but, he had oppressed no man, he had imprisoned no man; he was so far from having harshly exacted payment of his dues, that he had relinquished them of his own will, thrown himself on a world with no favour in it, won his own private place there, and earned his own bread. monsieur gabelle had held the impoverished and involved estate on written instructions, to spare the people, to give them what little there was to give such fuel as the heavy creditors would let them have in the winter, and such produce as could be saved from the same grip in the summer and no doubt he had put the fact in plea and proof, for his own safety, so that it could not but appear now.