the sentinels, and found, to his great joy, that
the next cell was empty. If he could only contrive to burrow his way
into that, he would be able to watch his opportunity to steal through
the open door; once free he could either swim the Elbe and cross into
Saxony, which lay about six miles distant, or else float down the river
in a boat till he was out of danger.

Small as the cell was, it contained a sort of cupboard fixed into the
floor by irons, and on these Trenck began to work. After frightful
labour he at last extracted the heavy nails which fastened the staples
to the floor, and breaking off the heads (which he put back to avoid
detection), he kept the rest to fashion for his own purposes. By this
means he made instruments to raise the bricks.

On this side also the wall was seven feet thick, and formed of bricks
and stones. Trenck numbered them as he went on with the greatest care,
so that the cell might present its usual appearance before the Wednesday
visit of his guards. To hide the joins, he scraped off some of the
mortar, which he smeared over the place.

As may be supposed, all this took a very long time. He had nothing to
work with but the tools he himself had made, which of course were very
rough. But one day a friendly sentinel gave him a little iron rod, and a
small knife with a wooden handle. These were treasures, indeed! And with
their help he worked away for six months at his hole, as in some places
the mortar had become so hard that it had to be pounded like a stone.

During this time he enlisted the compassion of some of the other
sentinels, who not only described to him the lie of the country which he
would have to traverse if he ever succeeded in getting out of prison,
but interested in his behalf a Jewess named Esther Heymann, whose own
father had been for two years a prisoner in Magdeburg. In this manner
Trenck became the possessor of a file, a knife, and some writing paper,
as the friendly Jewess had agreed to convey letters to some influential
people both at Vienna and Berlin, and also to his sister. But this step
led to the ruin, not only of Trenck, but of several persons concerned,
for they were betrayed by an Imperial Secretary of Embassy called
Weingarten, who was tempted by a bill for 20,000 florins. Many of those
guilty of abetting Trenck in this fresh effort to escape were put to
death, while his sister was ordered to build a new prison for him in the
Fort de l'Etoile, and he him