ning tools, and was further to
rely on money and my own discretion.

I began and continued this labour about six months. I have already
noticed the difficulty of scraping out the earth with my hands, as the
noise of instruments would have been heard by the sentinels. I had
scarcely mined beyond my dungeon wall before I discovered the foundation
of the rampart was not more than a foot deep; a capital error certainly
in so important a fortress. My labour became the lighter, as I could
remove the foundation stones of my dungeon, and was not obliged to mine
so deep.

My work at first proceeded so rapidly, that, while I had room to throw
back my sand, I was able in one night to gain three feet; but ere I had
proceeded ten feet I discovered all my difficulties. Before I could
continue my work I was obliged to make room for myself, by emptying the
sand out of my hole upon the floor of the prison, and this itself was an
employment of some hours. The sand was obliged to be thrown out by the
hand, and after it thus lay heaped in my prison, must again be returned
into the hole; and I have calculated that after I had proceeded twenty
feet, I was obliged to creep under ground, in my hole, from fifteen
hundred to two thousand fathoms, within twenty-four hours, in the removal
and replacing of the sand. This labour ended, care was to be taken that
in none of the crevices of the floor there might be any appearance of
this fine white sand. The flooring was the next to be exactly replaced,
and my chains to be resumed. So severe was the fatigue of one day, in
this mode, that I was always obliged to rest the three following.

To reduce my labour as much as possible, I was constrained to make the
passage so small that my body only had space to pass, and I had not room
to draw my arm back to my head. The work, too, must all be done naked,
otherwise the dirtiness of my shirt must have been remarked; the sand was
wet, water being found at the depth of four feet, where the stratum of
the gravel began. At length the expedient of sand-bags occurred to me,
by which it might be removed out and in more expeditiously. I obtained
linen from the officers, but not in sufficient quantities; suspicions
would have been excited at observing so much linen brought into the
prison. At last I took my sheets and the ticking that enclosed my straw,
and cut them up for sand-bags, taking care to lie down on my bed, as if
ill, when Bruckhausen paid his