Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/51

Rh could descend twenty times a day without being noticed, and, by a lucky chance also, the cesspool was a sort of well of great depth.

My labour was greatly lessened by the fact that the wall,—as I had hoped,—did not join the tower in the centre, there was a gap of two or three inches; and throughout the whole of my labours, in digging through a wall nine or ten feet thick, I only met with one very large stone. It caused me some disappointment, and led me to take counsel with myself. This huge stone presented an acute angle towards me. I attacked the wall round it, but with no great hope of success. Judge of my joy and surprise when I felt it yield under my poor little lever, like a loose tooth. I soon had the happiness to lay it bare, and then drag it out of my mole-run. I did not think of breaking it up, but hid it, as it was, in my mattress. It was found there later on, and figured in the report on my escape; but it did not tend to make my bed feel any the more comfortable. The first part of the work was the most diffi-