Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/86

 this enviable situation, before I began to reconnoitre, in order to form plans of escape. That part of the citadel in which the men were allowed to walk, and which might be termed their playground, occupied about an acre; in this confined spot fourteen hundred men were mustered, three times a day, and no one permitted to go out, but under escort.

On the arrival of the mids, the number of sentinels was considerably augmented, and strict orders issued to watch them. From the citadel, escape appeared impossible, it being surrounded with ditches, containing about six feet of mud, on the surface of which was not more than a foot of water: so that swimming was deemed