'Ah, I forgot,' he said.

'Give me the map of the third floor.' I gave it to him, and he spread it upon the table.

'Here, Gesius,' he said, 'see this cell.' He laid his finger on the one numbered V.'There are three men confined in that cell, desperate characters, who by some means got hold of a state secret, and suffer for their curiosity, which'-- he looked at me severely--'in such matters is worse than a crime.

Accordingly, they are blind and tongueless, and are placed there for life.

They shall have nothing but food and drink, to be given them through a hole, which you will find in the wall covered by a slide.