The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

by Thomas Wallace Knox

IMPROVISING TOOLS.

A DISCOURAGING SITUATION.

But the only result of our efforts was to blunt our implements. What could we do to supply our lack of tools? Our first thought was to take away a bar from one of our bedsteads, which were of iron; and this we did. This bar which we took was two feet in length and about as large round as a man’s thumb. After using one of the ends of this bar against the stone, we tried what use we could make of it as a lever. But the stones were too hard and too heavy, and our iron bar bent like a switch. What could we do now? We were not disposed to abandon at the last moment a project which had cost us so much toil; and yet we had many times emerged from our tunnel with the skin rubbed off our hands, and our faces as red as fire, having hardly succeeded, after long days of fatiguing labor, in working out a stone about as big as one’s fist. At length the bright thought occurred to one of us of making the very things which had been intended to secure our confinement contribute towards our escape. We determined to remove one of the iron bars which guarded the window. These bars were five feet and a half in length, and an inch and a half thick. But, in order that the warders might not perceive that one of them had been taken away, we first of all made an imitation bar of a piece of wood, cut from one of the broad shelves, and which we colored with ink and blacking. When this was finished and dry, we succeeded in unfastening with nails one of the bars of the window. We watched for a moment when the sentinel on the rampart opposite our window had his back towards us, and little by little loosened the stones in which the bar was set. When this was done, taking advantage of one very lucky moment, we gave the bar a wrench, got it out, and instantly replaced it by the imitation bar of wood. We then took the precaution of stopping up with bread crumbs—which we kneaded so as to look like mortar—the hole made in loosening the bar, and afterwards threw a handful of dust over the whole, that the different shades of color might not betray our device. This bar of iron became in our hands a formidable weapon. Without it we must inevitably have lost all the fruit of our labors. When we were in possession of this formidable tool, as we had now to attack stone, it was impossible for us to continue to work lying flat on our faces, as we had done when it was a simple question of burrowing in the earth. It was absolutely necessary that we should have complete control over all our movements. We were obliged, therefore, before resuming our attack on the wall, to enlarge this part of our tunnel, and to excavate in front of the wall a little chamber high enough for two men to work there on their knees, and large enough for us to use the iron bar to advantage. Of this bar we made, as occasion required, a crowbar or a ram. Then, and not till then, did we make any real impression on the wall. The scraps of information which we had been able to gather from the unguarded talk of the warders had given us a false idea with respect to the thickness of this rampart. We thought it was only about six or six and a half feet thick, whereas in reality it was more than sixteen feet. When, therefore, after indescribable labor, we had worked away the stone bit by bit, and made our hole six feet and a half in depth, we were disconcerted to see no sign that we were approaching the end of our labors. Far from being discouraged by this, however, we redoubled our efforts, and our astonishment increased as the hole became deeper. Still we worked on. The hole became ten feet deep; then twelve feet; then fourteen feet; and it was not until we had dug sixteen and a half feet into the wall, that the man who happened just then to be at work giving a heavy blow to the stone, pierced it, and after being dazzled for a moment by the sudden entry of the light, saw the sea stretching out in front of him. He immediately stopped up the aperture, and came to impart the welcome news to his comrades. We took counsel together, and decided that our escape should be attempted that very night.

ROUTINE OF THE PRISON.

