![Legal Filename Characters 593
DOS Reserved Names 594
?, * 1.0 and later—Internal 594
Using the ? Wildcard Character in a
Filename or Extension 595
Using the * Wildcard Character in a
Filename or Extension 595
Examples 595
See Also 595
> and >> 2.0 and later—Internal 596
See Also 596
< 2.0 and later—Internal 596
See Also 597
| 2.0 and later—Internal 597
See Also 598
:label 1.0 and later—Internal 598
Syntax 598
Notes 598
Examples 598
Messages 598
See Also 599
%n 1.0 and later—Internal 599
Syntax 599
Notes 599
Examples 600
See Also 600
%envir% 4.0 and later—Internal 600
Syntax 600
Notes 600
Examples 601
See Also 602
@ 4.0 and later—Internal 602
Syntax 602
Notes 603
See Also 603
; 6.0 and later—Internal 603
Syntax 603
Notes 603
Examples 604
See Also 604
? 6.0 and later—Internal 604
Syntax 604
Parameters and Switches 604
Notes 604
Examples 605
Messages 605
See Also 605
[blockname] 6.0 and later—
Internal 606
Syntax 606
Notes 606
Examples 607
See Also 608
ANSI.SYS (device driver) 2.0 and later—
External 608
Syntax 608
Parameters and Switches 609
Notes 609
Examples 610
See Also 610
APPEND 3.3 and later—External 610
Syntax 610
Parameters and Switches 611
Notes 611
Examples 612
Messages 612
See Also 613
ASSIGN 2.0 to 5.0—External 613
Using SUBST Instead of
ASSIGN 613
See Also 613
ATTRIB 3.0 and later—External 613
Syntax 614
Parameters and Switches 614
Notes 614
Examples 615
Messages 615
See Also 615
BACKUP 2.0 to 5.0—External 616
See Also 616
Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition
xii](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2053934-250602012310-cfbb88e0/85/Special-Edition-Using-Msdos-622-3rd-Ed-Jim-Cooper-16-320.jpg)
![Meanwhile Madame Antoine d’Aubray, widow of the last civil
lieutenant and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going
on—that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had
suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Châtelet on
September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for damages
against La Chaussée and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had just fled to
England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All suspicions were at
once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard before the Châtelet
ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing the defendant to the
preliminary torture, manentibus indiciis. If the wretched man gave proof of
endurance under torture, it would be the salvation both of himself and of the
marchioness. Madame d’Aubray made a passionate intervention. She
appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring to prove, in a fresh affidavit,
that the charges had been fully sustained, and that it was not permissible to
have recourse to a preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch
the criminals from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.
[5] In spite of a skilful defence, La Chaussée was condemned to death on
March 24, 1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning,
and condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the
‘question ordinary and extraordinary,’ and that Madame de Brinvilliers was
to be beheaded for contempt of court.
When submitted to torture, La Chaussée displayed uncommon courage
and denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot.
The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were
driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in
succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the
machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and
refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée
voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy’s
tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. ‘What
accuser,’ says La Reynie, ‘would have been listened to for a moment if God
had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges could not
condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on
conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the heart
of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute silence,
confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?’ La Chaussée was
broken on the wheel the same day.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2053934-250602012310-cfbb88e0/85/Special-Edition-Using-Msdos-622-3rd-Ed-Jim-Cooper-56-320.jpg)
![to the purpose if you did not show yourself too much, but your friends must
know where you are, for the counsellor severely examined me about you at
Mézières.’
There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the ‘Bernardins
widow,’ that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des
Bernardins.
Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct
in regard to Pennautier. ‘I do not know at all,’ she said on the night before
her death, ‘that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication with
Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without
betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the
box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their
friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in this
suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, running no
risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing thus: if there
was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, Monsieur
Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, considering the step I
am taking, and that will induce him to exert himself on my behalf as much
as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; and if he is innocent, my letter is
waste labour. I risk nothing but the indignation of a person who would be
careful not to stand up for me, nor to render me any service if I had written
him nothing.’
The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier to
such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky
functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room that
Ravaillac[6] had occupied.
Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier’s
predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to arouse
public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having poisoned her
husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an office of
considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits drawn up
by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging documents
were in everybody’s hands.
The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in the
opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who diligently](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2053934-250602012310-cfbb88e0/85/Special-Edition-Using-Msdos-622-3rd-Ed-Jim-Cooper-61-320.jpg)
Special Edition Using Msdos 622 3rd Ed Jim Cooper
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- 5. Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 I DOS Fundamentals 1 DOS and the Personal Computer 11 2 Starting DOS 23 3 Using DOS Commands 41 4 Using the DOS Shell 57 II Files and Directories 5 Understanding Files and Directories 99 6 Understanding Disks and Disk Drives 127 7 Preparing and Maintaining Disks 149 8 Managing Your Files 191 9 Protecting and Recovering Your Data 231 III Controlling DOS 10 Working with System Information 275 11 Controlling Your Environment 293 12 Using Peripherals 307 13 Controlling Devices 317 14 Understanding the International Features of DOS 339 IV Maximizing DOS 15 Using the DOS Editor 361 16 Understanding Batch Files 389 17 Understanding ANSI.SYS 415 18 Mastering DOSKEY and Macros 431 19 Configuring Your Computer 441 20 Networking DOS 471 21 Connecting to the Internet 483 22 Third-Party Utilities 493 V Appendixes A Files Supplied with MS-DOS 6.22 503 B DOS Environment Variables 519 C DOS Messages 529 D DOS and DOS Utility Programs’ Keyboard Commands 563 E ASCII and Extended ASCII Codes 573 F Command Reference 583 G Glossary 959 Index 965 Using MS-DOS Jim Cooper Contributors to previous editions: Allen L Wyatt, Sr. Bruce Hallberg Ed Tiley Jon Paisley 6.22 Third Edition 201 W. 103rd Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46290
- 6. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition Copyright 2002 by Que All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be repro- duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the pub- lisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for dam- ages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. International Standard Book Number: 0-7897-2573-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001087888 Printed in the United States of America First Printing: May 2001 04 03 02 01 4 3 2 1 Trademarks All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capi- talized. Que cannot attest to the accuracy of this informa- tion. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Warning and Disclaimer Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an “as is” basis. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information con- tained in this book. Associate Publisher Dean Miller Acquisitions Editor Michelle Newcomb Development Editor Maureen McDaniel Managing Editor Thomas F. Hayes Project Editor Heather McNeill Copy Editor Chuck Hutchinson Indexer Chris Barrick Proofreader Maribeth Echard Technical Editor James A. Glocke Team Coordinator Cindy Teeters Interior Designer Ruth Harvey Cover Designers Dan Armstrong Ruth Harvey Page Layout Heather Hiatt Miller Stacey Richwine-DeRome
- 7. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Who Should Read This Book? 2 What Hardware Do You Need? 2 What Versions Are Covered? 2 What Is Not Covered? 3 How Is This Book Organized? 3 Part I: DOS Fundamentals 3 Part II: Files and Directories 4 Part III: Controlling DOS 5 Part IV: Maximizing DOS 5 Appendixes 6 Conventions Used in This Book 7 I DOS Fundamentals 1 DOS and the Personal Computer 11 DOS, Windows, and the PC 12 Other Flavors of DOS 12 PC Hardware 12 The PC Architecture 13 Computer Memory 13 Peripheral Devices 14 What Happens When the Power Is Turned On? 15 DOS and Random Access Memory 17 Conventional Memory 18 Expanded Memory 19 Extended Memory 20 DOS and Disks 20 2 Starting DOS 23 Booting Your Computer 24 Understanding the Boot Disk 24 Creating a Floppy Boot Disk 25 System Configuration 26 CONFIG.SYS 27 AUTOEXEC.BAT 30 Creating Multiple Configurations 32 Creating a Default Configuration 34 Displaying Color Menus 34 Using the Configuration Menu As a System Menu 36 Project: Controlling the Boot Process 38 3 Using DOS Commands 41 Understanding DOS Commands 42 Internal Versus External 42 Understanding the Elements of a DOS Command 42 The Command Syntax 43 The Command-Line Parameters 45 The Optional Switches 45 Getting Help 46 Using the Command-Line Help Switch 46 Using the Online Help System 47 Issuing DOS Commands 51 Editing and Canceling Commands 52 Using Scroll Control 54 Using Wildcards in DOS Commands 54 Troubleshooting 55 4 Using the DOS Shell 57 What Is the DOS Shell? 58 Starting the DOS Shell 59 Using the Shell Interface 60 Selecting an Area 62 Moving Around an Area 63
- 8. Using the DOS Shell Menus 64 Using the Menu Bar 64 Using Pull-Down Menus 64 Using Keystroke Commands 66 Using Dialog Boxes 67 Modifying the View 70 Using the Shell Screen Modes 75 Using the Program List 77 Working with Program Groups 78 Working with Program Items 81 Working with Directories 83 Expanding and Collapsing Branches 84 Creating Directories 86 Working with Files 87 Selecting a Single File 87 Selecting Multiple Files 87 Selecting All Files 89 Deselecting All Files 89 Selecting Files Across Directories 89 Copying Files in the Shell 89 Moving a File in the Shell 91 Using the Shell to View a File 91 Associating Files with Programs 92 Using the Task Swapper 93 Project: Using the Help System 94 II Files and Directories 5 Understanding Files and Directories 99 Introducing the DOS File System 100 Understanding Files 100 Understanding Filenames 101 Observing File-Naming Conventions 104 Understanding File Attributes 107 Understanding the Role of Directories 110 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition iv Expanding the File System Through Subdirectories 113 Understanding Pathname Expressions 115 Creating Directories with MKDIR (MD) 117 Changing the Current Directory with CHDIR (CD) 119 Deleting Directories with RMDIR (RD) 120 Using DELTREE to Delete Directories 120 Renaming Directories 121 Helping DOS Find Files with PATH 122 Listing Directories with TREE 123 Using a Temporary Directory 124 Troubleshooting 125 6 Understanding Disks and Disk Drives 127 Understanding the Disk’s Magnetic Storage Technique 128 Understanding Disk Drives 129 Hard Disk Drives 130 Floppy Disk Drives 131 Write-Protecting a Floppy Disk 132 Understanding the Dynamics of the Disk Drive 133 Disk Drive Heads 133 Disk Tracks 134 Disk Cylinders 134 Disk Sectors 136 Understanding Disk Formats 137 Floppy Disk Formats 138 Raw Capacity and Usable Capacity 139 Hard Disk Drive Formats 139
