702

one.

DECEIVING THE GUARDS.

to know of our resolution. The majority dissuaded us, and endeavored to point out all the difficulties which stood in our way. Our project seemed to them an absolutely impossible They thought that, our work having lasted so long, the officials had got scent of it, and were letting us go on, because they intended to have soldiers stationed ready to shoot us when we attempted to make our escape. We allowed our comrades to talk thus, and only asked one thing of them that they would not betray our project. This they all promised, and, as the reader will see, they kept their word. I must, however, add that we had deceived them as to the time of our departure. When they inquired as to the condition of our work, we carefully guarded ourselves from revealing the stage at which we had arrived. Several times I gave them to understand that our work would not be finished before the end of January; and on the very day when everything was finished, we had given no sign of our approaching departure until we were about to set out. We had nothing more to do but to enlarge the hole we had made in the day, and to get out through that aperture.

The rampart which we had pierced is on the left of the citadel, and therefore faces seaward. When the tide is low the sea retires and leaves the rocks dry for a distance of sixty or seventy feet around. On the night of our escape the evening muster-roll was called as usual, and we were shut up in our dormitories. Almost immediately two of our number went down to complete the enlargement of the hole, and this labor occupied them two hours. On their return we informed our companions that the moment for our escape had arrived. Their emotion was certainly greater than ours. Before setting out we took the precaution of placing in our beds our bolsters, made to look as much as possible like a man's body, and with our night-caps stuck at the top. We also spread our prison clothes on our beds, as we were in the habit of doing every evening. Our object in adopting these precautions was to deceive the warder when he came in the morning to call over the muster-roll. The stratagem suc

OUT IN THE OPEN AIR.

703

ceeded, and the officials did not know of our flight until six o'clock the next evening. This was very fortunate for us, as otherwise we should not have been able to get away any great distance from the citadel, and we should infallibly have been retaken. It was the 14th of November, at nine o'clock in the evening; the tide was out, and the rocks at the foot of the rampart were left bare. We had been able to find out the times of the tides in the almanac at the canteen. Our precautions had been all carefully taken, and, thanks to the depth of the shaft we had sunk at the entrance of the tunnel, and to the slope given to the tunnel itself, the hole which we had made in the wall of the rampart was only ten feet above the rocks.

One after another we crept through the tunnel, and then getting through the hole in the wall, we were able, while still clinging with our hands to the wall of the rampart, to reach with a drop the rocks beneath. Then, following all the bends of the wall, and keeping as near to it as possible, we passed around to the land side of the fortress. In like manner we passed along over the beach, keeping as near as possible to the little town, situated about one thousand yards from the fortress; and thus at length, after creeping silently between the huts of the coast-guardsmen, we reached the dry land opposite a little village called Loe Malo. The tide was now coming in. It had been our intention to divide, as soon as we were clear of the fortress, into two groups of three men each, only six prisoners having ventured to escape. We, however, marched on together, and without resting during the remainder of the night, in order, as quickly as possible, to put as much distance as we could between us and the fortress. Our object was to reach some little port of Brittany, and then endeavor to take ship for England. When we were brought to the citadel the authorities had caused us to be minutely searched, and had not left any money in our possession. I had, however, succeeded in concealing a small sum by carefully sewing it into the lining of my coat. This money was of the greatest service to us, as it enabled us on

701

FREEDOM AT LAST.

the following morning to take the railway, and thus in a few hours to put a considerable distance between us and the citadel.

After marching all night, however, through a drenching rain, if we had presented ourselves at the railway station as we then were, our appearance would have excited suspicion. We had taken the precaution of bringing with us from the prison shirts, brushes, blacking, and, in short, everything necessary to our toilet. In a place of concealment we carefully brushed up and dressed ourselves to the best of our ability; and when, at daylight, we presented ourselves at the railway station, we were clean and tidy, and appeared to have come from some place very near. I had brought a book away with me from the prison, and this I carried under my arm to give myself the look of a traveller. On our way to the railway station we saw three gendarmes running towards us, gun in hand. Without faltering we walked coolly on, and the gendarmes, as we came up, politely stepped aside to let us pass. We took the train for a small port in Brittany, and in the evening succeeded in getting on board an English vessel. We were saved!

