The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-11-30

tore his shirt into shreds, and taking off
his stocking and slipper, stuffed them
with these rags until he had made
very fair model of leg and foot. A
broken broomstick supplied him with a
bone, and, as he tells it, "hiding my real
limb under my cloak, 1 sat calmly
awaiting the success of my ruse. After
time the young man came in to pay
me his usual visit and ask me how L
did. / should feel better / said, point
ing to my dummy, if you would kindly
fasten this leg to the fetter and let me
give the other rest He consented,
and chained up my false limb with all
imaginable care" At night, when
Curion heard his attendants snoring,
he parted company with his fettered
leg, undressed it, clothed himself again
and stole out of his cell, which no one
had taken the trouble to fasten on the
outside. He found means to scale the
outer walls of his prison and regain his
liberty. His escape, which he describes
in this matter of fact way, figures in the
pious histories as the work of witchcraft,
on the ground that the Devil is ever
ready to assist his own.
The escape of Grotius, the historian,
from the Castle of Louvenstein was an
original one. Involved in the ruin of
his friend John, of Barnevelt, Grotius,
in 1919, when only thirty-six years old,
was condemned to perpetual imprison-
ment. He was allowed to borrow books
from his friends, and when they were
returned they were sent away in chest
along with his linen for the wash. To-
ward the end of the second year, when
the guard had ceased to bother examin-
ing the box as it came and went,
Madame Grotius contrived to have her
husband conceal himself in this con-
venient casket, and he was carried to
freedom by some of the very soldiers set
to guard him so zealously.
Such methods of concealment were by
no means uncommon in those old days
when men were imprisoned for years at
time, living under guard in some
castle with pretty much the same free
dom as they would have enjoyed in
their own houses, barring the liberty Of
going out when they wanted to. The
little Duke of Normandy, who, after the
assassination of his father, William
Longswood, in the tenth century, was
confined at Laon by Louis d'Outre-men,
who had fixed his eyes on the throne,
and was carried out in bundle of grass
by his faithful steward, Osmond. The
feat recently performed by couple of
prisoners on Blackwell's Island by con-
cealing themselves in dungheaps is no
new one. More than one captive in
feudal times was jolted to liberty buried
under a load of manure. There was an
old German warrior in the time of Max
imilian who is said to have made his
escape from the castle in which he was
confined hidden in the carcass of horse
which had died in the stables, and from
which he had removed the bowels to
make room for himself.
An italian captive is told of who in
the fourteenth century was taken from
his prison. house and buried in church
vault in the coffin of the castle priest,
whose corpse he had found an opportu-
nifty to remove and conceal under his
bed, where it was not discovered until it
began to develop a decidedly gamey
flavor. The Marquis de Monteforio, a
State prisoner of Cadiz in the sixteenth
nftIr ha0onan Gkofn f,nf hxy
slowing himself away in an empty wine
cask.
Disguises have, from time immortal,
been favorite aids to escape. James V.
freed himself, from the power of the
Douglases in the makeup of a stable
boy, and Mary Stuart's first attempt to
get away from Lochieven Castle was in
the dress of laundry girl. When Flora
Macdonald assisted Charles Edward, the
Pretender, to escape after the battle of
Culloden, she disguised him as servant
girl and christened him Betty Burke.
Count Lavelette escaped from the Con-
ciergerie in 1915 on the Sharkey plan, in
dress of his wife's. One of the most
remarkable rescues on record was that
of the Earl of Nithsdale, who on the
night before the day set for his execu-
ton was got out of the Tower of London
by his wife. Nithsdale was under SEN
tence for completely in the Rebellion
of 17l5.
Lady Nithsdale had thrown herself at
the feet Of George H., imploring mercy,
but the King had refused to listen to
her. She obtained permission TO bid her