- 9. Understanding DoubleSpace 140 Installing DoubleSpace 141 Controlling the Operation of DoubleSpace 142 Displaying Compressed Drive Information 142 Changing the Size of a Compressed Drive 143 Changing the Compression Ratio 143 Formatting a Compressed Drive 145 Deleting a Compressed Drive 145 Creating a New Compressed Drive 145 Using Other DoubleSpace Features 146 Case Study: Adjusting for Drift 148 7 Preparing and Maintaining Disks 149 Understanding Disk Preparation 150 Preparing Floppy Disks with the FORMAT Command 151 Formatting Floppy Disks 152 FORMAT’s Other Tasks 154 Using FORMAT’s Switches 156 Preparing the Hard Disk 158 Dividing a Hard Disk with FDISK 159 Partitioning a Drive 164 Formatting a Hard Disk 166 Disk Commands 166 Naming Disks with LABEL 166 Examining Volume Labels with VOL 167 Using SYS to Transfer the DOS System 167 Getting the Most Speed from Your Hard Disk 168 Using a Disk Cache (SMARTDrive) 169 Using FASTOPEN 173 Using a RAM Disk 174 Defragmenting Your Disk 177 Getting the Most Space from Your Hard Disk 181 Deleting Unnecessary Files 182 Using File Compression 183 Archiving Files 183 Projects 184 Analyzing a Disk with CHKDSK 184 Analyzing a Disk with the SCANDISK Utility 188 8 Managing Your Files 191 Using DOS to Work with Files 192 Listing Files with the DIR Command 193 Issuing the DIR Command 193 Understanding the Operation of the DIR Command 194 Displaying a Screen of Information with the DIR Command 195 Searching for Files with the DIR Command 198 Customizing the DIR Command 199 Viewing Files 199 Understanding Types of Files 200 Using the TYPE Command to View Files 200 Copying Files 202 Using the COPY Command 202 Using the XCOPY Command 206 Copying Entire Disks with DISKCOPY 210 Moving Files 212 Moving Directories and Files 213 Renaming Directories with MOVE 214 Setting Defaults for COPY, XCOPY, and MOVE 214 v Contents
- 10. Renaming Files 214 Comparing Files 215 Comparing Files with FC 215 Comparing Disks with DISKCOMP 219 Deleting Files 221 Understanding the Delete Operation 221 Deleting Files from the Command Line 222 Deleting Unwanted Files 222 Using Interlnk to Share Another Computer’s Resources 222 Setting Up Interlnk 223 Loading INTERLNK.EXE 225 Loading the Server 226 Establishing the Interlnk Connection 227 Using Interlnk to Transfer Files 228 Using a Remote Printer 228 Installing Interlnk Remotely 228 Running Programs Remotely 229 Case Study: Editing Files with Multiple Data Formats 229 9 Protecting Your Data 231 Avoiding Data Loss 232 Understanding Microsoft Backup 233 Configuring the Backup Programs 235 Understanding Microsoft Backup Functions 236 Backup Types 238 Issuing the MSBACKUP Command 239 Using Microsoft Backup 239 Performing a Full Backup 239 Performing Intermediate Backups 242 Special-Purpose Backups 243 Using Other Backup Options 247 Restoring Backup Files 248 Understanding Computer Viruses 252 Understanding How Viruses Spread 252 Fighting Viruses with Microsoft Anti- Virus 253 Using the Windows Version of Microsoft Anti-Virus 256 Guarding Against Infection 257 Unformatting a Disk 257 Recovering from an Accidental Format 258 Recovering from an Accidental Format Without a MIRROR Image File 259 Rebuilding a Partition Table 261 Recovering Deleted Files with UNDELETE 262 Using UNDELETE from the Command Line 262 Recovering Files with UNDELETE 264 Using the DOS Directory to Recover a File 266 Using the Microsoft Undelete Program for Windows 3.x 267 Configuring Microsoft Undelete 267 Selecting Files to Recover 268 Recovering Files 269 Using Other Options 270 Project: Developing a Backup Policy 270 III Controlling DOS 10 Working with System Information 275 Changing the Date and Time 276 Issuing the DATE Command 277 Issuing the TIME Command 278 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition vi
- 11. Displaying the Version Using the VER Command 279 Setting the Version Using the SETVER Command 280 Displaying Memory Statistics 283 Issuing the MEM Command 283 Understanding the Operation of MEM 283 Loading a Secondary Command Processor 288 Issuing the COMMAND Command 288 Understanding the Operation of COMMAND.COM 289 Using EXIT to Leave the Current Copy of the Command Processor 290 Uses for a Secondary Command Processor 290 11 Controlling Your Environment 293 Changing DOS Variables 294 Issuing the SET Command 294 Changing Environment Variables with SET 294 Defining Your Own Environmental Variables with SET 295 Changing the User Interface 295 Changing the Command Prompt with PROMPT 295 Altering the Look of the Screen with MODE 298 Changing Disk Drives 301 The ASSIGN Command 302 The JOIN Command 302 The SUBST Command 302 Using the COMSPEC Variable 304 12 Using Peripherals 307 Understanding Device Drivers 308 Understanding Hardware Interrupts 309 Understanding Direct Memory Access (DMA) Channels 311 Understanding Memory Input/Output Addresses 312 Setting Up Device Drivers 312 Troubleshooting Device Drivers 314 13 Controlling Devices 317 Device Commands 318 The CLS Command 319 The GRAPHICS Command 319 Issuing the GRAPHICS Command 319 Using GRAPHICS to Print a Screen Image 321 The PRINT Command 322 Issuing the PRINT Command 322 Using PRINT to Print Several Files 324 General Rules for Using PRINT 324 The CTTY Command 325 The MODE Command 326 Using MODE to Change Parallel Port Settings 326 Using MODE to Change Serial Port Settings 328 Using MODE to Redirect a Parallel Port to a Serial Port 330 Using MODE to Change the Typematic Rate 331 Using Redirection Commands 332 Issuing the Redirection Operators 332 General Rules for Using Redirection 334 vii Contents
- 12. The MORE Filter 334 Issuing the MORE Filter 334 Using MORE to Pause the Screen 334 General Rules for Using MORE 335 The FIND Filter 335 Issuing the FIND Filter 335 Using FIND to Find Files on Disk 336 General Rules for Using FIND 337 The SORT Filter 337 Issuing the SORT Filter 337 Using SORT to Sort Subdirectory Listings 338 General Rules for Using SORT 338 14 Understanding the International Features of DOS 339 Internationalization 340 Understanding COUNTRY.SYS 340 Understanding KEYB.COM 342 Understanding Code Page Switching 344 Checking Your Hardware for Code Page Switching 345 Installing Code Page Switching 346 Loading the Code Page Tables 348 Switching the Code Page 349 Exploring More Uses for MODE and CODEPAGE 350 Considering Keyboard Remappings 351 Using Dead Keys 352 Using Foreign-Language Commands 354 International Country Codes 354 IV Maximizing DOS 15 Using the DOS Editor 361 Understanding the DOS Editor 362 Uses for the DOS Editor 362 Files Required to Run the DOS Editor 362 Using the DOS Editor from a Floppy Disk 363 Starting the DOS Editor 363 Getting Acquainted with the Initial Editor Screen 364 Navigating the DOS Editor 364 Understanding the Menu System 365 Understanding Dialog Boxes 365 Using Shortcut Keys 366 Using a Mouse 367 Mastering Fundamental Editing Techniques 368 Moving the Cursor 369 Scrolling 370 Inserting Text into a Line 370 Deleting Text from a Line 370 Splitting and Joining Lines 371 Inserting and Deleting an Entire Line 371 Overtyping 371 Learning Special Editing Techniques 371 Using Automatic Indent 372 Using Tab 372 Using Place Markers 373 Block Editing 373 Selecting Text 373 Understanding the Clipboard 374 Working with Text Blocks 374 Searching and Replacing 376 Using the Find Command 377 Using the Change Command 378 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition viii
- 13. Managing Files 379 Introducing the File Menu 379 Saving a File 380 Using the Open Command to Load a File 382 Loading a File When You First Start the DOS Editor 383 Using the New Command 383 Printing a File 383 Exiting the DOS Editor 384 Starting the DOS Editor with Optional Switches 384 Project: Customizing the DOS Editor Screen 385 Changing Colors and Removing Scrollbars 385 Saving Customized Settings 386 Using the Help System 387 16 Understanding Batch Files 389 Introducing Batch Files 390 Understanding the Contents of Batch Files 391 Creating a Simple Batch File 392 Understanding Replaceable Parameters 393 Using Batch File Commands 397 Displaying Messages and Inserting Comments 398 Branching with GOTO 398 Using the IF Command 399 Pausing for Input in a Batch File 404 Making a Two-Way Choice 405 Creating a Simple Menu 405 Creating a Simple Display Menu 406 Using FOR..IN..DO 407 Using a FOR..IN..DO Batch File 408 Using FOR..IN..DO at the DOS Prompt 409 Using FOR..IN..DO with Other Commands 409 Moving Parameters with SHIFT 409 Running Batch Files from Other Batch Files 411 Shifting Control Permanently to Another Batch File 411 Calling a Batch File and Returning Using CALL 411 Using COMMAND.COM to Execute a Batch File 412 17 Understanding ANSI.SYS 415 What Is ANSI.SYS? 416 Installing ANSI.SYS 416 Using ANSI.SYS 416 Issuing ANSI.SYS Codes in Batch Files 417 Issuing ANSI.SYS Codes in Text Files 418 Issuing ANSI.SYS Codes with the PROMPT Command 419 Controlling Your Screen with ANSI.SYS 419 Cursor Movement 420 Cursor Positioning 420 Setting the Screen Mode 421 Setting the Text Attributes 421 Screen Control 423 Customizing Your Keyboard with ANSI.SYS 423 Reassigning Character Keys 424 ANSI Control Codes 425 ANSI Set and Reset Display Mode Control Codes 425 ANSI Display Color and Attribute Control Codes 425 ANSI Cursor Control Codes 426 ix Contents
- 14. ANSI Miscellaneous Display Control Codes 427 ANSI Keyboard Layout Control Codes 427 18 Mastering DOSKEY and Macros 431 Using DOSKEY 432 Loading DOSKEY 432 Editing the Command Line 433 Reusing Commands 434 Creating and Using Macros 436 Creating Macros 437 Running Macros 439 Deleting Macros 440 19 Configuring Your Computer 441 Getting the Most from Your Computer Resources 442 Understanding Device Drivers 443 Optimizing Your Computer’s Memory 445 Using Extended Memory and HIMEM.SYS 445 Understanding HIMEM.SYS 445 Loading DOS into High Memory 448 Using Expanded Memory and EMM386.EXE 449 Loading Device Drivers and TSRs into Upper Memory 451 Displaying the Amount of Free and Used Memory 453 Configuring Memory with MemMaker 455 Providing Memory for Your Applications 460 Increasing Hard Disk Performance 461 Fine-Tuning Your Computer with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT 463 Accessing Files through FCBS 463 Using the FILES Command 463 Using LASTDRIVE to Change the Number of Disk Drives 464 Using the SHELL Command 464 Using the INSTALL Command 466 Using the REM Command 467 Using the SWITCHES Command 467 Telling DOS When to Break 468 Using the DOS Pretender Commands 468 Using Other Device Control Commands 469 20 Networking DOS 471 Common Networks for DOS-Based Computers 472 Learning Preinstallation Items 472 Installing the Novell NetWare Client Software 473 Installing the Microsoft Network Client 478 Using the Network 481 Project: Network Client Setup Tips 482 21 Connecting to the Internet 483 Internet Connection Options for DOS-Based Computers 484 Connecting to Your ISP 484 Using Internet Tools 485 A Sample FTP Session 489 Project: Common Problems with DOS Internet Tools 491 22 Third-Party Utilities 493 Enhancing Your Computer with Utility Programs 494 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition x
- 15. Understanding Freeware, Shareware, and Demoware 494 PKWare’s PKZIP and PKUNZIP 495 McAfee VirusScan 496 4DOS 497 V Appendixes A Files Supplied with MS-DOS 6.22 503 About MS-DOS Files 504 MS-DOS 6.22 Files 504 MS-DOS 6.22 Supplemental Disk Files 512 MS-DOS Utility File Extensions by Version 515 B DOS Environment Variables 519 Understanding the DOS Environment 520 APPEND 520 COMSPEC 521 CONFIG 522 COPYCMD 522 DIRCMD 522 MSDOSDATA 523 PATH 524 PROMPT 525 TEMP and TMP 525 windir 526 WINPMT 526 C DOS Messages 529 General DOS Messages 530 DOS Device Error Messages 557 D DOS and DOS Utility Programs’ Keyboard Commands 563 DOS Startup Control Keys 564 ROM BIOS Control Keys 564 DOS Control Keys 565 Command-Line Editing Keys Without DOSKEY 565 Command-Line Editing Keys with DOSKEY 567 Edit Keystroke Commands 568 DOS Shell Keystroke Commands 569 E ASCII and Extended ASCII Codes 573 F Command Reference 583 DOS Commands by Function 583 Batch File Commands 584 CONFIG.SYS Commands 584 CONFIG.SYS DEVICE= Drivers 585 Directory Commands 586 Disk Commands 586 File Commands 587 DOS Applications 587 Help Commands 588 International Commands and Device Drivers 588 Memory and System Performance Commands 589 Miscellaneous Commands 589 Windows Applications 590 Conventions Used in This Command Reference 590 Icons Used in This Command Reference 592 Filenames and Pathnames 593 xi Contents
