The Express.
London, England, 1856-05-27 00:00:00

RBCAPE OF FELICE ORSINI FROM AN

AUSTRIAN DUNGEON.

ins simple and unaffected account of his escape
from the Create of St. Georgic,' Mantua, which Felice
Orsini give, in the following letter, is full of the most
varied interest. The courage, resources, and self.
reliance of Orsini himself, are the first things that
strike the reader. Next oomes the rancorous cruelty
of the Austrian government as is shown by tte cha-
racter of the cells in which they immure their pri-
Puler& But the most important truth revealed by
the letter is the moral isolation of the Austrians in
their Italian dominion& In descending from his
prison window Orsini injured one of his feet so
severely that he was lamed. thy dawned, and the
streets became filled with passengers before he could
emerge from the Castle ditch. 'there could be no
doubt that he was a prisoner broke loose. Yet the
casual passers-by did not hesitate to help him out of
the ditch and allow him to go his way unchallenged.
From Mantua till he gained the frontier was a jour-
ney of eight days. Strangers befriended and con-
cealed him—no one betrayed him. He was an
enemy of the Austrian—that was sufficient recom-
mendation to hospitality and protection. The Aus-
trians, it is clear, are surrounded by a population who
detest them. Among these en. miles are men like
Orsini, who can work their way out of dungeons in
which men of ordinary mould would have abandoned
themselves to despair, and whose first use of their re-
gained liberty is to renew the internecine struggle
with their hated tyrants. Against such adversaries no
combination of police spice and military mercenaries
can permanently prevail.]
"Dear Friend,—l have already written to you that
I am free; now I will give you the particulars of my
escape, the details of which have b. en surrounded by
party journalism with uncertainty and falsehood. I
was arrested at Hermannetadt, in Transylvania, on the
17th December, 1854, submitted to • long examine-
tion,and conveyed heavily ch, iced in a cart to Vienna
on the sth January. There I underwent three long
examinations from the police authorities. They
knew my real name, caused my portrait to be taken,
and howled me over in charge to the criminal tribunaL
I did not find that my late journeys in Lombardy
told especially against me, but my whole antecedents
since 1844 were known, and my constantly manifested
hatred to Austria was of great injury to me. They
knew everything concern:ng me. The Austrian
polio' and her higher art -dr:tiett receive re-
ports from all the clear rows rents of
Italy, as well as fr,..m. !Ler cow•
menders of the Dalian pros-sees tenmesing all the
individuals in any way politi.m y twis;„e-Atc!eett They
were, however, unable to *Ade rat ,egally, so they
informed me that I should again be pot into the hands
of the police, and confined in acme fortress, and that
the duration duty treprieonmen• would depend upon
the peaceful or stormy course of events in the political
world, and upon the total inertia of the revolutionists.
Such is the name by which they qualify all who
either age mpt political reforms or seek the national
independence.
" Oa the 23:11 March I was sent in charge of two
gendarmes and a superior police officer to Mantua,
where I was again examined by Baron Sancho.. I
then leaned that the documents relating to the poli-
tical mission I bad fulfilled in Milan in 1854 had
fallen into the hands of the Austrian government
when the Milanese committee was arrested, and that
I was doomed to die on the scaffold. In Mantua I
was examined at least twenty times.

