Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/94

 *sable on such an expedition. The only thing now wanting was rope, which we obtained by purchasing skipping lines of the boys, this being a general amusement amongst them at this season; the bringing such small quantities openly into the citadel, excited no suspicion, and, in order to ascertain the requisite length, I counted the courses of bricks, in the pillars in the inner part of the north gate; allowing four to a foot, and five feet to the brick work, made the height about forty-five feet. Every thing being ready, and the day arrived, without any one entertaining the slightest suspicion, I was so fully persuaded of being in England in a few days, that I strutted about the citadel, smiling at every self-sufficient gendarme I met, half inclined to say, jocosely—"Adieu;" for, notwithstanding the multiplied difficulties, mutual confidence made us not only look upon them as trifles, but almost created a wish they were still greater, that the honour of surmounting them might be proportionably conspicuous, and thereby the astonishment and disappointment of the