- 16. Legal Filename Characters 593 DOS Reserved Names 594 ?, * 1.0 and later—Internal 594 Using the ? Wildcard Character in a Filename or Extension 595 Using the * Wildcard Character in a Filename or Extension 595 Examples 595 See Also 595 > and >> 2.0 and later—Internal 596 See Also 596 < 2.0 and later—Internal 596 See Also 597 | 2.0 and later—Internal 597 See Also 598 :label 1.0 and later—Internal 598 Syntax 598 Notes 598 Examples 598 Messages 598 See Also 599 %n 1.0 and later—Internal 599 Syntax 599 Notes 599 Examples 600 See Also 600 %envir% 4.0 and later—Internal 600 Syntax 600 Notes 600 Examples 601 See Also 602 @ 4.0 and later—Internal 602 Syntax 602 Notes 603 See Also 603 ; 6.0 and later—Internal 603 Syntax 603 Notes 603 Examples 604 See Also 604 ? 6.0 and later—Internal 604 Syntax 604 Parameters and Switches 604 Notes 604 Examples 605 Messages 605 See Also 605 [blockname] 6.0 and later— Internal 606 Syntax 606 Notes 606 Examples 607 See Also 608 ANSI.SYS (device driver) 2.0 and later— External 608 Syntax 608 Parameters and Switches 609 Notes 609 Examples 610 See Also 610 APPEND 3.3 and later—External 610 Syntax 610 Parameters and Switches 611 Notes 611 Examples 612 Messages 612 See Also 613 ASSIGN 2.0 to 5.0—External 613 Using SUBST Instead of ASSIGN 613 See Also 613 ATTRIB 3.0 and later—External 613 Syntax 614 Parameters and Switches 614 Notes 614 Examples 615 Messages 615 See Also 615 BACKUP 2.0 to 5.0—External 616 See Also 616 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xii
- 17. BREAK 2.0 and later—Internal BREAK= 2.0 and later—Internal 616 Syntax 616 Parameters and Switches 616 Notes 616 See Also 617 BUFFERS= 2.0 and later— Internal 617 Syntax 617 Parameters and Switches 617 Notes 618 See Also 618 CALL 3.3 and later—Internal 619 Syntax 619 Parameters and Switches 619 Notes 619 Examples 620 Messages 621 See Also 621 CD or CHDIR 2.0 and later— Internal 621 Syntax 621 Parameters and Switches 622 Notes 622 Examples 622 Messages 623 See Also 624 CHAIN 624 Syntax 624 Parameters and Switches 624 CHCP 3.3 and later—Internal 624 Syntax 624 Parameters and Switches 624 Notes 624 Messages 625 See Also 625 CHDIR (see CD) 626 CHECK 626 Syntax 626 Parameters and Switches 626 Remarks 626 CHKDSK 1.0 and later—External 626 Syntax 626 Parameters and Switches 626 Exit Codes 627 Rules 627 Notes 627 Messages 628 See Also 630 CHKSTATE.SYS (see MEMMAKER) 631 See Also 631 CHOICE 6.0 and later—External 631 Syntax 631 Parameters and Switches 631 Exit Codes 632 Notes 632 Examples 632 See Also 633 CLS 2.0 and later—Internal 633 Syntax 633 Notes 633 See Also 634 CMOSCLK.SYS 634 Syntax 634 Parameters and Switches 634 Notes 634 CNFIGNAM.EXE 634 Syntax 634 Parameters and Switches 634 Notes 635 COMMAND 2.0 and later— External 635 Syntax 635 Parameters and Switches 635 Rules 636 Notes 636 See Also 636 COMP 1.0 to 5.0—External 636 Syntax 637 Parameters and Switches 637 xiii Contents
- 18. Notes 637 Messages 637 See Also 638 CONFIG 638 Syntax 638 Parameters and Switches 638 COPY 1.0 and later—Internal 639 Syntax 639 Parameters and Switches 639 Rules 640 Notes 641 Messages 642 See Also 642 COUNTRY= 3.0 and later— Internal 642 Syntax 643 Parameters and Switches 643 Notes 643 Examples 644 See Also 644 COUNTRY.SYS (see COUNTRY=) 644 See Also 645 CPBACKUP 645 Syntax 645 Parameters and Switches 645 Notes 647 See Also 647 CPBDIR 647 Syntax 647 Parameters and Switches 647 See Also 647 CPSCHED 647 Syntax 647 Parameters and Switches 648 See Also 648 CRC 648 Syntax 648 Parameters and Switches 648 CREATE 648 Syntax 648 Parameters and Switches 648 See Also 649 CSCRIPT 649 Syntax 649 Parameters and Switches 649 Notes 650 CTTY 2.0 and later—Internal 650 Syntax 650 Parameters and Switches 650 Notes 650 See Also 651 CURSOR.EXE 651 Syntax 651 Parameters and Switches 651 CVT.EXE 651 Syntax 651 Parameters and Switches 651 Notes 651 DATAMON 652 Syntax 652 Parameters and Switches 652 Notes 652 DATE 1.0 and later—Internal 653 Syntax 653 Parameters and Switches 653 Notes 653 See Also 653 DBLSPACE 6.0 and later— External 654 Syntax 654 Notes 654 See Also 655 DBLSPACE/AUTOMOUNT 6.2—External 655 Syntax 655 Parameters and Switches 655 Notes 655 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xiv
- 19. Examples 655 See Also 655 DBLSPACE/CHKDSK 6.0 only— External 656 Syntax 656 Parameters and Switches 656 Notes 656 See Also 656 DBLSPACE/COMPRESS 6.0 and later— External 656 Syntax 656 Parameters and Switches 656 Notes 657 Examples 657 See Also 657 DBLSPACE/CREATE 6.0 and later— External 657 Syntax 658 Parameters and Switches 658 Notes 658 Examples 659 See Also 659 DBLSPACE/DEFRAGMENT 6.0 and later— External 659 Syntax 659 Parameters and Switches 659 Notes 659 See Also 660 DBLSPACE/DELETE 6.0 and later— External 660 Syntax 660 Parameters and Switches 660 Notes 660 See Also 661 DBLSPACE/DOUBLEGUARD 6.2— External 661 Syntax 661 Parameters and Switches 661 Notes 661 Examples 661 See Also 661 DBLSPACE/FORMAT 6.0 and later— External 661 Syntax 662 Parameters and Switches 662 Notes 662 See Also 662 DBLSPACE/INFO 6.0 and later— External 662 Syntax 662 Parameters and Switches 662 See Also 663 DBLSPACE/LIST 6.0 and later— External 663 Syntax 663 See Also 663 DBLSPACE/MOUNT 6.0 and later— External 663 Syntax 663 Parameters and Switches 664 Notes 664 Examples 664 See Also 664 DBLSPACE/RATIO 6.0 and later— External 664 Syntax 665 Parameters and Switches 665 Notes 665 Examples 665 See Also 665 DBLSPACE/SIZE 6.0 and later— External 665 Syntax 666 Parameters and Switches 666 Examples 666 See Also 666 DBLSPACE/UNCOMPRESS 6.2— External 666 Syntax 666 Parameters and Switches 667 Notes 667 See Also 667 xv Contents
- 20. DBLSPACE/UNMOUNT 6.0 and later— External 667 Syntax 667 Parameters and Switches 667 Notes 668 See Also 668 DBLSPACE.SYS (device driver) 6.0 and later—External 668 Syntax 668 Parameters and Switches 668 Notes 669 Examples 670 See Also 670 DCONVERT 671 Syntax 671 Parameters and Switches 671 Notes 671 See Also 671 DEBUG 1.0 and later—External 671 Syntax 671 Parameters and Switches 672 Notes 672 Examples 672 DEFRAG 6.0 and later—External 672 Syntax 672 Parameters and Switches 673 Exit Codes 674 Notes 674 See Also 675 DEL or ERASE 1.0 and later— Internal 675 Syntax 675 Parameters and Switches 675 Notes 675 Messages 676 See Also 676 DELOLDOS 5.0 and later— External 676 Syntax 676 Parameters and Switches 676 Notes 676 See Also 676 DELPURGE.EXE 677 Syntax 677 Parameters and Switches 677 DELWATCH.EXE 677 Syntax 677 Parameters and Switches 677 See Also 678 DELQ or ERAQ 678 Syntax 678 Parameters and Switches 678 DELTREE 6.0 and later— External 679 Syntax 679 Parameters and Switches 679 Exit Codes 679 Notes 679 See Also 679 DEVICE= 2.0 and later—Internal 679 Syntax 680 Parameters and Switches 680 Notes 680 Examples 681 Messages 681 See Also 682 DEVICEHIGH= 5.0 and later— Internal 682 Syntax 682 Parameters and Switches 683 Notes 683 Examples 685 Messages 686 See Also 686 DEVLOAD 687 Syntax 687 Parameters and Switches 687 DIR 1.0 and later—Internal 687 Syntax 687 Parameters and Switches 687 Notes 689 See Also 689 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xvi
- 21. DISKCOMP 1.0 and later— External 690 Syntax 690 Parameters and Switches 690 Exit Codes 690 Notes 690 Messages 691 See Also 691 DISKCOPY 1.0 and later— External 692 Syntax 692 Parameters and Switches 692 Exit Codes 692 Notes 692 Messages 693 See Also 694 DISKMAP.EXE 694 Syntax 694 Parameters and Switches 694 DISKOPT.EXE 694 Syntax 694 Parameters and Switches 695 DISPLAY.SYS (device driver) 3.3 and later—External 695 Syntax 695 Parameters and Switches 696 Notes 697 Examples 697 See Also 698 DOS= 5.0 and later—Internal 698 Syntax 698 Parameters and Switches 698 Notes 698 Examples 699 Messages 700 See Also 700 DOSBOOK 700 Syntax 700 Parameters and Switches 700 DOSDATA 701 Syntax 701 Parameters and Switches 701 DOSDOCK 701 Syntax 701 Parameters and Switches 701 DOSKEY 5.0 and later—External 701 Syntax 701 Parameters and Switches 702 Notes 702 Examples 703 Messages 704 See Also 704 DOSSHELL 4.0 to 6.0—External 704 Syntax 704 Parameters and Switches 704 Notes 705 Examples 706 Messages 706 See Also 707 DPMI 707 Syntax 707 Parameters and Switches 707 DPMS.EXE 707 Syntax 707 Parameters and Switches 708 Notes 708 DRIVER.SYS (device driver) 3.2 and later—External 708 Syntax 708 Parameters and Switches 708 Notes 710 Examples 711 Messages 711 See Also 711 DRIVPARM= 3.2 and later— Internal 711 Syntax 711 Parameters and Switches 711 xvii Contents
- 22. Notes 712 Examples 713 See Also 714 DRMOUSE 714 Syntax 714 Parameters and Switches 714 DRVLOCK 714 Syntax 714 Parameters and Switches 714 DYNALOAD 715 Syntax 715 Parameters and Switches 715 Notes 715 E 715 Syntax 715 Parameters and Switches 716 Notes 716 ECHO 2.0 and later—Internal 716 Syntax 716 Parameters and Switches 717 Notes 717 Examples 718 See Also 719 EDIT 5.0 and later—External 719 Syntax 719 Parameters and Switches 719 See Also 720 EDLIN 1.0 to 5.0—External 720 See Also 720 EGA.SYS (device driver) 5.0 and later— External 720 Syntax 720 Parameters and Switches 720 Notes 720 Examples 721 See Also 721 EJECT 721 Syntax 721 Parameters and Switches 721 Remarks 721 EMM386 5.0 and later—External 721 Syntax 722 Parameters and Switches 722 Notes 722 See Also 722 EMM386.EXE (device driver) 5.0 and later—External 722 Syntax 722 Parameters and Switches 723 Notes 726 See Also 726 ERASE (see DEL) 726 ERAQ (see DELQ) 726 EXE2BIN 1.1 to 5.0—External 727 Syntax 727 Parameters and Switches 727 Notes 727 EXIT 2.0 and later—Internal 727 Syntax 727 Notes 728 See Also 728 EXPAND 5.0 and later—External 728 Syntax 728 Parameters and Switches 728 Rules 728 Notes 729 Examples 729 Messages 729 See Also 729 EXTRACT 730 Syntax 730 Parameters and Switches 730 FASTHELP 6.0 and later— External 730 Syntax 730 Parameters and Switches 730 Notes 731 See Also 731 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xviii
- 23. FASTOPEN 3.3 and later— External 731 Syntax 731 Parameters and Switches 731 Rules 731 Notes 732 See Also 732 FC 3.3 and later—External 732 Syntax 732 Parameters and Switches 733 Notes 733 Examples 734 See Also 734 FCBS= 3.1 and later—Internal 734 Syntax 734 Parameters and Switches 734 Notes 734 See Also 735 FDISK 2.0 and later—External 735 Syntax 735 Parameters and Switches 735 Rules 735 Notes 736 See Also 736 FILELINK 736 FILES= 2.0 and later—Internal 737 Syntax 737 Parameters and Switches 737 Notes 737 Examples 737 See Also 738 FILEUP 738 Syntax 738 Parameters and Switches 738 Notes 738 See Also 738 FIND 2.0 and later—External 738 Syntax 738 Parameters and Switches 738 Exit Codes 739 Rules 739 Notes 739 Examples 739 See Also 740 FOR 2.0 and later—Internal 740 Syntax 740 Parameters and Switches 740 Notes 741 Examples 742 See Also 742 FORMAT 1.0 and later—External 743 Syntax 743 Parameters and Switches 743 Exit Codes 744 Rules 744 Notes 745 Messages 746 See Also 746 GOTO 2.0 and later—Internal 747 Syntax 747 Parameters and Switches 747 Notes 747 See Also 747 GRAFTABL 3.0 to 5.0—External 747 Syntax 747 Parameters and Switches 748 Exit Codes 748 Notes 748 See Also 748 GRAPHICS 2.0 and later— External 748 Syntax 748 Parameters and Switches 749 See Also 750 HCONVERT 750 Syntax 750 Parameters and Switches 750 Remarks 750 xix Contents
- 24. HELP 5.0 and later—External 750 Syntax 751 Parameters and Switches 751 Notes 751 See Also 751 HIINSTALL or INSTALLHIGH 751 Syntax 751 Parameters and Switches 752 HILOAD (see LOADHIGH) 752 HIMEM.SYS (device driver) 4.0 and later—External 752 Syntax 752 Parameters and Switches 752 Notes 756 Examples 757 Messages 757 See Also 759 IBMAVD 759 Syntax 759 IBMAVSP 759 Syntax 759 Parameters and Switches 760 IEXTRACT 761 Syntax 761 Parameters and Switches 761 IF 2.0 and later—Internal 761 Syntax 761 Parameters and Switches 761 Notes 762 Examples 764 See Also 765 INCLUDE= 6.0 and later—Internal 765 Syntax 766 Parameters and Switches 766 Notes 766 Examples 767 See Also 768 INSTALL= 4.0 and later—Internal 768 Syntax 768 Parameters and Switches 768 Notes 768 Examples 769 Messages 769 See Also 769 INSTALLHIGH (see HIINSTALL) 769 INTERLNK 6.0 and later— External 770 Syntax 770 Parameters and Switches 770 Notes 770 Examples 772 Messages 773 See Also 774 INTERLNK.EXE (device driver) 6.0 and later—External 774 Syntax 774 Parameters and Switches 774 Notes 776 Examples 778 Messages 779 See Also 781 INTERSVR 6.0 and later—External 781 Syntax 781 Parameters and Switches 781 Notes 782 Examples 784 Messages 784 See Also 786 JOIN 3.1 to 5.0—External 786 Syntax 786 Parameters and Switches 786 Rules 787 Notes 787 Messages 788 See Also 788 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xx