THE GAMBLING HELLS OF GERMANY.*

THE FOUR GREAT SPAS.

DESCRIPTION OF BADEN, HOMBURG, WIESBADEN, AND EMS. ROULETTE AND ROUGE-ET-NOIR. SPLENDOR OF THE SALOONS. THE PERSONS WHO FREQUENT THEM. — PROFITS AND PECULIARITIES OF THE DIRECTION. THE PHILOSOPHY OF GAMBLING. WHY PLAYERS LOSE. STRANGE SUPERSTITION OF BETTORS. -THE INVALIDS. DROLL SCENES AT THE PUMP-ROOM. — THE MAN WITH A SNAKE IN HIS STOMACH. THE ROBUST HYPOCHONDRIAC.

THE best known and the most popular of all the fashionable and gambling watering-places in Europe are Baden-Baden, Homburg, Wiesbaden, and Ems.

The first, a town of some seven thousand inhabitants, is delightfully situated in a valley of the Black Forest, on a small stream known as the Oehlbach, eighteen miles from Carlsruhe, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Homburg von der Hohe, having a population of about five thousand, is the capital of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, and may be considered a suburb of Frankfort on the Maine, as it is only nine miles from that city. Wiesbaden, fourteen miles west of Frankfort, contains nearly twenty-five thousand people, and is the capital of the Duchy of Nassau. This pleasant city is on the Salzbach, an affluent of the Rhine, and at the foot of the delightful Taunus Mountains, its situation and climate being almost identical with those of Homburg. Ems, often called Bad-Ems, is a hamlet on the Lahn, fifteen miles north of Wiesbaden. It is also in Nassau; is shut in by hills, has

The gambling spas of Germany, but not those of other countries, have been closed since Chapters XLIX. and L. were written; but the chapters have been left in their original form, as the present is a better tense for description than the past.

706

COSMOPOLITANISM OF THE BATHS.

a pleasant terrace along the river, and is surrounded by delightful scenery.

Though all these spas, or baths, as they are styled, are in Germany, they are visited during the season, extending from May to October, by invalids and pleasure-seekers from every civilized country. July and August are the most fashionable months, and then the springs are frequented by French, Spaniards, Dutch, English, and Americans, as well as Ger mans. The principal patrons, independent of the home population, are from France, England, and our own country, albeit almost every nationality under the sun is represented at those centres of folly and dissipation. I have seen Turks and Armenians at Baden, Greeks and Persians at Homburg, Egyptians and East Indians at Wiesbaden, and Mongols and Arabians at Ems.

Baden (it is called Baden-Baden to distinguish it from other places of the same name) is the most fashionable of the four resorts, and cannot be surpassed for the beauty of its scenery. The picturesque heights rising above the valley, the ruins of the old castle overlooking it, the magnificent views, the pleasant drives, handsome villas, and charming walks in the neighborhood, with the agreeable and varied society, render it remarkably inviting. The number of stran gers annually flocking to Baden is from fifty to sixty thousand, and these, especially in midsummer, crowd the hotels and countless boarding-houses to overflowing.

Homburg within the past ten years has also become very fashionable, and counts its summer visitors by the tens of thousands. It lacks the pictorial quality of Baden, but its atmosphere is reputed to be extremely salubrious, and its society is delightful, of course. Being so near Frankfort, many persons, particularly those in delicate health, reside there all the year round, and many of the Franforters have their residences at the springs.

Wiesbaden, even more than Homburg, is the home of the denizens of the old German capital, and by reason of its larger population, has greater attractions than the rival