on different roads, sometimes having Albert behind, and sometimes before me.

"One of my first objects was to examine the environs of Valençay; to reconnoitre the side of the park which could be scaled; and the windows of the king's smaller apartments. I had very soon obtained the needful information, and settled in my own mind the best plan of execution; it only remained to set it a-going. I first repaired to Paris in order to receive 30,000 francs in money; from thence I despatched towards Orleans the saddle-horses which were to serve for the first relays, after the king's escape."

The other particulars of the plot it is unnecessary to relate, as they were all rendered nugatory by the treachery we have alluded

to.

He was arrested by the police, and, after several pumpings,

he

says:

"The same day, the 8th of April 1810, I was taken back to Vincennes, which I never left for four years afterwards.

"The strictest orders were given to interdict me from all communication with the exterior or interior, and to increase the severity of close confinement, by depriving me of paper, pens, ink, &c. &c. The keeper was enjoined to sleep in my cell, to be on his guard against my affected tranquillity, to listen to any questions, but to answer none, and finally to make an exact report of every thing."

Daily expecting death, and being subjected to the cruellest treatment, his sufferings here were horrible. Nor was he alone in this misery. France held in her various prisons at this time about

4000 prisoners of state, of whom one-fourth were of the higher classes; and the Donjon of Vincennes was not without its companionship. Strictly as the author was incarcerated, he contrived to have intercourse with some of the unfortunate inmates of that prison ;-among others, the Counts de Polignac, one of them now the French ambassador in London.

"Several times (before the gaoler informed him of the desire of these loyal noblemen to visit his cell)-several times (he relates) in the course of the preceding nights, I fancied I had heard at the bars of my window a dead noise, which I attributed to an owl. How was it possible for me to suppose that a tender solicitude was watching over me in a place so difficult for the least communication. I was ignorant of what it is possible for a noble audacity to perform; of what the desire of consolation suggests to friendly ingenuity; I was not then acquainted with Messrs. de Polignac, and knew not how much they delighted in obliging their companions in honour.

"Although my cell was more than sixty feet distant from theirs in an opposite direction, they had several times attempted to open a communication with me by means of ropes and a long pole. In the sequel, I climbed six feet from the floor of my cell, during the night, in order to reach a small bag which descended to my window, and in which our correspondence was inclosed.

"The fruitlessness of their first attempts, far from damping their zeal, induced them to bribe our keeper, who, as he told me himself, had been unable to refuse

them.

them. Every thing was arranged, and we were about to behold each other. At the appointed time Thomas carefully opened the three doors of my cell; my two kind friends entered, and I threw myself into their arms.

"I will not attempt to describe my feelings at the sight of these illustrious prisoners. Involuntarily I caused them a moment's embarrassment..... Their refusal persuaded me that they fully excused even the intention which I had had. They informed me that as they were not in close confinement, they were enabled to avail themselves of their own

resources.

"Their first act was to put me in possession of the official journal, in which was inserted the report of the minister of police to Buonaparte, relative to my mission they also provided me with a small quantity of pens, ink, and paper, &c. and promised to furnish me with more.

"We agreed that i should, without delay, draw up a protest against the unfaithful report, and give it to them, and that they would endeavour to get it transmitted to Mr. McKenzie, the English commissary, who was then at Morlaix, for the proposed exchange of prisoners, both civil and military.

"As they were witnesses of my innocence, at the very time that the police were impudently committing a crime, by introducing a vile impostor in my name at Valençay, on the strength of the papers which were to prove my mission, in order to deceive King Ferdinand, and to cast him into the pit which was yet stained with the blood of a Bourbon,.... the Counts de Polignac gave me the most so

lemn assurances that at the day of reckoning, they would bear testimony to my truth and sincerity, and if I should happen to fall before that, that they would undeceive the British government."

