Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/92

 commandant, with unremitting diligence, was daily visiting the citadel, and as frequently changing the posts of the sentinels, demanding a corresponding change on our part, and issuing stricter regulations for the security of the prisoners; at length, it was ordered, that any one, who should be seen in the night, without a lantern, whether English or French, should be instantly fired at, and, in the event of a gendarme's light being accidentally extinguished, while visiting the sentinels, which was done every half hour, he was to be constantly repeating—"Gendarme without light," until he reached the guard room. Besides these precautions, there were regular patroles: the difficulty and danger of escape had, therefore, considerably increased, and it became necessary, that our caution should keep pace with their vigilance. There still being a sentinel at the sally-port, my first plan was changed to that of getting into the upper citadel, which could only be effected by creeping upon the parapet above the north gate, letting ourselves down upon the bridge,