The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-09-01 00:00:00

ESCIPE FROM FRINGE.

Kk. SLLISOX'S ILICITAL 0/ ANGULAR tSC.%FF

111011 •sfDUM.

I.iverpeal, July 3, 1609.
ig As you wail to know how I effected „iy
escape, I shall briefly give you the heads of
Last July a friend and myself determined to girt
the rascals the slip ; but as both of us were en.
terra into an engagement with eight more to our
Commandant to be responsible for each other,
and that, if one ran away, the others should be
imprisoned—to get clearof that, we missed mug.
to one morning, on purpose to get imprisoned,
which succeeded. We had ropes round our ho.
dies, saws, gimblets, &c. in our hats, and at 12
that night worked our way out, though surround.
ed by centinels. We got close to one, where we
thought there had not been any ; he hailed us,
and we scampered off. Be must have been a
young recruit, fur he did not give the alarm, and
we gut down the wall. Thu rope was so small,
we could not hold it, and both of us fell about
50 feet ; I was sadly hurt about the loins, and
fainted as soon as I reached the wood, where we
had previously stowed our provisions. My cum..
!minion 'rained his sack, and we stopped in .he
wood four days, till he was able to march. We
were taken the 13th day, going through a small
town at deten at night, and conducted back to
Verdun, where they kept 'lme, hands and feet in
irons, for seven days, and then sent ns off to
Bitches which is a most dreadful place, and where
they kept us in general under ground. It is a
strong fort, built upon an amazing high rock, and
surrounded at bottom by three different high ram.
parts ; the rock is entirely hollowed out, anti C 4.
liable of containing the whole garrison, if le-
sieged. After being there a little time, we made
interest with the Commandaiit to live above
ground ; and no soonA. had we got possessive of
a room above stairs, than we began to scheme how
to get out of it. There were twelve of us. We
first began manufacturing a rape, which we made
out of new linen cloth, that ne got from town ;
we then got a friend. who resided there, to get Its
a gond gimblet, and on the nth of December N e
forced both locks on our chamber dour, and cot
through another one with the above instrument,
and all of us got clear of the fort before eight
o'clock, the titian the additional ceutinels arc put
on. It snowed and blew very hard, anti was most
terribly cold. We lay the text day in the snow,
and at night started bgaiii, and gut within two
leagues of the Rhine by day-light. It had froze
severely in the night, and was so intensely cold,
that it would have killed us to hive stop Pea that
day in the woods ; we therchire got into a barn,
and lay very sling till Tour o'clock, when a pair
of lovers coining in to enjoy themselves, discover.
eil us, and gave the alarm. We got clear of
them, but they raised the whole country, and at
-ten that eight we were surrounded by fifty or six-
ty peasants; two of, us escaped their clutches by
going different ways, but were both taken a few
hours afterwards. I was just stepping into a boat
out the Rhine, e heietwo eustont.house officers gut
hold of me, and dragged me to my unfortunate
companions ; we were five of us in our party ;
the rest went different ways, and four of them
got safe home. Wu were conducted back' to the
place we had left, and a littleTene after we were
sent to Mets hand.cuffed, two and two, acid they
chained all in a string, so short that we had barely
room to walk. We were sent there as evidence
for the gen d'arme who was upon guard' the night
we started; we acquitted him, and were twenty
days travelling hi that uncomfortable manner.—
En coming back, we passed through the depot of
Sarre-Libre, where I got a friend to buy.me a
gimblet, being determined to escape or break my
neck. The day we arrived at &mho ne were all.
clapped into a room about 40 feet under ground.
We had a guard bed to lie upon, as the bottom
was covered with water to the depth of six inches.
After staying there for three days,' we got it
made known to the Commandant that it Was •
impossible for men to exist in that damp place. lie
ordered us a room up stairs in the same build-
ing; we had three doors locked upon us, a double
row of iron bars before the window, and a cunti.
tiel placed over us ; however, we resolved to
make an attempt by cutting torough the cieAng.
—We cut up our sheets, blankets, shirts, and
towels, of which we made a tope 130 feet long
and on the eh:tenth of February, at six U'CIO:
began, and at three in the morning acc.int-
plished the business. The floor we cut throng!'
was two and a half..inch oak. Whet, we got
there, we found,two windows without bars, that
looked two. different wars; it rained very
and we saw the centiliel in his box at tb' opposite
side front that we intended to descend, aid :tit
got safe out of the building, over two mirparts,
when, to our great astonishment. sac found a !laid,
which we understood had not gone round that side
of the fort ; it was about '25 feet, and ite had no
rope for it ; we all dropped safe, except the I.lstt
who broke his lug; the rest of us separated, bet
met again at Saltzburg. There were two whit tnc. .
We slept in the woods by day, and travelled he
night through a tt tautly neutontaitious country.
We took provisions along with us ; and on the
seventh day crossed the Rhine, which cost us Is
guineas; we then had only nine left. We crossed •
Baden, Wirtemberg, awd Bavaria, without pass-
ports, slept in the mall villages al night, and went
rotund all the towns, some of which we found great
difficulty in rounding; however, on the 19111 day•
we arrived safe at Saltzleirg, and got out passports
fur Trieste. Ono of my coin !anions aas entirely
knocked up; we gave him all the money we
spare to follow us in the Diligence ; and nL: set
out that night on foot, and arrived at Trieste the
seventh day ; a distance of '2OO English mile• ;
and which the natives told us had never been done
before in so short a time. We gait a passage
in an Austrian brig to Malta, thee obtained a
passage in his Majesty's bomb Lucifer, !multi!
Plymouth, and gusted in Liscribuul—in tin, 4,
mouths and seventeen days.
" SLACOAIE nftbe /Nebel."

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