ible to extract from
them the means of escape. But my meditations in this case were vain.
The keeper returned no more during the remainder of that day, and, on
the next, an incident occurred which put an end to all expectations from
his kindness.

An active mind, which has once been forced into any particular train,
can scarcely be persuaded to desert it as hopeless. I had studied my
chains, during the extreme anguish that I endured from the pressure of
the fetter upon the ankle which had been sprained; and though, from the
swelling and acute sensibility of the part, I had found all attempts at
relief, in that instance, impracticable, I obtained, from the coolness
of my investigation, another and apparently superior advantage. During
the night, my dungeon was in a complete state of darkness; but, when the
door was open, the case was somewhat different. The passage indeed into
which it opened, was so narrow, and the opposite dead wall so near, that
it was but a glimmering and melancholy light that entered my apartment,
even at full noon, and when the door was at its widest extent. But my
eyes, after a practice of two or three weeks, accommodated themselves to
this circumstance, and I learned to distinguish the minutest object. One
day, as I was alternately meditating and examining the objects around
me, I chanced to observe a nail trodden into the mud-floor at no great
distance from me. I immediately conceived the desire of possessing
myself of this implement; but, for fear of surprise, people passing
perpetually to and fro, I contented myself, for the present, with
remarking its situation so accurately, that I might easily find it again
in the dark. Accordingly, as soon as my door was shut, I seized upon
this new treasure, and, having contrived to fashion it to my purpose,
found that I could unlock with it the padlock that fastened me to the
staple in the floor. This I regarded as no inconsiderable advantage,
separately from the use I might derive from it in relation to my
principal object. My chain permitted me to move only about eighteen
inches to the right or left; and, having borne this confinement for
several weeks, my very heart leaped at the pitiful consolation of being
able to range, without constraint, the miserable coop in which I was
immured. This incident had occurred several days previously to the last
visit of my keeper.

From this time it had been my constant practice to liberate myself every
night, and