Many of De Kolli's fellow-sufferers sank under their miseries, and he appears to have been driven to the very verge of insanity. At one time he relates (when betrayed by a gaoler into an act which compromised him,) - - - “ I was attacked by six myrmidons of the police, determined to search me thoroughly, or to maim me. They were under the orders of the inspector Paques, who, with the most insulting expressions, ordered them to sabre me, if I made the least resistance. The gendarmes advanced, and the keepers crept alongside of the wall, in order to lay hold of me by the shoulders. Up to that moment I had met silent acts of vengeance calmly, and with presence of mind on this occasion the loss of a pocket-book, which contained valuable papers, would have affected me more sensibly, than the destruction of all my hopes. The want of a defensive weapon throwing me into a state of frenzy, I stabbed myself under the left breast with five strokes of the scissars, the only instrument which had escaped the search of the robbers..... I immediately fell, swimming in blood. barbarian who had driven me to this act of despair, called to me in a tone of the most cutting irony, Die! die! we will bury you.'

The

At another time, when driven to despair by the barbarities of his gaoler:

"One day, a state of inanition

made

made me count the hours; my exhaustion kept me lying on a damp bed ;-I felt the most devouring hunger; the distribution of the day's allowance had been made at seven o'clock in the morning to every one but me; it was past eleven, and Lerouge had not yet come; at last the sound of his footstep revived me, and I was anticipating a delicious repast on a loaf of a pound and a half! I will wait till I am alone, ..... I will show no impatience, or eagerness of brutal appetite.' .... On his entrance, he threw the loaf at me, swearing... The lightning is not quicker than the fury which transported me: I saw nothing.... I knew not what I did.... He was stretched at my feet, with the blood running down his face: I had struck him with a piece of firewood.... His cries disarmed me, and brought others to his assistance; they threatened to put me in irons. I reproached the commandant for the outrages to which his unheard of severity had provoked me; I called for death, and invoked the minister, by one decided blow to crown my wishes..... and his

own.

"Cruel that he was! for four years he refused me the consolation of embracing my children! I knew not if they were even in existence. But what humanity could I expect of him, who at tached the fatal lantern to the breast of the Duke d'Enghien? For four years I was placed between the combats of paternal tenderness and infamy. If you

wish to see your family,' said Dr. R*** to me, "tell us who is the correspondent of the British government; he will not be mo1823.

lested; on the contrary, the minister will be the means of putting money into his pocket.'

"Since my attempt to escape, I had no shoes, but sandals made out of an old hat, and wore no linen.... I was offered some belonging to the prison, marked with the imperial eagle..... and was looked upon as very obstinate, because I preferred my own rags. But if there was no inconvenience in allowing me imperial shirts, what was there in allowing me to wear my own?

"The minister of general police, who made no scruple of appropriating to himself 223,000 francs which belonged to me, was not likely to blush at speculating on the misery of the prisoners. It need not surprise us therefore, that he deprived them of a half, and in some cases of two-thirds, of the allowance that was made them by the famous decree for the installation of the state prisons."

But the Baron was not of a temper to resign himself to the weight of oppression. Not only did he afford such grounds as these for severities, but he made an extraordinary attempt at escape.

"On the 1st of May, 1811, I opened the works at breast height, in order that the exertion of my whole-strength might render the execution less difficult. The stone resisted, and did not yield more than an inch per day. On the 1st of June following, the hive having been completed in the whole extent of the first stone, the intervals were soon broken down, and I found less difficulty in loosening the stones of the interior.

"As I was obliged to work during the day, I ran considerable risk of a surprise, notwithstanding the quickness with which I covered the hole, when I heard the noise of doors opening. One day, when I least expected it, the commandant Gillet entered my cell, to pay me a farewell visit, and introduce me to his successor, an officer of gendarmes, then in favour, and whom M. Savary, who had long known him, considered fitter for the command of the prison. I had barely time to shake off the dust from my long beard, (which had not been shaved for four months) and to throw a lynx's skin, my only covering against the damp, over shoulders.

my

"The alarm into which my horrible appearance threw these gentlemen prevented them from remarking my disorder, or from entering into the little cell, where they would have seen the breach I had made. They left me, with an encouragement to expect some alleviation of my sufferings.