"On reaching Mantua, we stopped in the large
courtyard of the Castle of St. Oeorgio. Oa each of the
tour sides is a tower, and the castle is surrounded by
• ditch seven or eight yards wide and six deep. On
the side near the Bridge of St. Gtorgio is an arched
way pealing under the street which leads from the
bridge to the city. By means of this arcade, when
the waters of the lake are high, the ditch round the
castle is filled with water. The whole is strongly
guarded on all sides by a large detachment of troops
with artillery.
"At the time of my escape, orders were given that
all ingress and egress Rimed be forbidden between
the hours of 8 p.m. and ii a.m.
" When political trials are going on, the prisoners
most jealously guarded by Austria are always sent
to the Castle of St. Oeorgio, ancrietter the revolution
of 1848 an express order was sent from Vienna that
the fortress should he exclusively used for the deten-
tion of political prisoners. Thu secret cells are in
the upper story, and in the lower story are kept the
archives of the city of Mantua. All the cells except
Noe. 12 and 7, have at the windows two rows of
thick iron bare, about • yard apart (which will give
you an idea of the thickoess ot the walls), and outside
the outer row is a thick grating ot iron wire. The
worst cells are Noe. 3 and 4. No. 4, the smaller of the
two, is tha one from which I escaped. It is about
six paces long, and rather more than three broad.
The cells 2,3, and 4 open into a corridor guarded by
eight soldiers, changed every 21 hours. There is a
sentinel posted at the single door which leads to all
the prisons, and the others watch the doors of the
cells. At night all them, regn'atione are even more
rigorously enforced. and there is a special sentinel for
the cells 2,3, and 4, who hears the slightest noise,
and reports it to the keepers, who sleep in a little
room opening out of the corridor which leads to
Nos. 2,3, sod 4. This room has two doors, and
every night the door leading to the courtyard is
abut, and the inner door is always closed, and has a
sentinel posted on the inside. In the day-time there
are three keepers charged with the surveillance and
service of the prisoners. These are changed at eight
o'clock every morning. One ot these Is responsible for
the prisoners, takes them their food, and makes the
daily and nightly visits, when he aloes enters
the mile, another meanwhile guarding the
door with a chain. This last has charge of the keys
of the upper and outer door, which is, as I told yoss
also guarded by a sentinel. Nu one can enter or
leave the castle without his special knowledge and
permission. Each of there various officers is hound
to keep watch that the others do their duty, and has
a separate responsibility in case of the escape of any
prisoner. Besides all these, there is the capo meads,
who has the surveillance over the whole; sleeps in
the castle, governs and orders all, and has under him
the corporal and all the men of the guard. In the
night-time he keeps all the keys, and the keeper has
to apply to him for them, in order to make his nightly
visits to the cells.

"The day visits are made at 6,8, 10,12, 2,4, and
8 o'clock; the night visits, at half.past 9 and half-
past 1. They then examine the state of the irons of
the windows, the walls, &c. In the intervals of the
regular visits the keeper comes in and out at all
hours, so that the pcor prisoner ban never a moment
of quiet.
From these details you can see the impossibility
of escaping even with the help of one guard—at least
three would have to be in the stew, and even then
false keys would be necessary, as the keys are all kept
by the ospo custode ; and once out one would find
oneself in the midst of Mantua, as tho castle has
only one entrance, which kids into the city. There
is, therefore, no ether mode of escape than the one I
took, of letting myself down from a height of thirty
yards into the ditch. But how did I contrive this
escape? By patience, and the firm determination to
attemptagain
and enetnerery possibleanytbin injury in
ginorder to
my
powfreemeyr self
to work to
the detested Austrians. Animated by this hatred to
Austria, I assumed a new character, and, after seven
mouths of solitary and most ri,;orous cooficoment,
during which I was never allow. d a light, or even a
glass to take the median nect roomy for my fever, I
contrived by my quiet and uncomplaining conduct to
make the gust ds so satisfied with me that they ceased to
take the trouble to examine the bore of my windows. 1
had obtained six little saws of the very finest steel,
but how I had obtained them the Austrian govern-
ment will never know. It poor Colonel Calvi, who
was confined in cell No. 2, and with whom I had kept
up a correspondence of signs through the wall, bad
not b.en so 403 D Oxecuted, he and I should have
escaped together from the castle. I had once asked
the capo custode, a German, if he thought the sen-
tence of death recorded against me would be put in
execution. He answered he should be sorry to
awaken illusive hopes—perhaps no, perhaps yes—
and that was all.
"About the end of January I wu put into cell No.
4, the worst in the castle, and I almost despaired of
ever being able to mope from it; the window was
more than two yards from the ground, and to work
at it I was obliged to stand on the back of my chair.
The rows of iron bars were a yard apart ; the °Quids

