ran along the bank; to our great joy, at the end
of the island we found a boat, jumped into it,
and in a moment were across and out of hearing.
At daylight we found ourselves in a forest, where
all the brushwood had been cut down, and we
had to hide ourselves behind the tree trunks,
and keep a bright look-out till dark.

We marched all night, and lay in the woods
all day, suffering only from want of clear refreshing
water. When we had plenty of water,
we shaved and washed. We had brought provisions
for eighteen days. A day's allowance was
one inch and a half of Bologna sausage, a quarter
of a pound of bread, and two mouthfuls of
brandy, measured in a shaving-brush case. Our
sleep by day was disturbed, first by the cold and
then by the heat.

By the help of our maps, we kept in a pretty
direct course, never entering a house, nor speaking
to more than two persons. One directed us
round the town of Toul, without asking a question.
The other invited us to his cottage, and
guided us for several miles, taking us for runaway
conscripts.

On the eleventh day it rained incessantly, and
we had to sit against the roots of trees, cold,
wet, and hungry, afraid of falling over precipices.
Alison's ankles began to fail him again,
and he had grown thin from pain and fatigue.
That night we started sooner than usual, though
not until near dark. About half-past ten we
entered the small town of Charmes, thinking
the rain would keep the inhabitants in-doors.
On passing a corner a gendarme demanded our
passports. Innis, who knew French perfectly,
coolly produced some letters from his bankers,
and declared they were the new sort of passports
issued at Paris. Just as we thought we had
safely humbugged him, in came a brigadier, and
good humouredly said, " Ah, gentlemen, I am
glad to see you; I have been expecting you for
above a week;" and then pulling out a paper,
read our names and descriptions. Finding
ourselves caught, we made the best of it, and
invited the brigadier and gendarme to share
some dinner. The gendarme told us that he
had been in bed, but that, having been sent by
his wife to the apothecary, he had been talking
with some acquaintance, who kept him until we
had happened to come up.

The next day we were sent back to Verdun,
where all our friends were watting to receive
us. We were instantly put into the tower
d'Angoulême and searched. They cut open our
buttons to search for money, and took away
our knives, razors, and pocket-handkerchiefs.
But they did not leave me so bare as they
imagined, for I kept five double Louis sewn
inside my flannel waistcoat, and one under the
arm of my coat. We were ironed and shut up
in the round tower.

A few days after, we were sent to Bitche:
ten leagues north of Strasburg, a fortress
situated upon a rock in the midst of a valley.
In the little souterrain we found twenty Englishmen,
chiefly masters of merchant ships, and
midshipmen, and in the contiguous grand souterrain,
about one hundred and seventy British
seamen. My companions here were the sweepings
of the sweepings— all the most violent and
dissolute of the prisoners from Verdun —
smugglers, gamblers, duellists, and thieves.

Few attempts to escape from Bitche had succeeded;
the walls were so lofty, the guard so
good. A ship's carpenter, who escaped and was
taken trying to swim over the Rhine with his
son, a little boy, on his back, was brought to
the grand souterrain. He had not been in long
before he again attempted to escape. He one
night forced two wooden doors, and undermined
one or two iron doors. On the awful night when
the last door was to be passed, a spy informed the
commandant. Just as three prisoners had stepped
through, the gendarmes in waiting fired on them,
and then cut them down with their sabres. The
carpenter and a companion were killed; the
third jumped back through the door and escaped.
His son was afterwards one of four daring boys
who descended an angle of the citadel at Verdun
without a rope, but were recaptured, brought
back, and whipped.

On another occasion, an Italian prisoner hid
himself in the cavern well of the prison, three
hundred feet deep; he escaped, but was recaptured,
and sent to the galleys.

Another time, Lieutenant Essel and five
sailors escaped through a grating which they
had loosened, having previously made a rope
out of their linen. Unfortunately, just as they
were in the embrasure about to descend, the
sergeant of the rounds came by and fell over the
rope they had fastened. In their alarm, they
went down the rope too rapidly and too near
together, and it snapped. The lieutenant was
dead before he could reach the bottom, having
struck against a jutting rock. Only one midshipman
could move away, and he was recaptured
in the morning. Yet, although the four
had dropped ninety feet, only one man's leg was
broken.

As the winter approached, I and Innis and
Alison commenced making preparations for a
second attempt. We purchased coarse linen,
and made it up during the night into rope.
The barrack in which we were confined had two
fronts, with a wall running lengthwise through
the centre, the staircases on opposite sides
communicating by doors which were locked. The
one side was strongly guarded, but on the other
no sentinels were placed till eight o'clock at
night. As soon as it was dark (on the 20th
of November), we forced open the inner lock,
and then tried to cut out the clamp by which
the outer clasp was secured; but our knives
making little impression, we put a stiff piece
of iron within and across the keyhole of the
box lock, to which we fastened the end of
a strong cord. Twelve of us then got hold of
it, and pulling all together, open it flew. All
this time we kept shouting, to prevent the five
gendarmes who lived in the room below, hearing
us. A working party then ascended the stairs,
while those in the room below kept up the noise.
After a long and fruitless attempt, we found the