WONDERFUL ESCAPE FROM A FRENCH PRISON.—PLANS OF ESCAPE.—A LONG LABOR.—TUNNELLING THROUGH A WALL.—INGENUITY OF A SAILOR.—LUCKY ACCIDENTS.—DISCOURAGING EVENTS.—HOW SUCCESS WAS ATTAINED.—ELUDING THE GUARDS.—REACHING A PLACE OF SAFETY.
Among the most remarkable efforts of prisoners to escape from their confinement was that of some French Communists, who were sentenced to incarceration upon their failure to establish their government in France, after the downfall of Louis Napoleon in the disaster at Sedan. The story, as told by one of them, is of the most thrilling character.
We were political prisoners—three hundred of us—in the fortress of Port Louis, a part of that line of fortifications which was built by Sully to defend the French coast from Brest to La Rochelle. At high tide the fortress is entirely surrounded by the sea, and communicates with the land only by a bridge. Round its circuit runs a rampart on which the casemates abut. The entrance is opposite the bridge—that is to say, facing the peninsula on which stands the little town of Port Louis. On the left are the offices of the prison authorities and the residence of the governor; on the right, the quarters of the soldiers. In the centre of the fortress are barracks, forming a square, and having an inner court; and it is here that the prisoners are confined. The soldiers are strictly forbidden to speak to the prisoners. Their duty consists in mounting guard on the terrace running along above the casemates. A road, known as the Round Road, goes round the citadel, and separates the casemates from the buildings in which the prisoners are confined. The ground floor, occupied by the prisoners, is divided into twenty dormitories, of unequal size, containing from seven to thirty prisoners each.
PULLING NAILS WITH FINGERS.
The dormitories are lighted by windows looking out on one side on the Round Road, and on the other side on the inner court; and these windows are protected by strong iron bars. Having observed that the floor boards were badly joined, the idea occurred to us of working out with our finger-nails the nails by which they were fastened; and having done this, we discovered under our room large excavations without any outlet, which had doubtless been formed for ventilation. On lifting two of the floor boards under my bed, we were able to descend into this cellar; and then, after working holes in the walls separating the different compartments, we reached the foundation wall abutting on the Round Road. Immediately the working party had descended into the cellar, the floor boards were replaced, and were only lifted again when it was necessary for those below to remount. The only tools we had were large nails or spikes, which had been used in fixing the stand for the arms, these quarters having formerly been occupied by soldiers. We had worked out these nails with our hands; and to do so had cost us several days’ labor and no little laceration of fingers. We then conceived the idea of excavating a tunnel to run from the cellar to the sea. We found that we were just on a level with the Round Road; but this road served as a thoroughfare for wagons loaded with powder, and for all the vehicles bringing provisions and other stores into the citadel. It was therefore necessary, before excavating the tunnel, to sink a vertical shaft about thirteen feet in depth, in order that the superincumbent weight of the wagons passing might not cause the road to fall in.
UNDER THE ROUND ROAD.
Digging with the nails, we loosened the earth, which we then scooped up in a tin plate which we had been able to conceal. When we had in this manner filled a dinner napkin, we formed a sort of chain, and passed from hand to hand the napkin full of earth, which was deposited in the farthest of the underground compartments and well trampled down, so that it might occupy as small a space as possible. There were only six of us to carry on this work, for the numberless difficulties which stood in the way of our escape had discouraged the others. We followed to the last the same method of disposing of the earth and the stones, which we worked out one by one after incredible efforts. Having finished this shaft of thirteen feet in depth, we commenced the horizontal tunnel. We had in the first place to pass under the Round Road, which is twenty-two or twenty-three feet in width. As the earth was much easier of excavation than stone, we excavated our gallery with a downward slope, in order that we might be able to pass underneath the foundation wall of the casement facing our dormitory. Thanks to this slope, we succeeded so well that for a space of about forty-six feet—that is to say, until we reached the wall of the rampart—we had only to work through earth. This tunnel was just large enough for one man to creep along in it. We therefore took our turns at the excavations, lying flat on our faces. Unforeseen accidents occurred to increase the difficulties, already great, which we had to surmount. The part of the tunnel passing under the Round Road, notwithstanding the depth below the surface at which it was excavated, and notwithstanding the care we took to construct it arch-shaped, so that it might be better able to support the heavy weights passing above, threatened entirely to fall in. Heavy rains had loosened the soil, and pretty large masses of earth fell every day. It was necessary that this part of the tunnel should be propped up. How could it be done? One of our number, who had been a sailor, and who was a resolute and enterprising man, as sailors usually are, conceived the idea of supporting the earth by packing against the sides of the tunnel the stones which we had removed from the walls. This was done; and the downfall from above being thereby effectually prevented, we were able to continue our labors. A second accident, which seemed at first much more serious, then occurred, threw us into a fever of anxiety, and delayed the accomplishment of our project. When our tunnel had attained a length of about thirty-three feet, we could not get our light to burn. We thought this phenomenon was caused by want of air, and this is what we did to remedy the defect. While one of our number was kept constantly at work excavating, another, standing in the shaft at the entrance of the tunnel, and making a sort of fan of his jacket, forced a strong current of air into the tunnel. However, after some few days, when the length of the passage had been increased by a little more than a yard, there was no longer any need of our improvised ventilator, as the light burned of itself. There doubtless occurred in this part of the earth some gas which prevented our light from burning; and this gas, having little by little become dispersed, the phenomenon ceased.
REACHING THE RAMPART.
At length, after being distracted by doubts and fears, after the innumerable difficulties which every day for three months we had encountered,—difficulties which we should never have overcome but by dint of sheer energy, and thanks to that incredible patience with which prisoners only are endowed,—we reached the wall of the rampart. A few more days of labor and suffering and we shall be free. Free! The reader will understand what courage and hope that word must have given us to induce us to undertake and enable us to accomplish a work which, under any other circumstances, would have appeared to us as simple madness. Alas! it was at the very moment when we seemed to be approaching the end of our fatigues that the obstacles became most difficult to surmount. Some of our number seemed ready to abandon the task which for more than three months we had been prosecuting. All our labor was going to be thrown away. Again it was the energy of the sailor which saved us, and gradually revived the hopes of his weaker brethren. The wall of the rampart which we had still to pierce, and which is, of course, intended to resist cannon-shot, seemed to us proof against anything. It is constructed of enormous blocks of granite, jammed tightly together by smaller stones driven in like wedges, and the whole is united into one solid mass by means of Roman cement, which has become as hard as the stone itself. We endeavored with the nails—the only tools we had, and which we had put in wooden handles—to loosen the joints of the stones. With another piece of wood we had made a mallet, and to get the wood necessary for these purposes we had broken up the musket-stand and the barrack-shelves.