Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1893-06-08


ii was fianked on both sides by pri-
yate houses. No chances for escape
BY boring through the wall.
There was onlyone way. That
was to follow the same plan rs the
Indian. Every time | looked at
that cracked and broken jeint in the
corner, l felt impelled to give it
another trial. True, | should be
shot were l discovered in the at
tempt-bat / was to be shot in any
case.
But how was / to rid myself Of
my fetterss With stheinns On M
feet could not dream of escaping.
Then, again, i should need help
from the outside. There was only
one American in the town. He
had been allowed to visit me up to
the time of my attempt. After
that he could no longer obtain per
mission. His wife, however, who
was a cousin of the Governor of the
prison, was permitted to call now
and then. My only hope was that
Barbarita Williams might be per-
suaded to smuggle in to me pair
4
of triangular files. This would be
a dangerous proceeding for her; and
though she vas the Governor cous-
in, she was carefully searched be-
fore entering my cell. Besides, l
did not know whether l could trust
her enough to make known to her
my wish. determined, however,
to risk it. On her next visit, after
solemnly beseeching her not to be-
tray me, / asked her to bring me
the files. 1t took considerable per-
suasion, but on her next visit she
did bring me two good files.
The next difficulty was to smoth-
er the noise should make in fling.
The cells were small and close to-
gether. / could not trust my greas.
er fellow-prisoners. 1t was impos-
sible to work on the shackles in the
the daytime. / must do my filing
in the evening. In order to con
ceal the noise I suddenly developed
sfan extraordinary aesirc--to sing
Every evening after we were locked
in for the night l gave concert O
English, French and Spanish songs
, l sang deep bass, and it was onl.
, myself who could hear the raspin,
, treble of my accompaniment.
1t was firing work ON account o
the constrained posture was oblige'
4 to take. But | stuck to it. Ever
Y night for three weeks l filed ava
1 at my shackles.
0 To prevent the guards from pei
ling my work, j filled up wit
~ candle the cut wa
III fetter an
tallow from :.
slowly making into ea,..
blackened the filing with the carp... >.
of the candle frame. The shackles
were examined every morning by
the chief guard, but were not dis
covered to have been tampered with.
| took care, however, to stick more
closely to my cell than before, lest
attention should be drawn to them.
At last a mere thread of iron held
the fetters on my feet. l could
free myself from them at any mo-
ment. But l still had to wait for
favorable. night.
had provided for the opening
of my simple cell door. The lock
was on the outside, but | could
reach it by running my arm through
the little square orifice in the door.
In my wandering through the pris-
on | had come across a broken door
in one of the unusued cells and had
extracted long, wrought-iron nail.
Having given the proper crook to
the small end of the nail | was en-
abled to operate the lock without
difficulty.
From general gossip it was known
that we were to be shot on the 5th
of May, and it was already the lat
ter part April. 1t behooved me,
therefore, to make my attempt soon
or should not escape at all.
Still no opportunity that / con-
sidered suitable offered. / was
waiting for a rainy night. With
three guards marching back and
forth on the roof near the top of
the wall over which | wished to go,
it would be diffiuclt to escape except
on dark night, and amid the con-
fiict.of the elements.
Rain even in the rainy season
does not fall very regularly i'm that