- 25. KBDBUF.SYS (device driver) External 788 Syntax 788 Parameters and Switches 788 Notes 789 Examples 789 Messages 789 See Also 789 KEYB 3.3 and later—External 790 Syntax 790 Parameters and Switches 790 Exit Codes 790 Notes 791 Messages 791 See Also 792 KEYBOARD.SYS (see KEYB) 792 See Also 793 LABEL 3.0 and later—Internal 793 Syntax 793 Parameters and Switches 793 Rules 793 Notes 794 Messages 794 See Also 794 LASTDRIVE= 3.0 and later— Internal 795 Syntax 795 Parameters and Switches 795 Notes 795 Examples 795 Messages 796 See Also 796 LH (see LOADHIGH) 796 LOADER 796 Syntax 796 Parameters and Switches 797 LOADFIX 5.0 and later—External 797 Syntax 797 Parameters and Switches 798 Notes 798 LOADHIGH or LH 5.0 and later— Internal 798 Syntax 798 Parameters and Switches 798 Notes 799 Rules 799 Examples 799 See Also 800 MD or MKDIR 2.0 and later—Internal 800 Syntax 800 Parameters and Switches 800 Notes 800 Messages 801 See Also 801 MEM 4.0 and later—External 802 Syntax 802 Parameters and Switches 802 Rules 803 Notes 803 See Also 803 MEMMAKER 6.0 and later—External 803 Syntax 804 Parameters and Switches 804 See Also 804 MEMMAX 805 Syntax 805 Parameters and Switches 805 MENUCOLOR= 6.0 and later—Internal 805 Syntax 805 Parameters and Switches 805 Notes 806 Examples 807 See Also 807 MENUDEFAULT= 6.0 and later— Internal 807 Syntax 807 Parameters and Switches 807 Notes 808 Examples 808 See Also 809 xxi Contents
- 26. MENUITEM= 6.0 and later—Internal 809 Syntax 809 Parameters and Switches 809 Notes 809 Examples 810 See Also 811 MIRROR 5.0—External 811 Syntax 811 Parameters and Switches 811 Rules 812 Notes 812 Messages 813 See Also 813 MKDIR (see MD) 813 MODE 1.1 and later—External 813 Display Device Status Information 814 Parameters and Switches 814 Notes 814 Messages 814 See Also 815 MODE COM# 1.1 and later—External 815 Syntax 815 Parameters and Switches 815 Notes 816 See Also 816 MODE CON 4.0 and later—External 817 Syntax 817 Parameters and Switches 817 Notes 817 Examples 818 Messages 818 See Also 818 MODE device CP 3.3 and later— External 818 Syntax 818 Parameters and Switches 819 Notes 820 Examples 821 See Also 821 MODE display 2.0 and later— External 821 Syntax 822 Parameters and Switches 822 Notes 823 Examples 823 Messages 823 See Also 824 MODE LPT# 3.2 and later— External 824 Syntax 824 Parameters and Switches 824 Rules 825 Notes 825 See Also 826 MONOUMB.386 6.0 and later— Windows 826 Syntax 826 Parameters and Switches 826 Notes 827 See Also 827 MORE 2.0 and later—External 827 Syntax 827 Parameters and Switches 827 Rules 827 Notes 828 See Also 828 MOVE 6.0 and later—External 828 Syntax 828 Parameters and Switches 828 Exit Codes 829 Notes 829 Examples 830 See Also 830 MSAV 6.0 and later—External 830 Syntax 830 Parameters and Switches 831 Exit Codes 832 Notes 832 See Also 833 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xxii
- 27. MSBACKUP 6.0 and later—External 833 Syntax 833 Parameters and Switches 833 Rules 833 Notes 834 See Also 834 MSCDEX 6.0 and later—External 835 Syntax 835 Parameters and Switches 835 Notes 835 Examples 836 See Also 836 MSD 6.0 and later—External 836 Syntax 836 Parameters and Switches 836 Notes 837 See Also 837 MSHERC 5.0—External 837 Syntax 837 Parameters and Switches 837 Notes 837 MWAV 6.0 and later—Windows 838 See Also 838 MWAVTSR 6.0 and later— Windows 838 See Also 838 MWBACKUP 6.0 and later— Windows 838 See Also 839 MWUNDEL 6.0 and later— Windows 839 See Also 839 NLSFUNC 3.3 and later— External 840 Syntax 840 Parameters and Switches 840 Notes 840 See Also 840 NUMLOCK= 6.0 and later—Internal 840 Syntax 841 Notes 841 Examples 841 NWCACHE 842 Syntax for Loading NWCACHE 842 Parameters for Loading NWCACHE 842 Syntax for NWCACHE After It Is Loaded 843 Parameters for NWCACHE After It Is Loaded 843 NWCDEX 843 Syntax 843 Parameters and Switches 843 Notes 844 See Also 844 PASSWD 844 Syntax 844 Parameters and Switches 844 Notes 844 PASSWORD 844 Syntax 844 Parameters and Switches 845 Notes 845 PATH 2.0 and later—Internal 845 Syntax 845 Parameters and Switches 846 Notes 846 Messages 846 See Also 847 PAUSE 1.0 and later—Internal 847 Syntax 847 Notes 847 Examples 848 Messages 848 See Also 849 PCM 849 Syntax 849 Notes 849 xxiii Contents
- 28. PCMATA.SYS 849 PCMCS 849 PCMDINST 849 Syntax 849 PCMFDISK 850 Syntax 850 Notes 850 PCMRMAN (Standalone Utility) 850 Syntax 850 Notes 850 PCMRMAN (Command-Line Utility) 850 Syntax 850 Parameters and Switches 850 Notes 851 PCMSCD 851 Syntax 851 Notes 851 PCMSETUP 851 Syntax 851 POWER 6.0 and later—External 852 Syntax 852 Parameters and Switches 852 Notes 852 Examples 854 Messages 854 See Also 854 POWER.EXE (device driver) 6.0 and later—External 854 Syntax 854 Parameters and Switches 855 Notes 855 Examples 856 Messages 857 See Also 857 PRINT 2.0 and later—External 857 Syntax 857 Parameters and Switches 857 Rules 858 Notes 859 Messages 859 See Also 860 PRINTER.SYS (device driver) 3.3 to 5.0—External 860 Syntax 860 Parameters and Switches 860 Notes 861 Examples 862 See Also 862 PROMPT 2.0 and later—Internal 862 Syntax 862 Parameters and Switches 862 Notes 862 Examples 864 See Also 864 QBASIC 5.0 and later—External 864 Syntax 864 Parameters and Switches 864 Notes 865 QCONFIG 865 Syntax 865 Parameters and Switches 865 RAMBOOST 866 Syntax 866 Parameters and Switches 866 RAMBOOST.EXE 867 Syntax 867 Parameters and Switches 867 Notes 867 RAMDRIVE.SYS (device driver) 3.2 and later—External 867 Syntax 867 Parameters and Switches 868 Notes 868 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xxiv
- 29. Examples 870 Messages 870 See Also 871 RAMSETUP 871 Syntax 871 Parameters and Switches 871 Notes 872 See Also 872 RD or RMDIR 2.0 and later— Internal 872 Syntax 872 Parameters and Switches 872 Notes 872 Messages 873 See Also 873 RECOVER 2.0–5.0—External 873 See Also 874 REM 1.0 and later—Internal 874 Syntax 874 Parameters and Switches 874 Notes 874 Examples 875 See Also 875 REMOVDRV 875 Syntax 875 Parameters and Switches 875 Notes 876 REN or RENAME 1.0 and later— Internal 876 Syntax 876 Parameters and Switches 876 Notes 876 Messages 876 See Also 876 RENDIR 877 Syntax 877 Parameters and Switches 877 REPLACE 3.2 and later—External 877 Syntax 877 Parameters and Switches 877 Exit Codes 878 Rules 878 Notes 878 Messages 879 See Also 880 REPORT 880 Syntax 880 Parameters and Switches 880 See Also 880 RESIZE 880 Syntax 880 Parameters and Switches 880 RESTORE 2.0 and later—External 881 Syntax 881 Parameters and Switches 881 Exit Codes 882 Rules 882 Notes 882 Messages 883 RMDIR (see RD) 884 SCANDISK 6.22—External 884 Syntax 884 Parameters and Switches 884 Exit Codes 886 Notes 886 Examples 887 Messages 888 See Also 888 SCANREG 888 Syntax 888 Parameters and Switches 888 Notes 889 SCHEDULE 889 Syntax 889 Parameters and Switches 889 See Also 890 xxv Contents
- 30. SCREATE.SYS 890 Syntax 890 Parameters and Switches 890 See Also 890 SCRIPT 890 Syntax 891 Parameters and Switches 891 Notes 891 SDEFRAG 891 Syntax 891 Parameters and Switches 891 SDIR 892 Syntax 893 Parameters and Switches 893 See Also 894 SET 2.0 and later—Internal 894 Syntax 894 Parameters and Switches 894 Notes 894 Examples 896 Messages 897 See Also 897 SETUP (Stacker) 897 Syntax 897 Parameters and Switches 897 SETVER 5.0 and later—External 898 Syntax 898 Parameters and Switches 898 Exit Codes 899 Notes 899 Examples 901 Messages 901 See Also 903 SETVER.EXE (device driver) 5.0 and later—External 904 Syntax 904 Parameters and Switches 904 Notes 904 Examples 906 Messages 906 See Also 906 SHARE 3.0 and later—External 906 Syntax 906 Parameters and Switches 906 Rules 906 Notes 907 See Also 907 SHELL= 2.0 and later—Internal 907 Syntax 908 Parameters and Switches 908 Notes 908 Examples 909 Messages 909 See Also 909 SHIFT 2.0 and later—Internal 910 Syntax 910 Notes 910 See Also 910 SIZER (see MEMMAKER) 910 See Also 910 SMARTDRV 6.0 and later—External 911 Syntax 911 Parameters and Switches 911 Notes 913 Examples 913 See Also 913 SMARTDRV.EXE (device driver) 6.0 and later—External 914 Syntax 914 Parameters and Switches 914 Notes 914 Examples 914 See Also 914 SMARTMON 6.0 and later— Windows 914 See Also 915 SORT 2.0 and later—External 915 Syntax 915 Parameters and Switches 915 Notes 916 Examples 916 See Also 916 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xxvi
- 31. SSETUP 917 Syntax 917 Parameters and Switches 917 STAC 917 Syntax 917 Parameters and Switches 917 STACHIGH.SYS 917 Syntax 917 Parameters and Switches 917 STACKER 918 Syntax 918 Parameters and Switches 918 STACKS= 3.2 and later—Internal 918 Syntax 918 Parameters and Switches 918 Notes 919 Examples 919 Messages 919 SUBMENU= 6.0 and later—Internal 920 Syntax 920 Parameters and Switches 920 Notes 920 Examples 921 See Also 922 SUBST 3.1 and later—External 922 Syntax 922 Parameters and Switches 922 Notes 922 Messages 923 See Also 924 SWITCH 924 Syntax 924 Parameters and Switches 924 SWITCHES= 5.0 and later—Internal 924 Syntax 924 Parameters and Switches 924 Notes 924 Examples 926 Messages 926 See Also 926 SYS 1.0 and later—External 926 Syntax 927 Parameters and Switches 927 Notes 927 Messages 927 See Also 928 SYSINFO 928 Syntax 929 Parameters and Switches 929 TASKMGR 929 Syntax 929 Parameters and Switches 929 Notes 930 TIME 1.0 and later—Internal 930 Syntax 930 Parameters and Switches 930 Notes 930 See Also 931 TIMEOUT 931 Syntax 931 Parameters and Switches 931 See Also 931 TOUCH 931 Syntax 931 Parameters and Switches 931 TREE 2.0 and later—External 932 Syntax 932 Parameters and Switches 932 See Also 932 TUNER 933 Syntax 933 Parameters and Switches 933 TYPE 1.0 and later—Internal 933 Syntax 933 Parameters and Switches 933 Notes 933 Examples 934 See Also 934 xxvii Contents
- 32. UMBCGA.SYS 934 Syntax 934 Parameters and Switches 934 Notes 934 UMBEMS.SYS 934 Syntax 934 Parameters and Switches 934 UMBHERC.SYS 935 Syntax 935 Parameters and Switches 935 Notes 935 UMBMONO.SYS 935 Syntax 935 Parameters and Switches 935 Notes 935 UNCOMP 936 Syntax 936 Parameters and Switches 936 UNDELETE 5.0 and later—External 936 Syntax 936 Parameters and Switches 936 Rules 938 Notes 938 Examples 939 See Also 939 UNFORMAT 5.0 and later—External 939 Syntax 939 Parameters and Switches 939 Rules 940 Notes 940 See Also 940 UNINSTALL 940 Syntax 941 Parameters and Switches 941 UNPACK2 941 Syntax 941 Parameters and Switches 941 Notes 941 UNSTACK 942 Syntax 942 Parameters and Switches 942 VER 2.0 and later—Internal 942 Syntax 942 Notes 942 Examples 942 See Also 943 VERIFY 2.0 and later—Internal 943 Syntax 943 Parameters and Switches 943 Notes 943 Examples 944 Messages 944 VFINTD.386 6.0 and later— Windows 944 Syntax 944 Parameters and Switches 944 Notes 945 Examples 945 VIEW 945 Syntax 945 Parameters and Switches 946 VOL 2.0 and later—Internal 946 Syntax 946 Parameters and Switches 946 Notes 946 Examples 946 Messages 947 See Also 947 VSAFE 6.0 and later—External 947 Syntax 947 Parameters and Switches 947 Rules 948 Notes 948 Examples 948 See Also 949 Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition xxviii
- 33. WINA20.386 5.0 and later— Windows 949 Syntax 949 Parameters and Switches 949 Notes 949 Examples 950 Messages 950 See Also 950 XCOPY 3.2 and later—External 950 Syntax 950 Parameters and Switches 950 Exit Codes 951 Rules 952 Notes 952 Messages 953 See Also 954 XCOPY32 954 XDEL 955 Syntax 955 Parameters and Switches 955 XDF 955 Syntax 955 Parameters and Switches 955 Notes 955 XDFCOPY 956 Syntax 956 Parameters and Switches 956 XDIR 956 Syntax 956 Parameters and Switches 956 See Also 957 Glossary 959 Index 965 xxix Contents
- 34. About the Author Jim Cooper is a Senior Systems Engineer currently working for a services and infrastruc- ture provider in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has worked in the information technology field for more than 12 years and holds numerous certifications, including MCSE+I and MCT. He has contributed chapters to numerous other books for Pearson Technology Group.
