Ten Years Later: The Man in The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 18 Page 19

accordingly, when the prisoner has gone mad, and might bite and make a terrible disturbance in the Bastile; why, in such a case, it is not simply an act of mere charity to wish him dead; it would be almost a good and even commendable action, quietly to have him put out of his misery.”

And the good-natured governor thereupon sat down to his late breakfast.