Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/212

 convincing, that I even regretted the cudgel of the galley-serjeant at the Bagne. I was in despair, and twenty times resolved to let fall from the maintop a wooden pulley on the head of my tormentor, or else to fling him into the sea when I was on the watch. I should certainly have done one or the other of these, if the lieutenant, who had taken a liking to me because I taught him to fence, had not in some measure alleviated my sufferings. Besides, we were forthwith going to Helvoetsluys, where the Heindrack lay, of whose crew we were to form a part, and in the passage an escape might be effected.

The day of transhipment came, and we embarked, to the number of two hundred and seventy, in a small sloop, manned by twenty-five sailors, and with twenty-five soldiers to guard us. The weakness of this detachment determined me to attempt to disarm the soldiers and compel the sailors to conduct us to Anvers. One hundred and twenty of the recruits, French and Belgians, entered into the plot, and we resolved on surprising the men on guard at the moment their comrades were at dinner, whom we could then easily secure. This enterprise was executed with the more success, as they suspected nothing. The commandant of the detachment was seized at the moment he was taking his tea, but was not at all mal-treated. A young man of Tournai, engaged as supercargo, and reduced to work as a sailor, explained to him so eloquently the motives that led to our revolt, as he called it, that he allowed himself to be conducted into the hold, with his soldiers, unresistingly. As for the sailors, they were neutral; a man of Dunkirk only, who was in our plot, took the helm.

Night came on, and I wished to lie to, lest we should encounter any guard-ship, to which the sailors would make signals; but the Dunkirker obstinately refused, and we kept on our course, and at day-break we were under the cannon of a fort near Helvoetsluys. The Dunkirker then announced his intention of