And here I must interrupt the course of my narrative for a moment in order to give the reader a few necessary explanations. “How was it,” he will say, “that the officials did not perceive the destruction of the wood-work which you had been obliged to break up to make the handles of your tools, and the bar of wood with which you had replaced the iron bar of the window?” To this question I have a very simple answer to give. The officials of the prison had very little to do with us. The warders never came into our rooms except morning and evening, when they came to call the muster-roll. These visits were made at fixed hours, and I need hardly say that we were always sure to be present when they were made. We took good care, too, to work only in the daytime, for in the silence of night the dull blows struck underground would have been audible above. The warders went from room to room, calling over the muster-roll, and having seen that all the prisoners were in their places, immediately retired without troubling themselves about what might be going on. Besides, no détenu wishing to retain the good opinion of his comrades ever spoke to the warders; and these latter, finding themselves thus isolated, sought no intercourse with the prisoners. Again, détention being an essentially political punishment, we were not subjected to hard labor, and within the court, as well as in our rooms, were absolutely free. Another question which the reader will have asked is this: “How did you manage to keep your secret unknown during these four months?” Again his curiosity shall be satisfied. There was no secret, and there could not have been any. It was impossible for us to descend into our cellar and tunnel, or to remount to the surface, without being seen by those of our fellow-prisoners who happened to be in our dormitory. The dormitories being open all day long, the prisoners passed freely from one room to another, and by degrees they had all come to know of our resolution. The majority dissuaded us, and endeavored to point out all the difficulties which stood in our way. Our project seemed to them an absolutely impossible one. They thought that, our work having lasted so long, the officials had got scent of it, and were letting us go on, because they intended to have soldiers stationed ready to shoot us when we attempted to make our escape. We allowed our comrades to talk thus, and only asked one thing of them—that they would not betray our project. This they all promised, and, as the reader will see, they kept their word. I must, however, add that we had deceived them as to the time of our departure. When they inquired as to the condition of our work, we carefully guarded ourselves from revealing the stage at which we had arrived. Several times I gave them to understand that our work would not be finished before the end of January; and on the very day when everything was finished, we had given no sign of our approaching departure until we were about to set out. We had nothing more to do but to enlarge the hole we had made in the day, and to get out through that aperture.

DECEIVING THE GUARDS.

The rampart which we had pierced is on the left of the citadel, and therefore faces seaward. When the tide is low the sea retires and leaves the rocks dry for a distance of sixty or seventy feet around. On the night of our escape the evening muster-roll was called as usual, and we were shut up in our dormitories. Almost immediately two of our number went down to complete the enlargement of the hole, and this labor occupied them two hours. On their return we informed our companions that the moment for our escape had arrived. Their emotion was certainly greater than ours. Before setting out we took the precaution of placing in our beds our bolsters, made to look as much as possible like a man’s body, and with our night-caps stuck at the top. We also spread our prison clothes on our beds, as we were in the habit of doing every evening. Our object in adopting these precautions was to deceive the warder when he came in the morning to call over the muster-roll. The stratagem succeeded, and the officials did not know of our flight until six o’clock the next evening. This was very fortunate for us, as otherwise we should not have been able to get away any great distance from the citadel, and we should infallibly have been retaken. It was the 14th of November, at nine o’clock in the evening; the tide was out, and the rocks at the foot of the rampart were left bare. We had been able to find out the times of the tides in the almanac at the canteen. Our precautions had been all carefully taken, and, thanks to the depth of the shaft we had sunk at the entrance of the tunnel, and to the slope given to the tunnel itself, the hole which we had made in the wall of the rampart was only ten feet above the rocks.

OUT IN THE OPEN AIR.

One after another we crept through the tunnel, and then getting through the hole in the wall, we were able, while still clinging with our hands to the wall of the rampart, to reach with a drop the rocks beneath. Then, following all the bends of the wall, and keeping as near to it as possible, we passed around to the land side of the fortress. In like manner we passed along over the beach, keeping as near as possible to the little town, situated about one thousand yards from the fortress; and thus at length, after creeping silently between the huts of the coast-guardsmen, we reached the dry land opposite a little village called Loe Malo. The tide was now coming in. It had been our intention to divide, as soon as we were clear of the fortress, into two groups of three men each, only six prisoners having ventured to escape. We, however, marched on together, and without resting during the remainder of the night, in order, as quickly as possible, to put as much distance as we could between us and the fortress. Our object was to reach some little port of Brittany, and then endeavor to take ship for England. When we were brought to the citadel the authorities had caused us to be minutely searched, and had not left any money in our possession. I had, however, succeeded in concealing a small sum by carefully sewing it into the lining of my coat. This money was of the greatest service to us, as it enabled us on the following morning to take the railway, and thus in a few hours to put a considerable distance between us and the citadel.

FREEDOM AT LAST.