s (we had no joints ourselves, but only a bullock's
cheek now and then) so that I too was able to bear my part in the
concerts which now became of daily occurrence.

The soldiers of the guard often came and listened to our
performances, and even the sour-faced commandant once condescended
to form part of our audience, and smiled broadly when Dilly, who
was a Devon man, sang with much expressive pantomime the pleasant
ditty of Widdicombe Fair, though the Frenchman did not understand a
word of it.

This condescension on the part of the commandant emboldened me to
proffer a request which I had been meditating for some days. I had
by no means given up the hope of escaping from the castle, but the
more I thought of it, the less likely it appeared that I could
succeed without assistance. Of course, Joe Punchard should
accompany me, and when I talked the matter over with him, neither
of us had the heart to scheme for our own freedom without regard to
those of our fellow prisoners with whom we had become more closely
connected through our musical interests.

"There is old John Dilly," I said one day, when we were discussing
the subject, "he was good to me aboard the Dolphin; I shouldn't
like to leave him behind."

"True," says Punchard, "and Runnles is a quiet, good soul; besides
his name is Joe."

"And the bosun, he's as strong as an ox, and might be a useful
man."

"And Tolliday, he's for ever sighing about Molly, his sweetheart;
'twould make two folks happy (maybe) if he got away among us."

Thus we ran over the list of our friends very seriously, though it
tickled my sense of humor when I remembered that we had not as yet
the ghost of a notion how this escape we talked of was to be
contrived. But having thus selected our partners in the attempt we
were resolved to make some day, we decided that it would be a step
in the right direction if we all shared the same dormitory. We
might then talk over the matter without the danger of it being
blabbed among the whole body of prisoners.

Accordingly I took advantage of the commandant's gracious
appearance among our audience to ask him (having now picked up
enough French to make myself understood) to allow all the members
of the band to sleep together, explaining that we should attain to
greater efficiency if, after the lower doors were locked for the
night, we could practice for an hour or so together before the sun
went down. His grim face relaxed into a smile at the s