Worthy Gelfhardt! This was the act of a Pomeranian grenadier! How rare are such examples! Be thy name and mine ever united! Live thou while the memory of me shall live! Never did my acquaintance with the great bring to my knowledge a soul so noble, so disinterested!
It is true, I afterwards prevailed on him to accept the whole thousand; but we shall soon see he never had them, and that his foolish wife, three years after, suffered by their means; however, she suffered alone, for he soon marched to the field, and therefore was unpunished.
Having money to carry on my designs, I began to put my plan of burrowing under the foundation into execution. The first thing necessary was to free myself from my fetters. To accomplish this, Gelfhardt supplied me with two small files, and by the aid of these, this labour, though great, was effected.
The cap, or staple, of the foot ring was made so wide that I could draw it forward a quarter of an inch. I filed the iron which passed through it on the inside; the more I filed this away, the farther I could draw the cap down, till at last the whole inside iron, through which the chains passed, was cut quite through! by this means I could slip off the ring, while the cap on the outside continued whole, and it was impossible to discover any cut, as only the outside could be examined. My hands, by continued efforts, I so compressed as to be able to draw them out of the handcuffs. I then filed the hinge, and made a screw-driver of one of the foot-long flooring nails, by which I could take out the screw at pleasure, so that at the time of examination no proofs could appear. The rim round my body was but a small impediment, except the chain, which passed from my hand-bar: and this I removed, by filing an aperture in one of the links, which, at the necessary hour, I closed with bread, rubbed over with rusty-iron, first drying it by the heat of my body; and would wager any sum that, without striking the chain link by link, with a hammer, no one not in the secret would have discovered the fracture.
The window was never strictly examined; I therefore drew the two staples by which the iron bars were fixed to the wall, and which I daily replaced, carefully plastering them over. I procured wire from Gelfhardt, and tried how well I could imitate the inner grating: finding I succeeded tolerably, I cut the real grating totally away, and substituted an artificial one of my own fabricating, by which I obtained a free communication with the outside, additional fresh air, together with all necessary implements, tinder, and candles.
That the light might not be seen, I hung the coverlid of my bed before the window, so that I could work fearless and undetected.
Every thing prepared, I went to work. The floor of my dungeon was not of stone, but oak plank, three inches thick; three beds of which were laid crossways, and were fastened to each other by nails half an inch in diameter, and a foot long. Raving worked round the head of a nail, I made use of the hole at the end of the bar, which separated my hands, to draw it out, and this nail, sharpened upon my tombstone, made an excellent chisel.
I now cut through the board more than an inch in width, that I might work downwards, and having drawn away a piece of board which was inserted two inches under the wall, I cut this so as exactly to fit; the small crevice it occasioned I stopped up with bread and strewed over with dust, so as to prevent all suspicious appearance. My labour under this was continued with less precaution, and I had soon worked through my nine-inch planks. Under them I came to a fine white sand, on which the Star Fort was built. My chips I carefully distributed beneath the boards. If I had not help from without, I could proceed no farther; for to dig were useless, unless I could rid myself of my rubbish. Gelfhardt supplied me with some ells of cloth, of which I made long narrow bags, stuffed them with earth, and passed them between the iron bars, to Gelfhardt, who, as he was on guard, scattered or conveyed away their contents.
Furnished with room to secrete them under the floor, I obtained more instruments, together with a pair of pistols, powder, ball, and a bayonet.
I now discovered that the foundation of my prison, instead of two, was sunken four feet deep. Time, labour, and patience were all necessary to break out unheard and undiscovered; but few things are impossible, where resolution is not wanting.