This personage, we may mention, was afterwards raised to the dignified office of keeper of the seals, as a reward for his industry and skill in providing victims for the royal seraglio at Versailles.[82] The man who had ventured to use his mind, was thrown into the dungeon at Vincennes by the man who played spy and pander for the Pompadour.

The official record of a dialogue between Berryer and Denis Diderot, "of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion," is a singular piece of reading, if we remember that the prisoner's answers were made, "after oath taken by the respondent to speak and answer the truth." "Interrogated if he has not composed a work entitled _Letters on the Blind_.
"Answered no.
"Interrogated by whom he had caused said work to be printed.
"Answered that he had not caused the said work to be printed.
"Interrogated if he knows the name of the author of the said work.
"Answered that he knows nothing about it.
"Interrogated whether he has not had said work in manuscript in his possession before it was printed.
"Answered that he had not had the said manuscript in his possession before or after it was printed.
"Interrogated whether he has not composed a work which appeared some years ago, entitled _Philosophic Thoughts_.
"Answered no." And so, after a dozen more replies of equal veracity, on reading being made to the respondent of the present interrogatory, Diderot "said that the answers contain the truth, persisted in them, and signed," as witness his hand.

A sorrowful picture, indeed, of the plight of an apostle of a new doctrine.

On the other hand, the apostle of the new doctrine was perhaps good enough for the preachers of the old.

Two years before this, the priest of the church of Saint Medard had thought it worth while to turn spy and informer.