The roar of the artillery continued. Suddenly there burst forth a loud thundering sound. The ground beneath their feet shook, the walls trembled, and the roof seemed about to fall on their heads, while the glare of a vivid flame penetrating through the windows lighted up the whole interior of the building, shrieks, groans, and cries echoing through the fort.
The magazine had blown up. It was a wonder that the prison itself had not been hurled to the ground.
“Thank Heaven, we have escaped!” exclaimed Oliver.
The attacking vessels still continued firing, and after a short interval the fort once more replied, but evidently with fewer guns than before.
A crash was heard over their heads, and down fell a mass of timber, plank, and tiles just above the door. Looking up, the clear sky could be seen, from out of which a crescent moon shone brightly.
No one was injured, for the shot, having torn its way through the roof, had fallen outside.
“Hurrah! thanks to that shot, we may make our escape out of this, for the Frenchmen are too much engaged at the guns to see us!” cried Jack. “Let us get down to the shore, and when we are once there we may manage to find our way aboard the ship. The chances are we shall find some fishing boat or other on the beach. May we try, sir, what we can do?”
“What do you say, Oliver? Shall we make the attempt Jack proposes?” asked Rayner. “If we go we must take Le Duc with us, I wish that we could find something to knock off his chains, and we might set the other poor fellows at liberty.”
To climb out would be no difficult matter, as Brown found that by standing on Tom’s and Jack’s shoulders he could reach the lower part of the roof. But Rayner positively refused to go without first setting Le Duc at liberty. He told Brown to try and dislodge a piece of stone from the wall with which they might break the prisoners’ chains.
Suddenly Tom recollected that he had stowed away one of the files which Le Duc himself had brought in his pocket.