The Portland daily press., 1896-09-17

A Convict Who Found His Way Out of
Every Prison In Franoe-He Remained
Undaunted In the Face of the Greatest
Odds and Dangers.
The prisoner determined on flight sell
dom let slip an opportunity. The quick
witted Coohot remembered that salutes
were fired in the harbors on the kings
birthday every goodl' thought Cochot.
/ eff in the midst of those salvos I should
have the luck to gain the field beyond,
they might blaze away with their alarm
guns until all was blue, for as both can
non play the same tune who would know
one tune from the other? All right! I'll
have birthday with his majesty" Sure
ly enough, when the day arrived the guns
of the bagne were banging unnoticed for
Cochot, who was quietly trotting through
the fields. One of the escapes of Victor
Desbois from Brest attested at once his
audacity and his address An inspector
came to make his official tour of the bagne,
and it did not seem to strike the sentry on
duty at the gate that he had been very
quick about 1t, for he was out again al
most before he had passed in. But the
inspector" who walked out with his
nose in the air was Victor Desbois. Hav-
ing filed through his anklet, he had dom
ned in an instant the full uniform of in
spector which he had connected out Of pa
per, and with a wig and mustaches, also
of his own manufacture, his disguise was
perfect. Efrontery such as this seldom
fails to reward.
Opportunity Of a change Of costume pre-
sented itself ON another occasion to the
nimble Hautdebont, engaged in the con-
vict tailor shop. On wall above his head
hung a newly finished warder's suit
which, as the wary1er was in hospital, was
not to be delivered for a week to come
Measuring it with his eye, Hautdebont
reckoned it q fair l1t for himself. Missing,
only warder's cap. This, in the course
of night or two, the prisoner put togeth-
er out of a hundred little bits Of cloth alb
stracted at odd moments from the tailor's
shop. With the cap in his pocket, on the
following day, when the foreman tailor's
back was turned, Hautdebont whips the
warder's suit from the nail, slips 1t on
and glides from the scene. Unluckily the
foreman a minute later misses the new
suit from the nail, the alarm is given and
Hautdebont's brief term OF Office as garde
chiourme is ended. He lost his privileged
place among the tailors and was sent to
the chain gang.
Piercy, condemned perpetuite for muir
der, saw some scaffolding erected for re-
pairs, which seemed to offer means Of es.
cape ideal In Its simplicity. It stood CON
veniently against the wall. "That ought
to bear me,'' thought Piercy, and In a
twinkling he found himself on the right
side of the wall, in Bourbon street, Tou-
lon. But there was a warder who could
climb almost as well as Percy, and who
laid hands on him at the corner of the
street. Another prisoner, equally adroit,
was equally unfortunate in his affair. A
rope served him for scaling the wall, but,
losing his hold ON the other side with the
expectation of dropping into quiet lane,
he fell plump into a handcart in which the
warder was taking his midday siesta.
you never know your LUCK" as the poet
sang. 1t came to the warder en- dormant,
bringing him the legal bonus of 80 francs
for an arrest effected within the limits of
the town.
An old forcat, Goanet by name, and 6s
years of age, became SO famous by reason
of his failures that his maladresse passed
Into proverb, and botched escape was
known in the bagne of Toulon as q 60
netta Patience and toll, long sustained
and renewed after discovery had made
them fruitless, did not always triumph in
the end. Andre Fanfan, who had found
or fought his way out of every prison In
France and who whenever he was in dur
ance had the honor Of guard specially
appointed to watch him, was brought back
to the Rochefort after one Of his most
brilliant triumphs over justice. In his
communings with himself one day Andre
said: Now suppose, my boy, there was
an underground passage running the
length of the yard, with nice little OPEN
ing into the port, couldn't you make nice
little opening in the wall and find it9 OF
course you could" There proved to be one
difficulty, and one only-the underground |
passage was not there. "Dig one, my |
boy, said Andre
1t needs a strenuous effort of the imagi- |
nation to put oneself for a moment In |
Andre Fanfan's place-constantly watch |
ed, solid mass Of masonry to reduce and |
no tools to his hand worth speaking of. A |
few grains of plaster or chips of stone un- |
disposed Of after the nights work were |
enough to betray the affair. Fanfan ad- |
mitted few "pals" in the gang to his |
confidence and with his own hands did the |
PthIo III ullO WOIA NhRub ny ll13uV,
after the gang had been chained upon the |
guard bed, he wrenched his anklet off and |
with his nails and a rusty bolt he bit his |
way inch by inch through stone and earth. |
He worked with the strength, ewiftness |
and silence of a mole, and never by tap |
Of the bolt or the scratching of nail be. |
trayed himself He seemed to swallow |
the stone and the earth which he displaced, |
for he left never a trace behind him. He |
was always on his plank, sound asleep |
when the whistle gave the signal to turn
out in the morning, his ankle safe in the
ring.
When the tunnel was within a yard or
two Of completion, the plot was disclosed |
One Of Andres subordinates, condemned
for a breach of the rules to the black hole
begged an interview with the governor
and "blew the gaff.'' The governor, ac-
companied by an orderly with dark Ian
tern, made a round of surprise the next
night, and the bullseye was flashed upon
Andre burrOTino In his tunnel He had |