"Surprised at not having yet reached the exterior lining, I measured the depth of the part I had undermined, when, to my extreme mortification, I found that the direction I had taken, which I had hitherto supposed to be perpendicular, was diagonal, and lost in the curved thickness of the northern tower. Overwhelmed at this mistake, I should have been completely discouraged, had it not been for the habit I had contracted of always occupying myself about some plan, however chimerical, and the necessity I was under of continuing my labours, the discovery of which would, under every circumstance,

have exposed me to fresh severities. I then examined the means of regaining the original direction, and of turning my first excava tion to some advantage; after well considering it, I made it serve as a receptacle for the fresh rubbish, and thereby avoided the risks which I had been exposed to at the hours of promenade, by the method I had till then followed.

"At last, after six months' labour and continued precautions, the detail of which would appear tedious, I succeeded in coming to, and unloosening, the last stone of the external facing, so as to be able to draw it in at pleasure, without making any thing fall outside.

"Never was any architect more delighted in contemplating his labours than I was, in the midst of my crater. The passage of the air through the walls gave me a degree of pleasure, perhaps su perior to the joy which a man feels on his liberation from a long slavery. I sat down; the desire of a heart steeped in affliction is that of offering to the Creator its first consolations, its first hopes!... After indulging for a few moments in a delightful reverie, I replaced each stone in its place in the most convenient position.

66

My rope still remained to be

made.

"With the sheets which I had procured in the first days of my captivity, and which I had not yet used, I made twelve rolls, each ten feet long, and about the thickness of a finger; I joined these together by knots large enough to cling to, and strength ened at short spaces by other smaller knots.

"The night of the 24th of October,

October, 1811, was that which I fixed upon for effecting my escape, and I arranged my plan.

"At nine o'clock the turnkey came in as usual, and after a short visit, went about his business. My compassion, which had hitherto been silent for this old guardsman, suggested to me that my escape might have the effect of throwing him into a hut of the Bicêtre, where he would be left to perish, as a punishment for his negligence.

"On the door of the cell, therefore, I wrote a few lines with chalk, exculpating him from all knowledge of my plans, or of haying winked at my escape.

"All the stones were now displaced, and ranged along the ground, the outside one excepted; a small piece of plaster fell at the foot of the Donjon, close to where the commandant was standing; but he supposed it could only be occasioned by the wind, knowing the strength of the Donjon, and the weakness of its inhabitants, too well to entertain any other idea

As for me, I threw myself upon my knees, and prayed to God for the necessary support, and, if my last hour was come, that he would receive me into His mercy, with the martyrs who had preceded me in the cause of honour. With a conscience less pure than theirs, I had reason for apprehension; but that only served to make my faith the stronger. With my heart calm, I arose, and prepared to launch myself..... even into eternity.

"My appearance sufficiently resembled that of a cominon

workman, had it not been for a beard of ten inches long; as I had no means of getting rid of it, and could not burn it without risk, I determined to pull it out by the roots. The horrible punishments which were formerly inflicted on felons and perjurors bore no comparison to that which I thus voluntarily added to the cruelties that were devised by the creatures of a tyrannical government!!!.... It was done..... The outside stone was removed .... the rope unrolled, but it was too short, and I lengthened it: I was now suspended, the rope appeared to yield, and the oscillation carried me a good way out, but, secured against all chances, I held fast, and reached the ground safe!

"It had just struck four in the morning on the platform of the drawbridge; I dragged myself to the part of the prison I have described, and laid hold of a tray for carrying mortar. If I had gone a few steps farther, I should have found a port-hole window quite open, through which I could have descended into the ditch, and then ascended through a staircase which would have led me out; but as I was then quite ignorant of that part of its topography, I returned to the other end, and sat down at a little gate which separated the two courts: Turk and Rustaut*, two watch-dogs, ran up from the other side. I threw them some provisions through an opening under the gate; they immediately recognized me as the friend, who for the last six months, at the hours of promenade, had