ety.

Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement. Experience,
the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him, and imparted the
strength and resolution which often require years to mature. Thoughts,
and feelings, and energies, to which he had before been a stranger, came
bounding through his mind, as the mighty river, which, having broken
away the feeble barrier man had set in its course, roars and thunders
down its before forsaken path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated
by this successful act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding
to the awful fate which awaited him. His best hours--his hours of
unimpaired strength--had now passed away; there was no fountain at which
he could renew it. But energy now burned within him, and, like an
invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some great act. The impulse
was irresistible; hopeless as his case had before appeared, he
determined to escape. But how? This question had not yet presented
itself. Escape from the jail!--from death!--himself,--more than himself,
his wife! Stone walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more
than downy masses, which his breath could blow away.

Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and sounded
upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid beneath his
blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and he was about to
abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when a new thought
suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the new idea, he
impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By the side of the
wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging, with the intention of
undermining it. Without a thought of his enfeebled body, he plied the
shovel with the energy of desperation. Instead of making a calm
calculation, and proceeding with such an economy of strength as would
enable him to complete the work, he labored as though the task before
him could be easily and quickly accomplished.

His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken, penetrated the
purpose of her husband; but she saw that his strength must entirely fail
him ere the work could be accomplished.

"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a little."

"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice another
moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing from his labors.

"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so hard."

"That would b