- 35. Tell Us What You Think! As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you’re willing to pass our way. As an Associate Publisher for Que, I welcome your comments. You can fax, e-mail, or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—as well as what we can do to make our books stronger. Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message. When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author as well as your name and phone or fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book. Fax: 317-581-4666 E-Mail: feedback@quepublishing.com Mail: Dean Miller Que 201 West 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA
- 36. In this introduction Who Should Read This Book? 2 What Hardware Do You Need? 2 What Versions Are Covered? 2 What Is Not Covered? 3 How Is This Book Organized? 3 Conventions Used in This Book 7 INTRODUCTION
- 37. 2 Introduction After its introduction in 1981, MS-DOS was the most widely used operating system in the world. Hundreds of thousands of programs have been written for MS-DOS. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition represents Que Corporation’s continuing commitment to provide the best computer books in the industry. Over the years, this book has evolved as DOS has evolved, culminating in what you are reading right now. Keeping pace with technology and explaining it clearly, simply, and completely has been Que’s goal. This book, which is a comprehensive learning tool and reference volume for users of MS-DOS, reflects the maturity of DOS and the far-reaching impact that DOS has had on the computing industry. Even the most popular operating system today, Windows 95/98/ME, is still based on an upgraded version of DOS. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition offers DOS users a comprehensive source of information that can help them organize their work with the PC more effectively and make their hardware respond more efficiently. Who Should Read This Book? This book is written and organized to meet the needs of a large group of readers. It is suited for readers who have a basic familiarity with DOS but need more information to increase their knowledge and sharpen their skills. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition is also a comprehensive reference on DOS for the more advanced user. Maybe you have just learned to use your PC and are looking to move beyond the basics. Perhaps you have upgraded your hardware to a more powerful PC, with more memory and disk capacity. Or maybe you have upgraded your version of DOS and want to take advan- tage of its new or expanded features. If you find that you fit into any of these categories, this comprehensive edition is a “must have” volume. What Hardware Do You Need? This book applies to the family of personal computers with Intel x86-based processors. There are literally thousands of manufacturers today making PCs, too numerous to list here. MS-DOS will run on virtually any model available today, although you might encounter problems locating drivers for newer hardware components, such as sound and network cards. What Versions Are Covered? We have discovered that the vast majority of readers are using MS-DOS version 6.x. This book is focused on DOS version 6.22, although limited information is available for those using an older DOS version. (The best advice we can offer is that you upgrade your system. If you are using a version of DOS older than 6.0, upgrade right away; you will find it well worth the time and effort.) Throughout this book, specific versions of DOS are indicated.
- 38. 3 How Is This Book Organized? When a particular reference applies to both DOS 6.0 and 6.22, however, the more generic DOS 6 designation is used. What Is Not Covered? This book does not include the DEBUG or LINK commands, nor does it include a technical reference to the applications programming interface that DOS provides for programmers. For information on how to install or upgrade your version of DOS, you should refer to a separate book—your MS-DOS manual. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition assumes that you already have DOS installed and are using it. Also not included in this book are computer-specific setup or configuration commands. Although these commands often are distributed with the same disks as DOS, they are too variable to be covered adequately here. Your computer-supplied manual and your PC dealer are the best sources of information about these machine-specific features. How Is This Book Organized? You can flip quickly through this book to get a feeling for its organization. Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition approaches DOS in a logical, functionally defined way. The material in this book is arranged in four main parts and a set of appendixes that include a Command Reference, and a glossary. Part I: DOS Fundamentals Part I, “DOS Fundamentals,” is devoted to explaining the fundamental role of DOS in a working PC: ■ Chapter 1, “DOS and the Personal Computer,” looks at today’s PCs. The chapter explores the major components of the PC and addresses the use of system and periph- eral hardware. In this chapter, you get a feel not only for your system but also for sys- tems with different keyboards, displays, and peripherals. You also learn the role of DOS in relation to your system. ■ Chapter 2, “Starting DOS,” steps through the process of booting DOS and explains important concepts along the way. You also learn how you can control the booting process through setting up multiple configurations. ■ Chapter 3, “Using DOS Commands,” introduces and explains how to use DOS com- mands. You learn the concepts behind issuing commands at the DOS command line. The chapter explains syntax, parameters, and switches in an easy-to-learn fashion. Important keys and various examples of the DOS command are also covered, along with information on how to access the DOS built-in help system.
- 39. 4 Introduction ■ Chapter 4, “Using the DOS Shell,” gets you up and running with the DOS Shell. This chapter explores the DOS Shell screen and discusses aspects of the Shell common to all its commands. Part II: Files and Directories Part II, “Files and Directories,” covers everything you need to know about the heart of DOS—working with disks and the files stored on them: ■ Chapter 5, “Understanding Files and Directories,” recognizes the important job DOS performs in managing your files. This chapter defines files and clearly explains file- naming conventions. Also explored is the tree-structured directory system used by DOS to organize your files. You learn how to use commands that create, change, remove, and display directories. ■ Chapter 6, “Understanding Disks and Disk Drives,” provides the framework you need to better understand how DOS stores information on your disk. You discover what disks are, how information is recorded on them, and some of the technological issues related to disks. Additionally, you explore the use of DoubleSpace, the DOS program that enables you to virtually double the amount of information you can store on your disk drives. ■ Chapter 7, “Preparing and Maintaining Disks,” builds on the information presented in Chapter 6. Here, you learn what formatting does and how DOS uses formatted disks to store your files. This chapter describes SMARTDrive, a disk cache that increases the speed with which you can access data on your hard disk, and Microsoft Defrag, a utility that keeps your files in proper order. You also learn how to partition a hard disk into sections that DOS can use as logical disks. Also presented are two DOS commands, CHKDSK and SCANDISK, that analyze disks for damage. ■ Chapter 8, “Managing Your Files,” is devoted to managing your files and illuminating the file-level DOS commands. Here, you learn how to examine directory listings, view the contents of files, and use the INTERLNK program to transfer files between a laptop and your desktop computer. Because you probably spend most of your time with DOS working with files, this chapter also offers an in-depth view of the file-level commands. Each command includes examples that help you appreciate the full power of these important commands. ■ Chapter 9, “Protecting and Recovering Your Data,” covers the important issues involved with safeguarding the most important part of your computer system—your computer data. You learn common-sense solutions to data protection, as well as how to use the backup programs supplied with DOS. This chapter also discusses how you can recover from catastrophic errors or events. You learn how to undelete files, unformat a drive, and recover data on your hard disk. When you find yourself in a situation that requires this information, you’ll probably agree that this chapter alone is worth the price of this book. Finally, this chapter also discusses computer viruses and how to pro- tect your computer against them.
- 40. 5 How Is This Book Organized? Part III: Controlling DOS Part III, “Controlling DOS,” covers the DOS commands and concepts that enable you to change how DOS does its work. The information covered in Part III lets you use DOS effectively to reflect the way you do your work: ■ Chapter 10, “Working with System Information,” covers the commands that set and retrieve system information in your DOS-based computer. These commands often are neglected, but they key you into the control panel of DOS. These commands are help- ful whether you oversee one PC or help other users with their PCs. ■ Chapter 11, “Controlling Your Environment,” discusses how you can set system vari- ables and change the DOS prompt. You also learn how you can use the MODE command to change how DOS displays information on your screen, as well as how you can use DOS to change your disk drive configuration. ■ Chapter 12, “Using Peripherals,” explains device drivers and covers what you need to know to correctly install them. You learn how to set hardware interrupts and what the difference is between hardware and software interrupts. ■ Chapter 13, “Controlling Devices,” explains the DOS commands that control the behavior of logical DOS devices. By using these commands, you can control the way DOS sees your system’s drives and directories. You learn how to use your printer while doing other computer work, and you see how to use the DOS pipes and filters effec- tively. ■ Chapter 14, “Understanding the International Features of DOS,” steps you through the complicated, but sometimes necessary, configuration of a PC to various internation- al language standards. Part IV: Maximizing DOS Part IV, “Maximizing DOS,” provides the information you need to tap the expanded power available with DOS. This part of the book helps you use the many features provided with DOS and helps you customize your computer system: ■ Chapter 15, “Using the DOS Editor,” provides a tutorial approach to the built-in text- file editor that comes with DOS. The examples developed in this chapter show you how to use the DOS Editor as a day-to-day utility. With the careful attention given to the Editor’s practical use, you learn the skills needed to quickly compose a text file. Practical examples, using the DOS Editor to create memos and batch files, also are pre- sented. ■ Chapter 16, “Understanding Batch Files,” guides you through the process of creating batch files and keystroke macros. The commands related to batch files are explained in a tutorial style. Useful examples make it easier to master the basics of batch files. ■ Chapter 17, “Understanding ANSI.SYS,” shows you how to make DOS screens look col- orful and controlled. The details of the ANSI.SYS driver are presented in workshop fashion. You learn how to reassign keys, control the cursor’s position onscreen, display
- 41. 6 Introduction the date and time, and more. This chapter also describes the ANSI commands that you can use with the ANSI.SYS device driver provided by DOS. ANSI commands enable you to control how information is displayed on your screen. ■ Chapter 18, “Mastering DOSKEY and Macros,” covers an alternative to batch files. You can use the DOSKEY program to create simple macros that quickly accomplish a series of tasks. You learn how to use DOSKEY to make entering DOS commands easier and faster, as well as how to record commonly used commands as macros. ■ Chapter 19, “Configuring Your Computer,” is a comprehensive collection of DOS commands and directives that can help you get the best performance from your PC. In this chapter, you learn to use Microsoft MemMaker, a utility that automatically and optimally configures the way your PC uses RAM. You also learn how to set up your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to provide the best overall system configuration. ■ Chapter 20, “Networking DOS,” discusses the Novell and Microsoft clients for DOS and shows you how to install and configure each. You also learn how to identify and fix various common network problems. ■ Chapter 21, “Connecting to the Internet,” covers your options for connecting to the Internet and explains the fundamentals of shell accounts. You learn how to use Telnet and FTP to download files and how to troubleshoot problems you might encounter with these tools. ■ Chapter 22, “Third-Party Utilities,” covers the basics of freeware, shareware, and demoware and shows you how you can enhance your computer with this class of soft- ware. You learn about several powerful shareware utility programs that can help you get the most out of your DOS system. Appendixes Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition, also includes seven appendixes containing useful information: ■ Appendix A, “Files Supplied with MS-DOS 6.22,” lists the files that are provided with MS-DOS 6.22 and includes a brief description of what each file is used for. The infor- mation in this appendix can help you determine whether you can safely remove some of the files installed by DOS. ■ Appendix B, “DOS Environment Variables,” describes the environment variables used by DOS and its utility programs, which you can use to control the way DOS operates on your computer. ■ Appendix C, “DOS Messages,” lists and explains screen messages you might see while you are using DOS. ■ Appendix D, “DOS and DOS Utility Programs’ Keyboard Commands,” lists the vari- ous keyboard commands available at the DOS prompt or when you are using utility programs such as EDIT and DOSSHELL.