rat tog being one-tenth of the distance beyond. Tim
ban were extremely thick, especially the insid. •
oyes, and the height from the window to the level of
the ditch wu 30 yards—l myself measured it with a
string.
"I could not work at night, because the noise
of the saws, though very slight, would have been
beard by the sentioi I, who, wrier the half-past nine
o'clock visit, came every fire minutes to the door. I
waked therefore in to a day-time, and toy ear had
become so accustom. ti to the step of the sentinel that
bi face he opened the door I always contrived to get
down and put my chair in its vire, and sometimes
I would be walking up and down ramming. I eto-
rer.d over the marks of my work with buck-powder
mixed with black wax and bread. By thus working
in the daytime in the intervals of the visite, in 94
days I had cut away seven of the outside ban sad
one of the ioside use, where they were fixed late
the wall, and from the wall I had extracted eight
bricks, which I hid in the straw of my mattress. As
for the cord, I had thought of that before. On the
lei of February I kept hack, without their knowing,
the sheets that I ought to have sent away to the
Tull, and on the lot of March I kept back the towels,
which were as wide as the sheets and a little longer,
end by cutting these into strips I was able, en
the 27th of March, to make my cord, fasten-
ing it with sailor', knot.. I let it down
into the ditch to try its length, and found it MS
longer than necessary. The 28. h and 29. h I pawed
in great tear of discovery, being more than maselly
Ise reecuted by the attentions of the sentinel, so that I
could not attempt my escape. I therefore pretended
during tease two days to be ill, and did not rise from
my bed, foe fear they might chance to examine my
straw mattress. They had ceased, in my ease, to ex-
amine the ban. At halt-pest nine on the evening of
the 29th, at the usual visit from the eapo eestode, I
pretended to be asleep; but the moment they were
gone, and while they were going the round of the
other visits, sod so making some noise, I rapidly re-
moved the iron bare I bad cut—made up two little

bundles of necemery clothing—fastened the cord to
one of the remaining bars—let it down all its length
—hid the bare I had removed in the straw, and
then ley still again tall the second visit, at half-
past one. I again pretended to be asleep, and
the instant they were gone I rose, and
quite ca'mly_ prooseeted to let myself down by
toe end. When within 6 feet from the grouted 1
fait I could no longer sustain myself. I looked at
the depth below me, sod let myself drop. A sort of
croon (WOO over me. I however moistened my
mouth with an orange I had bad the precaution to
have upon se, and lay for some moments quiet. to
recover myself. I then dressed myself, and wan-
dered round and round the awl,, seeking some
means to get out of the ditch, but I had so hurt sy
toot in the fall that I could 'namely walk. I hoped
to tempo from the ditch into the lake, but the **-
trance to the lake wee barred by • grating. I then
endeavoured, with the bets) of two nails, to seals the
wall of the ditch. about 6 feet high, and had almost
retched the top when the toot 1 had hurt failed me,
and I fell to the bottom. Fortunately there had
lately been a little water in the ditch, and
the soft mod prevented the matinela heath,
the Donis of my fall. I remained there in the dread
of being retaken till 6 in the seeping, when
the city gates were opened, and then some people
went by. I called to them, saying that the night
before I bad been drunk and fallen into the ditch, sad
begged them to help me oat. Some refused, but at
last some holder ones helped se, and I was dragged
out with such difficulty, as I could scarcely help my-
self. My hands were cut in many places. I was very
lame, sad covered with the mud of the ditch above
the waist, yet in that condition I had to WOOD the
bridge within gunshot of the castle. What happened
after that I must not tell. In eight days I wee in
Switzerland, and able for the first time to attend to
ny toot. What the Austrians would have done Of
given to get me again yogi:an imagine. Police circular
fol:owed circular, sod telegraphic despatch followed
telegraphic despatch. All letters were iodiscrinsi-
lately stopped sod opined at the pat-office, and per-
quisitioos made in eerily part of Mantua, but this did
not prevent the citizens from oyeoly rejoicing over
ny escape. We shall now *one meet.
"May 20,1x;36. " FELICE ORSINI."