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meet here with some thing more agrecable, and more grievous than the dungeon; but we must submit to all."

It is said, this mysterious passage was thus explained by Mr. de Moivre, the learned mathematician. He says, that he always found him in this confinement, with a chain about his neck, in a place and company the most horrid; YET with a cheerful glee and smile upon his countenance; such as indicated more than a bare serenity of mind, even a joy in his heart; so that his mysterious words must intimate, there was that which was agreeable to his inward and spiritual mind, as the discordant sounds of oaths and execrations from his wretched company, was much more grievous to his sanctified ears, than the very dungeon itself. This shews, what ineffable supports from the Spirit of God, holy souls meet in their extremest sufferings.

His wife, under the greatest affliction that can be imagined, visited him as often as she could, and put her hands through the grate to wash the wounds the chain had made upon him, with water in which musket balls had been steeped. She heard one day, that the clergy had spread a report in Paris, that he was BESIDES himself. This infamous fraud was contrived, to allay the wonder and admiration which the constancy of our famous martyr had raised in that great city. As soon as he was informed of it, he proposed a problem to the learn

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ed to the end, that they might exercise them selves in the solution of that problem, and thereby judge of the situation of his mind, and of the nature of the calumny which had been forged against him.

It appears, that our martyr being always free in his chains, always of an even temper, and like himself, he answered the mathematical questions that were proposed to him, just as if he had been at ease in his closet. The question which he proposed to refute the report of his being insane, is said to be this: "To find out four numbers, whose number may be equal to a number given, and such, that the difference of any two of them whatsoever, may be a square number." Those who know what application of mind this science requires, will be able to judge of the strength of our martyr's mind; but he had taken the good course, and thrown himself into the arms of the divine providence, and peaceably submitted to the will of God.

At length the chain departed from Paris, on Saturday, the twentieth of July. Mr. Marolles had then a fever. He dreaded his sorrowful separation from his wife; but she, being cast down, and sick, could not be present at his mournful departure. They had not above the breadth of a quay to cross, to enter into the boat in waiting for them. The Galerians go two by two, carrying a long chain, which passes through their particular chains in rings; our martyr was permitted

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by favor, to be the last in the rank. In the few steps which he had to take, he met his children, who cast themselves upon his neck, and embraced him. It is difficult to represent this sorrowful adieu, without grief and emotion. One may easily imagine, that this famous Galerian, who, some months since, made so much noise at Paris, drew a great concourse of people about him. Every one seemed touched with his misery, and an ancient Roman catholic merchant, breaking through the throng, came and embraced, and encouraged him; offering him his purse. This man hath since given glory to God, and retired with his family to London, there to make a profession of the truth.

Mr. Marolles wrote a letter from Dijon, to his sister in Paris, ten days after his departure from la Tournelle, in which he says, "Our treatment is extremely prejudicial to me. I dissembled my condition as much as possible, at my departure. I had the fever on Thursday, the eighteenth of July, which continued on the Friday, and was more violent on the Saturday. I set out therefore, in this condition, after having resigned myself to the will of God; and I have not yet wholly got rid of this fever, which has been continual, without intermission. I may tell you, my dear sister, that it brought me even to death's door; but God, in his infinite goodness, has raised me up again; and I am now past danger. Our captain had compassion on me, and the second day, he had

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me loosed from the chain, and kept me always in his chamber, or in the boat with him. I must confess, that in this voyage, I perceived, in good earnest, that I suffered. But notwithstanding this, my dear sister, bless God with me, that he was pleased to grant me such a speedy deliverance. I perceived my strength sensibly to return, and I hope, before. I arrive at Marseilles, I shall be perfectly well recovered."

In a letter he wrote from Marseilles, dated the twenty-fifth of August, he says, "As I left Paris sick of a fever, it has accompanied me to this place. I have undergone incredible fatigue, and I have been twice at the point of death; in which condition I lay upon planks, without any straw under me, and my hat for a pillow. When we left the water, it was much worse with us. We were forced to be jumbled fourteen hours a day in a waggon, (for all those roads are very rough and stony,) and were afterwards thrust into dungeons. Thus, my dear and true friend, God having proved me, and furnished me with necessary assistance, he has, at length, brought me hither, pretty free from the fever; but very weak. It is a pityful sight to see my leanness: and, what is terrible, for want of examining into my condition, they sent me away to the galley. I was conducted by two of our guards, who supported me to the vessel, and I was no sooner come thither, but I was chained as the other galley slaves were. But several officers coming to see our chain, had com

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passion on me; especially Mr. P. from whom I received infinite favors. He spake to the major who sent a surgeon to see me, upon whose report, I was let loose, and sent to the hospital, where I now am. It is a fine place, admirably well ordered. I live almost wholly at my own charges. We are well served in it; and, in short, I am very well satisfied. I begin to eat and to recover my strength by degrees; and, with God's assistance, there are hopes of my perfect recovery in a short time. I know not if it has pleased God to hear the ardent prayers which I have put up to him, for the success of the journey to Versailles, and I wait, with extreme impatience, to hear about it." By this journey to Versailles, he meant his family's departure out of the kingdom; an affair that gave him great uneasiness. "I am," says he, in a subsequent letter, "in daily concern for my poor family. May it please God to put a speedy end to that uneasiness."

He was about three weeks in the galley-slaves hospital; and wrote a letter to his wife, on the fifteenth of September, in which he says, "The miserable voyage, which I have made, has taught me what it is to suffer. It is there, I began to feel my sufferings. Let us comfort ourselves, my dear child, therefore, since they are past and gone, and that I am now in a place of rest. I live very contentedly, in the company of Mr. le Fevre, who is a famous martyr, and was an advocate at Chatel Chinon, in Nivernois. We are always together;

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