- 42. 7 Conventions Used in This Book ■ Appendix E, “ASCII and Extended ASCII Codes,” This appendix lists the 256 charac- ters defined by the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), which is the character set that DOS uses on PC-compatible computers. ■ Appendix F, “Command Reference,” lists in alphabetical order all the commands that DOS provides for use at the DOS prompt or in your CONFIG.SYS file. For each com- mand, the purpose, proper syntax, and notes concerning its use are provided. In many cases, examples and error messages are included to help you use the command correct- ly. If you are unsure of how to use a particular DOS command, or if you would like to know more about it, check the entry for the command in this section. The “Command Reference” is a complete, easy-to-use, quickly accessed resource on the proper use of DOS commands. ■ This book wraps up with Appendix G, “Glossary” which offers definitions for many of the new terms you were introduced to in this book. Conventions Used in This Book Certain conventions are followed in this edition to help you more easily understand the dis- cussions: ■ UPPERCASE letters are used to distinguish filenames and DOS commands. Please note, however, that although uppercase letters are used in the examples, you can type commands in either upper- or lowercase letters. ■ In most cases, keys are represented as they appear on your keyboard, and key combina- tions are connected by plus signs. For example, Ctrl+Break indicates that you press and hold the Ctrl key while you press the Break key. Other key combinations, such as Ctrl+Z or Alt+F1, are activated in the same manner. ■ Words or phrases defined for the first time appear in italic. ■ Words or phrases that you are asked to type appear in monospace. Screen displays and onscreen messages also appear in a special monospace typeface. ■ Throughout the chapters of this book, syntax lines appear in monospace type and use the conventions shown in the following example: dc:pathcCHKDSK filename.ext /V /F /? In any syntax line, not all elements can be represented in a literal manner. For example, filename.ext can represent any filename with any extension. It also can represent any filename with no extension at all. However, command names (such as CHKDSK) and switches (such as /V, /F, and /?) are represented in a literal way. To activate the command CHKDSK.EXE, you first must type the command name CHKDSK. Any literal text (text you type letter for letter) in a syntax line appears in UPPERCASE letters. Any variable text (text that acts as a placeholder for other text) is shown in lowercase italic letters.
- 43. 8 Introduction The conventions used for syntax lines in the “Command Reference” are slightly different from those used in the chapters of this book. Refer to the section “The Conventions Used in This Command Reference” near the beginning of Appendix F for more information on how syntax lines are presented in that section.
- 44. DOS Fundamentals 1 DOS and the Personal Computer 11 2 Starting DOS 23 3 Using DOS Commands 41 4 Using the DOS Shell 57 I PART
- 46. DOS and the Personal Computer In this chapter DOS, Windows, and the PC 12 Other Flavors of DOS 12 PC Hardware 12 What Happens When the Power Is Turned On? 15 DOS and Random Access Memory 17 DOS and Disks 20 1 CHAPTER
- 47. 12 Chapter 1 DOS and the Personal Computer DOS, Windows, and the PC You might find it hard to believe, but the personal computer is now more than 20 years old, and so is the MS-DOS operating system. At one time, more than 95% of all the tens of mil- lions of personal computers sold used MS-DOS as the operating system. Nowadays, almost all systems use a variation of the Windows operating system, although DOS compatibility is still provided through DOS subsystems. Previously, in Windows 95/98, you could boot into an MS-DOS command prompt, bypassing the Windows user interface. With the release of Windows ME, this capability is no longer available. The objective of this chapter is to familiarize those of you who are less experienced comput- er users with the inner workings of your system. If you are an old hand and already familiar with the way your computer and DOS interact, you might want to skim through this chap- ter on your way to Chapter 2, “Starting DOS.” For those readers who have been using computers only a short time or who have never checked out the inner workings of a PC, this chapter provides a quick introduction that gives you the basics. Knowing this information enables you to better exploit the features of DOS and gives you more control over your computing environment. Other Flavors of DOS Although MS-DOS is by far the most prevalent variant of the DOS family, one other ver- sion from IBM needs to be mentioned. Now that Microsoft has quit developing MS-DOS as a standalone product, this version is the only alternative for someone wanting new and advanced features of the operating system. IBM has continued to develop the initial DOS product since its inception. It has released upgraded versions containing many of the same features of the upgraded MS-DOS versions. The latest version is called PC DOS 2000. Some of the new features include Y2K compli- ance, support for the REXX programming language, PCMCIA cards, unattended schedul- ing, and remote installation. PC Hardware In 1981, IBM introduced the IBM PC, which became the worldwide standard for personal computers. This standard endures to this day—even through all the subsequent upgrades in technology. In the early 1980s, IBM manufactured and sold more than half of all the personal computers sold. As the decade wore on, however, IBM’s grip on computer sales weakened and scores of manufacturers introduced models of their own. All these manufacturers adopted the basic hardware architecture that made the original IBM computers a de facto standard.
- 48. 13 PC Hardware The PC Architecture The heart and soul of any personal computer is its central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is a microprocessor chip capable of receiving input, processing data, and producing the results as output. DOS-compatible personal computers have long been based on the Intel family of microprocessors and their clones. Everything in your computer is designed around the needs of the CPU. The CPU is plugged or soldered into the main circuit board of your system, which is where the term motherboard comes from. The motherboard also contains the core group of components needed to build a complete computer system. The CPU communicates to the rest of the system via the system bus. The system bus pro- vides a communications highway where the CPU can “talk to” memory chips, as well as to peripheral devices installed in the expansion slots along the bus. 1 I Part Ch The word peripheral comes from the Greek language and means around the center. As it is used in computer jargon today, a peripheral is any device that is connected to your com- puter’s CPU, either by an expansion slot card or plugged into a port. In your system, DOS plays the role of the traffic cop, organizing the flow of data in the computer and offering services that programs can use. DOS directs the activities of your system’s CPU and helps the CPU to communicate instructions and receive information from other parts of the system. In other words, DOS makes all the separate components inside your computer system work together as if they were all one single machine. When you install a video card or a modem into an expansion slot in your computer, it must conform to certain standards. These standards ensure that both DOS and the CPU know how to interface with the device. It is not unusual for some peripheral devices, such as parallel and serial communications ports, to be built directly onto the motherboard of the computer. These devices also must conform to the standards that allow DOS and the CPU to control them. Computer Memory To perform operations, your computer uses binary numbers to represent both data and pro- gram instructions. Binary numbers use the binary digits 0 and 1 in various combinations to represent everything you do with your computer. Binary digits are usually called bits, which is an abbreviation of binary digits. Computer memory is nothing more than thousands—or millions—of individual switches that can have one of two states: on or off. The binary digit 0 represents off, whereas 1 rep- resents the on condition. Eight bits arranged together form a byte; the arrangement of bits within the byte can produce one of 256 (2 8 ) possible values.
- 49. 14 Chapter 1 DOS and the Personal Computer Each one of the 256 possible values of a byte is arranged into an extension of the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code. The original ASCII code used seven bits to represent 128 different characters. After the eighth bit was added, ASCII could represent up to 256 characters. Officially, this set is called the PC 8 Symbol Set but has come to be known—somewhat inaccurately—by computerists all over the world as the ASCII Extended character set. The first 32 ASCII codes represent common commands used by the CPU and peripherals for such activities as making the speaker beep, telling a printer to use compressed print, con- trolling data transmissions, and so on. The rest of the ASCII codes represent letters, numer- als, and graphic characters. Therefore, a method is needed to store this information and make it available to the CPU. To store information, your computer typically uses three kinds of memory: ■ Random access memory (RAM) ■ Read-only memory (ROM) ■ Disk-based storage Each type of memory plays a different role in your system. Random access memory, or RAM for short, is a volatile form of memory. Volatile means that it can hold information only when electrically powered. If you turn off the power, all the information stored in RAM chips is lost. Think of RAM as an electronic chalkboard where information can be written and erased at will. When you turn off the computer, RAM is erased automatically. As you will see later in this chapter, RAM is broken down into three categories, determined by the way the computer addresses memory. Read-only memory, or ROM for short, is a close cousin to RAM, with one important excep- tion: The information stored on ROM is nonvolatile. ROM information is permanently recorded on the circuits of the chip during manufacturing and cannot be erased. When you turn off the computer’s power, this information is not lost. When you turn the computer on again, the information stored in ROM is once again available to the CPU and to DOS. Your computer uses ROM to store instructions and programming, as you will see later in this chapter. The third type of computer memory is disk storage. If you have the typical computer sys- tem, you can use both floppy disks and a hard disk (often called a hard drive) to store infor- mation while the computer is turned off. Disk storage uses metal or plastic disks coated with a magnetic material to record and play back information in much the same way as a stereo system uses magnetic tapes to record and play back music. Disk storage comes in a some- times bewildering array of formats. Later in this chapter, you will find the information you need to demystify disk storage. Peripheral Devices Although you might think of your computer system as a single machine, it actually is made up of many discrete peripheral devices. Strictly speaking, your computer is the CPU and its
- 50. 15 What Happens When the Power Is Turned On? attached RAM. By themselves, the CPU and RAM can do nothing useful because there is no way to provide input for the CPU to work with, and no way for the CPU to provide output in a form you can understand and use. Without peripheral devices, a computer is worthless. Without an operating system such as DOS, your computer would be the modern equivalent of the Tower of Babel. Every part of your computer except the CPU and memory is a peripheral device. Key- boards, disk drives, printers, and monitors are all examples of peripheral devices. One of the most basic jobs DOS performs for you is to provide the standards and programming neces- sary to add peripheral devices to your system so that you can get some work done. Back in the wild and woolly days of personal computers, before the IBM PC, each computer maker employed its own standards and peripheral devices. If you had an Apple II computer, you couldn’t share disks with anyone who didn’t have an Apple II. If the keyboard for your TRS-80 broke, you couldn’t replace it with a keyboard from any other type of machine. Worst of all, if you went from an Apple II to another kind of computer, you had to learn a whole new set of commands. One of the ancestors of DOS was an operating system called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers). CP/M standardized the commands necessary for using a computer, many of which are still used in DOS, but each different computer manufacturer still used different standards for peripheral devices and disk formats. According to legend, IBM investigated using CP/M as its operating system for the first PCs. As the rumor goes, there were differ- ences in time frames, engineering, and personalities, so IBM turned to a small upstart com- pany called Microsoft. If things had gone differently, this book might have been titled Special Edition Using CP/M! The simultaneous introduction of the IBM Personal Computer and DOS changed the com- puting world forever. For the first time, because of standardization, users could walk into a computer store and buy disk drives, video cards, keyboards, and other peripherals made by other companies to put into their IBM or compatible computers. Peripherals that are sold today for personal computers adhere to two standards: hardware and software. The hardware standards ensure that peripherals can fit into your system with- out doing damage and that they can communicate with the CPU. The software standards imposed by DOS ensure that the peripheral becomes an integral, functioning part of your computer system. What Happens When the Power Is Turned On? When you flip the power switch on your computer system, you set into motion a series of steps that must occur before you can see the DOS prompt, which signals that your comput- er is ready for use. No doubt you have seen these steps performed, possibly without realiz- ing their significance. This set of steps is called booting the computer. This phrase refers to the old saying “pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” meaning to make something of yourself from nothing. That’s exactly what booting does; it makes that expensive paperweight on your desk into a fully functional computer. 1 I Part Ch
- 51. 16 Chapter 1 DOS and the Personal Computer The first of these steps is the activation of the Power On Self Test (POST). The Power On Self Test is a program that has been recorded on a ROM chip located on the motherboard of your system. This program gets the ball rolling. First, it loads instructions into RAM for the CPU to follow. These instructions tell the computer to perform a quick self-diagnostic check of the hardware. One of the first things you see when you turn on the computer, therefore, is the system counting and testing the installed RAM. Next, the POST checks to see that the system setup is still valid. Your system contains a special kind of chip called a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, or CMOS, that stores information about your system’s configuration. CMOS chips are used because they need only a trickle of power, which can be supplied by a battery, to retain the stored infor- mation for several years. Your system’s date and time settings are stored on this chip, along with information about installed floppy disk drives, hard disk configuration, and other sys- tem configuration information that can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. If the system setup is okay, the POST passes on to the next step: loading the operating system. When the self test is satisfied that everything about your system is in order, it is time to load DOS using another program found on your system’s ROM chips—the bootstrap loader. This program’s job is simple and to the point: Find the operating system’s loader on the disk and make it run. By default, the first place it searches is drive A, to see whether you have a bootable floppy disk inserted into the drive. If the program fails to find a disk in drive A, it next looks to your hard disk. When the loader finds a valid operating system (in this case DOS), it starts the program found on the boot sectors of the disk. Most computers today will allow you to specify in the BIOS where you want the computer to look for the operat- ing system loader—for example, going straight to the hard drive and bypassing searching the floppy drive. Completely describing all the steps involved in booting DOS might take several pages and bore you to tears, so the following description is somewhat simplified. When the ROM bootstrap loader finds a disk with a bootable copy of DOS, it transfers control to that disk’s boot sectors, where the DOS loading program takes over. The first file loaded is IO.SYS. IO.SYS places into memory the basic input/output services DOS provides. After this file is loaded, the second file, MSDOS.SYS, is loaded. Between these two files, DOS sets up the many services it offers to programs, such as file handling, printer handling, and so on. IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS If you look at a directory of your boot disk, you normally do not see the IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files listed. Both of these files have the hidden attribute, which prevents the DIR command from listing them in the directory. Also, because hardware manufacturers sometimes alter portions of DOS to meet specific hardware needs, these files might have slightly different names. IBMIO.SYS and IBMDOS.SYS are common variations, for example.
