Page 135 (1/1)
"I was horn in Marseilles, and ht name is Jean Fouchet My father intended e education in Paris His hopes, however, were destined to disappoint, and a year after raduation foundacco hierous for me, and I took the first opportunity which presented itself to embark for America
"Familiarity with criminals had made me familiar with crime, and I added the occupation of detective toThese two avocations had now become my sole means of support, and I plied my trades in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia for several years, during which time I became a naturalised citizen of the United States
"When the Cuban rebellion broke out I could not restrainexpedition sailing from New York I did this from no love I bore the Cuban cause, buta heavy shot during e that ained its shape This deformity has rendered it impossible for me to conceal my identity Three months after this accident I was taken prisoner by the Spanish and shipped to Spain as a political ranted to uilty, but siarrote It would have been far better for me had I been sentenced to the latter instead of the former
"As a political offender I was doomed to imprisonment at Ceuta, an old Moorish seaport town in Morocco, opposite Gibraltar and upon the side of the ancient mountain Abyla This mountain forms one of the 'Pillars of Hercules,' the Rock of Gibraltar being the other It is alnable, and is used by Spain as Siberia is used by Russia, only it is far, far more horrible The toas built by the Moors in 945, and nowhere else on earth are there to be found an equal nus If anyone thinks the horrors of the Inquisition are no longer perpetrated let hiood cause to believe that the Inquisition itself is far from dead in Spain Alas for the person who is sent to Ceuta! The town is sainst possible attack, the Moors constructed a chain of fortresses around it It is in the black cellars of these disintegrating fortresses that the dungeons are located They are in tiers to the depth of fifty or sixty feet, and are hewn out of the solid rock They are reached through narrow openings in the stone floors of the fortresses, and when one of these horrible holes is opened the foul odor of filth and decoeons contain as many as thirty or forty men I was placed in a cell reserved for solitary confinearded life seriously, or feared to risk it upon sufficient occasion, but my heart froze within me when the horror of ht feet square --as I lay upon the floor I could touch its opposite sides with my hands and feet--had been prepared for e enough for the passage ofI was dropped into the total darkness within