rusted
with blood, as if with rust. And so, night by night, I loosened that
stony plaster, and hid it away in the stuffing of my pillow, until the
hour came when the iron shook; and then with one good wrench it came off
in my hand, and my first step had been made towards freedom.

You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said, a child
could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell you. I had gained
two things--a tool and a weapon. With the one I might loosen the stone
which flanked the window. With the other I might defend myself when I
had scrambled through. So now I turned my attention to that stone, and I
picked and picked with the sharpened end of my bar until I had worked
out the mortar all round. You understand, of course, that during the day
I replaced everything in its position, and that the warder was never
permitted to see a speck upon the floor. At the end of three weeks I had
separated the stone, and had the rapture of drawing it through, and
seeing a hole left with ten stars shining through it, where there had
been but four before. All was ready for us now, and I had replaced the
stone, smearing the edges of it round with a little fat and soot, so as
to hide the cracks where the mortar should have been. In three nights
the moon would be gone, and that seemed the best time for our attempt.

I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yards, but I had very
considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out again. It would be
too humiliating, after trying here, and trying there, to have to go back
to my hole again in despair, or to be arrested by the guards outside,
and thrown into those damp underground cells which are reserved for
prisoners who are caught in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan
what I should do. I have never, as you know, had the chance of showing
what I could do as a general. Sometimes, after a glass or two of wine, I
have found myself capable of thinking out surprising combinations, and
have felt that if Napoleon had intrusted me with an army corps, things
might have gone differently with him. But however that may be, there is
no doubt that in the small stratagems of war, and in that quickness of
invention which is so necessary for an officer of light cavalry, I could
hold my own against anyone. It was now that I had need of it, and I felt
sure that it would not fail me.

The inner wall which I had to scale was built of bricks, 12ft. high,
with a row of