- 52. 17 DOS and Random Access Memory MSDOS.SYS completes the foundation for providing DOS services to your system. After it is loaded, it checks the disk’s boot directory (normally C:) to see whether a file named CONFIG.SYS is present. If this file is found, it is loaded into memory, converted to all upper- case letters, and interpreted. Each line of CONFIG.SYS specifies some type of configuration information, such as a device driver to be loaded or a system setting to be made. After these settings are established, COMMAND.COM is loaded. COMMAND.COM is the user interface to DOS. Its job is to evaluate whether commands present- ed to DOS from the keyboard or from batch files are legal. If the commands are legal, they are run. If a command is not legal, COMMAND.COM is responsible for issuing one of those error messages that can prove so frustrating to new users. Just before COMMAND.COM turns the computer over to you, the user, it checks to see whether a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT is present in the boot directory. AUTOEXEC.BAT is a standard batch file that usually contains commands to customize your DOS installation. The only thing special about AUTOEXEC.BAT is that it gets run automatically during bootup. DOS and Random Access Memory To understand the memory issues that surround DOS and your computer system, you first need to know a bit of history. When Intel designed the 8088 and 8086 processors on which the first generation of DOS computers (PCs and XTs) was based, Intel thought that no user would ever need more than one megabyte (1MB) of memory. Most of the computers then in use had only 64 kilobytes (64KB) of memory, so this speculation might have been reasonable at the time. The problem is that this speculation was wrong—very wrong. Real Mode Versus Protected Mode When Intel developed the 80286 processor, it created a new mode of operation that allowed the CPU to address memory of more than 1MB. Additionally, more than one program could run at the same time, with each program protected from the actions of other programs. This mode of operation was called protected mode. To differentiate this new capability from the limited capabilities of the 8088 and 8086 processors, the term real mode was coined. Not until the release of the 80386 generation of processors did protected mode software begin to appear. Shortly after the release of the IBM PC, Lotus released a hot new spreadsheet program called 1-2-3. Soon businesses were buying PCs by the carload just to run Lotus 1-2-3. It wasn’t long before users found they could build large spreadsheets that exceeded the memo- ry limits of their computers. A few years later, IBM introduced the PC-AT, based on Intel’s 80286 processor. The AT’s processor was faster than those used in PC and XT machines, and it had the capability to access up to 16MB of memory using a new processor feature called protected mode. Unfortunately, DOS was never enhanced to take advantage of this capability, so software developers never used the full capabilities of the 80286 chip. Many ATs lived and died without ever running protected-mode software. 1 I Part Ch
- 53. 18 Chapter 1 DOS and the Personal Computer Later still, Intel developed 80386 and 80486 chips that addressed up to 4 gigabytes (4GB) of memory. Until Windows 3.0 came on the scene, precious little software was able to run the computer’s protected mode. Instead, users simply used these machines as fast PCs. Users who needed more memory than the original 1MB had to rely on a memory scheme called expanded memory, which was created collectively by Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft. Today, the current family of Intel chips is the Pentium group. They include the Pentium, Pentium MMX, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium IV CPUs. Also, other companies, such as AMD, now are making Intel-based CPUs that are in direct competition with the Pentiums. The Pentium-based CPUs can address more than 4GB of memory, depending on the operating system and CPU version. RAM is classified in three ways: conventional memory, expanded memory, and extended memory. Understanding the distinctions can be quite useful. Conventional Memory As you’ve already learned, the generation of personal computers that preceded DOS and the IBM PC used, at most, 64KB of random access memory. The Intel 8088 processor addressed up to 1MB—which was, at the time, a significant advance. Of this 1MB, 640KB was made available for DOS and applications programs to use. The remaining 384KB was reserved for system use. Figure 1.1 shows the way conventional memory is used under DOS. Figure 1.1 Conventional memory is restricted to 1MB. Upper-memory blocks ROM BIOS HD Controller ROM Video ROM Expanded memory page frame Video card RAM addresses Free memory pool available to programs DOS, DOS buffers and tables Device drivers and tables Device drivers loaded at boot DOS Interrupt Table 0KB 1KB 640KB 1024KB As you can see in the figure, DOS places a table of available services into memory, begin- ning at byte 0. When DOS loads the rest of itself into memory, it occupies memory
- 54. 19 DOS and Random Access Memory addresses beginning at 1KB. The space from 1KB to 640KB is reserved for DOS and what- ever programs you might run. Addresses of more than 640KB (the infamous 640KB barrier) are reserved for addresses for ROMs and for accessing video card memory. In DOS, memory addresses use a segment:offset notation to pinpoint an exact location where data or program instructions can be stored. These address locations are always specified using the hexadecimal number system. Each segment is 64KB in length, but each segment begins only 16 bytes up from its neighbor. The offset portion of the address specifies how many bytes the address is from the beginning of the segment. Programmers soon discovered that an extra block of usable memory can be gained by speci- fying the last possible segment in the 1MB area in the segment portion of the address. Using this trick opens up an extra 64KB (minus the 16 bytes that fall below the 1MB line) of memory, more than 1MB that can be addressed without sending DOS and the processor into never-never land. Thus, the high memory area was born. This newly discovered high memory area was almost immediately grabbed by network designers. They saw this area as a safe place to put their data buffers, which didn’t take RAM away from running programs that were already beginning to feel the squeeze of the 640KB barrier. Beginning with the release of DOS 5.0, users could employ unused addresses between 640KB and 1MB to run DOS, programs, and device drivers by using HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE to make this space available. You use the LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH DOS com- mands to place programs, device drivers, and even portions of DOS itself into the upper memory area. ➔ For more information about using upper memory blocks, see Chapter 19, “Configuring Your Computer,” p. 441. Expanded Memory When Lotus 1-2-3 users and others began demanding a way to access more than the 640KB memory provided by the conventional memory scheme, Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft worked together to come up with the Expanded Memory Specification (EMS), also known as the LIM 3.2 specification. This specification was adopted before the Intel 80286 processor hit the market. EMS was an immediate hit, which in part accounts for the fact that few software companies even tried to exploit the enhanced memory addressing capabilities of the 80286 processor. Programs that needed more than 640KB memory could easily be modified to adhere to the EMS system, so there was no great push for DOS to use the chip’s protected mode, which could address up to 16MB of RAM. The Expanded Memory Specification makes more memory available to processors running in real mode, the name given to the mode of operation that mimics the original 8088 proces- sor used in PCs and XTs. The LIM specifications reserve a 64KB area of memory in the upper memory block (the area between 640KB and 1MB) for use as a page frame. Shortly after the EMS specification was adopted, several companies—including AST Research, at the time the largest seller of add-on memory boards—came up with an 1 I Part Ch
- 55. Another Random Scribd Document with Unrelated Content
- 56. Meanwhile Madame Antoine d’Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going on—that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Châtelet on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for damages against La Chaussée and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard before the Châtelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing the defendant to the preliminary torture, manentibus indiciis. If the wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d’Aubray made a passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle. [5] In spite of a skilful defence, La Chaussée was condemned to death on March 24, 1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the ‘question ordinary and extraordinary,’ and that Madame de Brinvilliers was to be beheaded for contempt of court. When submitted to torture, La Chaussée displayed uncommon courage and denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot. The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy’s tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. ‘What accuser,’ says La Reynie, ‘would have been listened to for a moment if God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?’ La Chaussée was broken on the wheel the same day.
- 57. Taking refuge in London, the marchioness led a wretched existence, in distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears. Louis XIV had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made by La Chaussée on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles’s consent to the employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking fright, quitted England for the Netherlands. Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of Offémont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two brothers- in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two lettres de cachet had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 and March 31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property. We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liége in a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she fled to Antwerp, then to Liége. She had nothing to support her but an annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she was sometimes
- 58. ‘reduced to borrowing a crown.’ While at Cambrai, she appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer was, ‘She would poison me like the rest.’ It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding at Liége. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French troops then in possession of Liége were on the point of handing over the town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbé, and wins a warm welcome from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest manner, ‘on the last day,’ writes La Reynie, ‘that the king’s authority was recognised in the town of Liége.’ It was not even Desgrez who carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a former clerk of Fouquet’s named Bruant, otherwise Descarrières. ‘The burgomasters,’ wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, ‘have behaved so well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.’ Next day, March 26, Descarrières wrote again to Louvois: ‘I arranged that the detective (Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him also that a small box was seized on the lady’s person, at which ‘she appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her confession was in the casket,’ begging him to have it restored to her. Descarrières sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez. La Reynie says upon this subject: ‘It was God who ordained that this wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should be careful to write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.’ This confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, but had to translate the principal passages into Latin. From Liége the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed in killing
- 59. herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: ‘You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of your family, you want to do away with yourself!’ She answered, ‘If I did so, it was under evil counsel.’ On another occasion Desgrez was informed that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible fashion. ‘Ah, you wretch!’ he cried. ‘I see that you want to do for yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!’ She replied: ‘If I had only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.’ The archers who guarded her during her journey from Liége to Paris gave the judges a description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded by Madame de Sévigné to Madame de Grignan: ‘She stuck a stick into herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.’ During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal d’Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner’s character displayed itself in all its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the valet de chambre, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match. She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians. She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, ‘Yes, yes,’ she replied, ‘and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.’ Another time she said: ‘He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should ruin them all if I spoke.’ This she repeated several times.
