which he declined, at the same time dropping a hint that he was unprovided for; and intimating, in the most delicate manner he could, that her patronage was the object of his ambition. It was, probably, some suspicion occasioned by his conduct, which induced her to desire him to write down his address. did it, and the writing betrayed him. The next day, his dreams of approaching greatness were destroyed, by the arrival of a guard to convey him to the Bastille. He was there stripped of all he had, dressed in coarse clothing, which had served several of his wretched predecessors, and shut up in a room, to meditate on his change of for

tune.

He

The next morning, the Lieutenant of the Police came to examine him. Latude candidly confessed the folly he had committed, and so gained upon the good opinion of the Lieutenant, that he promised he would exert his influence with Madame Pompadour to procure his pardon. The application was unsuccessful; and all the advantages he derived from the zeal of his new friend, was the use of some books, and the privilege of taking occasional exercise

in the air. A still farther comfort was the society of another prisoner, a Jew, who was put into the same room.

These comforts, probably, reached the ear, and gave offence to the inexorable soul of Madame Pompadcur. In four months time, Latude was removed to the prison of Vincennes. The discipline of this place was very strict, a guard was constantly in the room, to watch every movement, and report every word spoken by the Prisoner. The uneasiness of his mind occasioned an illness, from which he suffered considerably, and found his best remedy in ruminating on the means of making his escape. He effected it about fourteen months after his first apprehension in this manner. He had liberty to walk in the garden two hours every day, accompanied by two turnkeys. Some times the oldest waited for him at the foot of the stairs, while the other came alone to open the room door. At such times he would always hasten down stairs to rejoin the other; and the younger turnkey, accustomed to find him always safe below, never hastened his pace to follow him. One day, the moment the door was opened, he darted down the staircase, fastened a door at the foot, and proceeded to an outward door, guarded by a centinel; he knocked, the centinel opened it, he inquired if the Confessor was arrived, for that he was wanted instantly; and walked on, as if to fetch him; he deceived a second, a third, and a fourth centinel, in the same manner, and found himself once more free.

He hastened to Paris; but the dread of being retaken, destroyed all the enjoyment of liberty, and he thought, by throwing himself on Madame Pompadour's mercy and generosity, he might obtain her forgiveness. He drew up a memorial to the King, and pointed out at the close of it the place of his retreat, He was immediately arrested, and sent again to the Bastille.

His confinement was now more severe; he was put into a dungeon, where the light could scarcely find admittance. His kind friend, the Lieutenant of the Police, did what he could to relieve his sufferings, by ordering him good diet, and the use of books, paper, and ink. On the margin of one of these books, Latude had the imprudence to write some satirical lines on his powerful enemy. They were carried to her, and her enmity became inveterate. In answer to an application made in his favor, she showed these verses: See what a wretch you plead for; never mention him to me more!" He remained eighteen months in this dungeon, when his friend, the Lieutenant, procured his removal into a chamber, and offered him the accommodation of a servant.-A man was induced, by the offer of high wages, to leave his wife and children, and enter the Bastille but having done this, the regulations forbid his ever going out, or holding any correspondence without the walls, unless his master obtained his liberty. The poor fellow, who had thus engaged himself to Latude, could not long support his situation; he pined so much after his liberty, that it brought on a fit of illness, and he died in the Bastille. This was a severe affliction, but it was alleviated by the kindness of the same friend, to whom he had already been so much indebted, and another companion supplied the place of the one he had lost. D'Alègre had already been a prisoner three years; and his sufferings proceeded from his having written a letter of advice and caution to Madame Pompadour. He had, equally with Latude, experienced the kindness of the compassionate Lieutenant, who continued to exert himself to the utmost to procure their release. He one day put an end to their hopes, by saying that Madame Pompadour had sworn that her hatred should be eternal, and had ordered him never again to mention their names. D'Alègre gave himself up to despair; Latude

formed the extraordinary design of escaping; a design which, probably, no prisoner had ever entertained, and which certainly no one had ever carried into effect. To find a way through the doors, and to pass the numerous centinels, was an absolute impossibility. To most minds it would have appeared equally so to mount a chimney, which was full of grates and bars of iron, to descend from a tower, near two hundred feet high, and to pass a fosse, guarded by a high wall, yet this was performed by Latude and his companion, in the following manner.

Latude first discovered, in an ingenious manner, that there was a space of four or five feet between the floor of his apartment and the cieling of that below him, and he made use of that to conceal his tools and materials, which must otherwise have betrayed them to their watchful guardians 'ugor odteid sach

Their table was held together by two bolts of iron: these bolts they sharpened upon the pavement; of the steel from a tinder-box they made a small knife, and cut two handles for them. These instruments were intended to work out the bars of iron in the chimney.

Their first operation was to find a good access to their depôt, which was, accomplished in the course of one night, and answered fully to their wishes; but they could only work in the night, after all the visits of the day were over. They then unravelled two shirts, formed the threads into twine, and twisted those again into a cord sufficiently strong to bear the weight of a man, With this they made a rope ladder, twenty feet in length, to support themselves, in the chimney, while they unfastened the bars and spikes with which it was secured. The labor of doing this was very severe, on account of the hardness of the cement, and the painfulness of the posture in which, they were obliged to work, but they finished it in six months. They then em