- 60. At Mézières the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to Madame de Grignan: ‘The king has required the Parlement to depute Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don’t wish to wait till she arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.’ The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is dated Mézières, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic denials. ‘Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written such things she was out of her mind. ‘Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. ‘Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she knew nothing about it. ‘Asked if it was not La Chaussée who had poisoned her brothers, she said she knew nothing of all that. ‘Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom she had written them; she said she did not remember. ‘Asked why she wrote to Théria to secure the box, she said she did not know what that was. ‘Asked why, in writing to Théria, she said she was lost if he did not get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.’ The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:— ‘I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. I think it would be much
- 61. to the purpose if you did not show yourself too much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor severely examined me about you at Mézières.’ There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the ‘Bernardins widow,’ that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des Bernardins. Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in regard to Pennautier. ‘I do not know at all,’ she said on the night before her death, ‘that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor to render me any service if I had written him nothing.’ The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room that Ravaillac[6] had occupied. Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier’s predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to arouse public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging documents were in everybody’s hands. The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who diligently
- 62. spread false reports about him. The people regarded his influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a circumstance which does honour to the time. ‘It is wonderful,’ says Saint-Simon, ‘how many of the most notable men are working on his behalf.’ This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet’s friends was present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the most active. The judges, who were suspected by Louis XIV himself of having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence. Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he had written was as follows:—'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a month in the country will suffice....’ Startled by this sudden interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the pamphlets of Sainte-Croix’ widow, he established incontestably the falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix’ place had been falsified. ‘I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,’ added Pennautier; ‘but has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he died, prove that his death was natural.’ The close of Pennautier’s reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the clergy. ‘Saint-Laurent’s wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the right to return to this
- 63. office, in accordance with the deed of defeasance given him by Saint- Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de Saint-Laurent her husband.’ We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in France under the direction of Colbert. Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier—'a grave injustice to the war,’ as Madame de Sévigné said. Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom—the High Court and the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally. The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, but never failed in the respect due to the judges—a respect in which pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her. When they came to read the account of the examination at Mézières on April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:— ‘At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to intervene and postpone it until after the confession had been read. This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as sodomy and incest,
- 64. which being on this occasion only a matter of confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were for, others against. ‘Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had been told that, a confession having been found en route, it ought to have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin. ‘Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, I accuse myself, my father, etc. ‘The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet he thought the papers ought to be read. ‘The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St. Leo, showing that the judges had made use of them. ‘Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion. ‘The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was nothing for it but to resume the reading. ‘The question having been argued, the reading was continued. ‘Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess. ‘Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a paper having been found purporting to be a confession, it might be read by the judges.’ On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard—that of Briancourt, who related in detail his mistress’s life. He spoke in a voice broken by emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty impassivity. ‘Her spirit quite overawes us,’ said President Lamoignon. ‘We worked yesterday at her case till eight o’clock in the evening; she was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No one could
- 65. have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose testimony should not be received against her.’ But she was lost. The marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious punishment—the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the scaffold, the stake, the ‘tomb of fire’ whence the hand of the executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: ‘I warned you many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your crimes would ruin you,’ the marchioness replied—a wonderful reply in its pride and self-control—'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!’ Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version reported by President Lamoignon to the abbé Pirot: ‘She insulted Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep before all these gentlemen—that it resulted from a mean spirit. All this was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.’ Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty. ‘The enormity of the crimes,’ he said, ‘and the rank of the person accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to speak, with rays of sunlight.’ He went on to ask if the proofs adduced against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty depositions —that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d’Aubray, who sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, for the witness was not
- 66. confronted with the marchioness, and on that point the rules of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussée’s declaration after torture. The argument based on Sainte- Croix’ famous box seemed to him to have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady’s letters to Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last to the written confession seized at Liége, Nivelle strongly protested against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. ‘The last proof,’ he said, ‘relates to a paper found among those of the marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible arguments.’ These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under whatever form it might present itself. Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so strongly marked during the last days. The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the prosecutrix: ‘The accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady, because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La Chaussée) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling for her nephews, whom she
- 67. ought to consider as her own children. The death of the late Messieurs d’Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children—who would suffer punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a torture and death a consolation—find in it the preservation of the honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is sprung—these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.’ On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her pretended confession was sheer madness. ‘She did not appear affected by what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,’ we read in a summary report of the trial, ‘dwelt upon the dreadful illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had embittered his last moments. The first president told her also’ (and this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of the moral ideas of the period), ‘that the greatest of all her crimes, horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and brothers, but her attempt to poison
- 68. herself. She was kept for another half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little distress at heart.’ ‘The first president wept bitterly,’ writes the abbé Pirot, ‘and all the judges shed tears.’ She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes. Taine has given in one line a marvellous definition of the character of Racine’s heroines and the art of the poet himself: ‘We imagine the tears which never appear in their beautiful eyes.’ The sequel of our story will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine’s heroines, and will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced the models presented him by the society of his time. In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her soul’s salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbé, Edme Pirot. III. HER DEATH Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. ‘The delicacy of my temperament was so great,’ he said, ‘that I could never bear the sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to come within sight of a similar operation.’ He had an acute and subtle intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight. President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbé Pirot to attend Madame de Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of justice had not succeeded in achieving—the revelation of her accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to employ. ‘It is for the public
- 69. interest,’ said Lamoignon to the abbé Pirot, ‘that her crimes should die with her, and that she should acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, and her poisons would survive her.’ Further, it was his earnest desire to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to salvation. The good abbé has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. Phédre and the abbé Pirot’s story were composed in the same year; if the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and prolixity, posterity unquestionably might well have signed both works with the same name. Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the tower of the Conciergerie:— ‘Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which there were four persons—two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away from him, the monster. ‘The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace her absolute confidence in the learned abbé. He saw at once how much she was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at her table. ‘“To be sure, sir,” she said to Pirot, “you are the priest that the first president has sent to console me; it is with you that I am to pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to see you.” ‘“I come, madam,” answered Pirot, “to render you in spiritual matters what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this.”
- 70. ‘“Sir,” she rejoined, “we must submit to everything.”’ And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de Chevigny, she said: ‘Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are spoken of in secret. Farewell.’ The Oratorian retired. Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. ‘My death is certain,’ she said; ‘I must not delude myself with hope. I have to tell you the story of all my life.’ But the conversation drifted away to what was being said of her in society. ‘I can imagine pretty well that they are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a byword among the people.’ And her eyes flashed. Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: ‘Sir, are there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so numerous that the Church cannot remit them?’ ‘Believe, madam, that there are no sins irremissible in this life,’ answered the priest, and he enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner’s soul, and with it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene and happy—glorious, as the abbé said—and with the thought her heart was changed. ‘“Sir,” she answered me, “I am convinced of all you tell me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will apply His power to one so wretched as I.” I told her that she must hope that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her wretchedness.’ By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass like wax.
- 71. ‘After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she thought of telling me in detail on my return that which she had so far told me only in general terms. ‘After my mass,’ continues Pirot, ‘as I was taking a sip of wine in the jailer’s room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in great serenity. ‘“It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner,” she said, “that I can win salvation. If I had died at Liége before my arrest, where should I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the ill that I have done at the others. ‘“I beg you, sir,” she went on suddenly, “to make my excuses to the first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, and will tell him that I ask his pardon, and that of all the judges, for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me.” ‘It was thus,’ Pirot continues, ‘that she went on relating to me the whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to the table the two men and the
- 72. women who were her usual guard. “Sir,” she said to me, after she had told them to sit down, “you will not mind our dispensing with ceremony for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This,” she said to them, “is the last meal I shall take with you.” And turning towards the woman who was beside her, she said: “Madam, my poor Du Rus, you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my end.” ‘She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection gives him. ‘From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the slightest shadow of complaint. ‘“Sir,” she said to me at the end of the meal, “it is fast-day to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me”—she was to undergo torture and then be beheaded—“I have no intention of eating meat.” “Madam,” I replied, “if you need a meat soup to sustain you, there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is not rigorous in such a case.” “Sir,” she replied, “I would not be particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at supper-time, and again at eleven o’clock; to-day they will make it a little stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow.” ‘It is true,’ adds the good priest, ‘that I was thunderstruck at all this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so quietly, that
- 73. the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. ‘I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.’ And when Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her husband. She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand wrote this astonishing letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:— ‘Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur Marillac and Madame Cousté. Offer up for me as many prayers as you can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly, d’Aubray.’ Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was not correct. ‘How so, sir?’ she said. ‘Are not those who have driven me to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them their rancour?’ Pirot’s answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation which plunged her into great astonishment. Then the confession was resumed.
- 74. ‘King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,’ said Pirot, ‘his heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All these words and a thousand others like them,’ adds Pirot, ‘caused her to weep bitterly.’ Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. ‘“Sir,” she said to me, “I have not asked to see them; that would only have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them.”’ Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair prisoner’s character to the bottom. ‘Ah!’ she said, interrupting him, ‘those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still attached to this world’s glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with which I am loaded.’ And to the priest’s remarks she replied: ‘I tell myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural to me.’ And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: ‘At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.’
- 75. Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his breviary. ‘The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed to me that I was for nearly half an hour circling round Domine, labia mea aperies, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.’ He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: ‘I got no sleep at all. Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to me.’ Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: ‘O God, I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to see her crowned with Thee!’ In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. ‘I was taken up the tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in her on the previous evening.’ Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child. One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much torture. ‘Sir,’ she said to me, ‘you gave me yesterday some hope that I might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know whether I am in purgatory or hell?’ Pirot reassured her. Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to descend to hear her sentence read. ‘She was prepared for death and torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. She answered
- 76. fearlessly, “In a moment, but just now we are finishing our conversation, this gentleman and I.” We shortly finished our talk in great serenity.’ On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the Conciergerie. ‘I said mass for her, and went into the jailer’s room. I found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the torture- chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got it read a second time.’ The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:— ‘The court has declared and declares the said d’Aubray de Brinvilliers duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dreux d’Aubray her father, and the said d’Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns the said d’Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de Grève of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her accomplices.’ She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was aroused. After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the torture-chamber, and when she saw the apparatus, she said: ‘Gentlemen, it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think I can escape it—my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it will not be dispensed with—but I will declare all beforehand. I have denied
- 77. everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn now.’ Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The strongest poison was ‘rarefied arsenic.’ The only antidote which she had used herself when poisoned by Sainte- Croix was milk. As to her accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she declared that she had never had or known any. The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity. Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the body, produced the most horrible agonies. Meanwhile the poor abbé Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as the sufferer herself: ‘I did not see her from half-past seven until two o’clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, saying to myself at every moment, “They are now giving her torture.”’ He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the jailer, he was besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de Brinvilliers. At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture which made
- 78. strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liége, with purloining documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes blazing. ‘She was highly excited, her face red as fire, her eyes gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought to her at once.’ The rest of the story is really touching. The abbé Pirot watched with the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to die. ‘I expressly notice this circumstance,’ he says, ‘to undeceive those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way to the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the execution.’ Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when the Host was placed on the altar. ‘When we entered the vestry of the Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she said to him: “You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do myself harm.” “Madam,” he replied, giving her a pin, “I beg pardon, I never mistrusted you, and if
- 79. anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I.” He fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She begged him to pray to God for her. “Madam,” he replied, his voice choked with sobs, “I will pray for you to- morrow with all my heart.”’ ‘Meanwhile,’ says Pirot, ‘she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.’ She spoke of the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it—the public penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: ‘Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the ashes if your soul is in grace.’And further: ‘Yes, madam, this flesh which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright as the sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.’ By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. ‘The cloud of nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one’s heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: “Sir, my distress must be great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in what concerns me.”’ Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about to be afforded, for about six o’clock the procurator-general sent for the abbé Pirot. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘this is a most vexatious woman.’ ‘How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.’ ‘Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her accomplices.’
- 80. Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. ‘Sir,’ she said, ‘it is true that you told me that at first and at greater length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.’ Monsieur de Palluau at once said, ‘This is more than enough, sir; adieu.’ ‘He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was her courtesy.’ Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the torture-chamber. Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner came up to speak of ‘a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior to herself.’ As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank—the Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, the Abbé de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her confessor: ‘Sir, what a strange curiosity!’ She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned criminals, holding in one hand the penitent’s candle, and in the other a crucifix. On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. ‘It was one of the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner’s assistant sitting on the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover up the wood, and the executioner
- 81. stood upright at the back. She got in first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room for the executioner’s feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my knees doubled up uncomfortably.’ The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Grève, which extended from the Hôtel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady’s features underwent a sudden change of expression: ‘They were dreadfully convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole countenance wild.’ ‘Sir,’ she said to her confessor, ‘would it be possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to have so little feeling as to remain in this world?’ Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness ‘then suffered one of the strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.’ ‘I do not think,’ adds Pirot, ‘that there was a moment in all the time that I had been with her when her appearance betokened more indignation, and I am not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he took of her.’ Le Brun’s sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, unquestionably the artist’s masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette beside the lady. As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger till the hour of her death. The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. ‘Sir,’ she said to her confessor, ‘look; I am dressed all in white.’ All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liége, and subjected her to some rough treatment. She asked the executioner to move
- 82. so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this ‘delicacy,’ and asked the executioner to return to his former position. ‘It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,’ says Pirot. From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and radiant, and gave strength to her heart. She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which she publicly confessed her crimes. ‘Some people say that she hesitated in saying her father’s name,’ observes Pirot; ‘but I noticed nothing of the sort.’ Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Grève. ‘Not a word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Grève, the proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible apparatus used in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of fright.’ The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: ‘Madam, you must persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the end as you have begun.’ ‘This he said in a noticeably humane manner,’ observes Pirot, ‘and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at her firmness.’ At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were sitting in the Hôtel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. ‘Sir,’ she replied, ‘I have no more to say; I have told all I know.’ She renewed the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the accusations fabricated against them at her torture. The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. ‘She looked at me,’ says Pirot, ‘with a gentle countenance and an expression full of gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. “Sir,” she said to me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but as courteous as it was firm, “we are not yet to separate. You promised not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your word.” And as I
- 83. answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, she added, “I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a De profundis on the scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, sir, and pray for me.”’ Pirot remarks, ‘If I had not been at that moment more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her more than one mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than “Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me.”’ Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for her. She ended her ‘compliment’ by saying that ‘she was his servant, and so she would die on the scaffold.’ Then she added, ‘Adieu, sir.’ The throng was immense. Madame de Sévigné, who had come to witness the execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, writes: ‘Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.’ The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the river. ‘It was at that moment,’ says Pirot, ‘that I saw her so intent upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order without any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her thoughts. ‘She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with extraordinary docility all the executioner’s preparations. He undid her hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to be done so quietly as she then let it be
- 84. cut and shaved; the executioner’s hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt which he had put over her cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it had been a necklace of pearls. MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE ABBÉ PIROT
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