sfood centiael over me, which I knew by his Westphalian dialect, and I as often addressed myself to him ineffectually, he would make no answer. This Shutz must have sold my buckle, and let his riches be seen; for when the duke left me, the lieutenant on guard said to him, "You must certainly be the rascal who carried Trenck's letter, you have for some time past spent much money, and we have seen you with lous-d'ors. How came you by them?"-Shutz was terrified, his conscience accused him, he imagined I should betray him, he having deceived me; he therefore in the first agonies of despair, came to the pallisadoes, and hung himself before the door of my dungeon.

The enormous iron round my neck pained me, and prevented motion. I durst not attempt to disengage myself from the pendant chains till I had, for some months, carefully observed the mode of examination, and which part they supposed were secure. The cruelty of depriving me of my bed was still greater. I was obliged to sit on the bare ground, and lean with my head against the damp wall. The chains that descended from the neck collar were obliged to be supported, first with one hand, and then with the other, for if thrown behind they would have strangled me, and if hanging forwards, occasioned most excessive head-aches.— The bar between my hands held one down while leaning on my elbow. I supported with the other my chains, and this so benumbed the muscles, and prevented circulation, that I could perceive my arms sensibly waste away. The little sleep I could have in such a situation may easily be sup posed, and at length body and mind sunk under H

this accumulation of miserable suffering, and I fell ill of a burning fever.

The tyrant Borck was inexhorable; he wished to expedite my death, and rid himself of his trou bles and terrors.

The lamentable state in which I lay, at length became so much the subject of general conversation, that all the ladies of the town united with the officers, and prevailed on the tyrant Borck to restore me my bed. Oh nature, what are thy operations! From the day I drank water in such excess, I gathered strength, and to the astonishment of every one, soon recovered. I had moved the heart of the officer who inspected my prison; and after six months, six cruel months of added misery, the day of hope began to dawn.

One of the majors of the day entrusted his key to lieutenant Sontag, who came alone, spoke in confidence, and related his own situation, complained of his debts, his poverty, his necessities, and I ¦ made him a present of twenty-five louis-d'ors, for which he was so grateful that our friendship became unshaken.

The three lieutenants all commiserated me, and would sit hours with me, when a certain major had the inspection; and he himself, after a time, would even pass half the day with me. He too was poor; and I gave him a draught for three thousand florins; hence new objects took birth.

Lieutenant Sontag got false handcuffs made for me, that were so wide I could easily draw my hands out; the lieutenants only examined my irons; the new handcuffs were perfectly similar to the old, and Bruckhausen had too much stupidity, to remark any difference.

The remainder of my chains I could disencumber myself of at pleasure. When I exercised myself I held them in my hands, that the centinels might be deceived by their clanking. The neck iron was the only one I durst not remove; it was likewise too strongly rivited. I filed through the upper link of the pendant chain however, by which means I could take it off, and this I concealed with bread in the manner before mentioned.

So could I disencumber myself of most of my fetters, and sleep at ease. I again obtained sausages and cold meat, and thus my situation, bad as it still was, became less miserable. Liberty, still, however, was most desirable: but, alas! not one of three lieutenants had the courage of a Schell; Saxony, too, was in the hands of the Prussians, and flight was therefore more dangerous:-persua sion was in vain, with men determined to risk nothing, but if they went, to go in safety, Will, indeed, was not wanting in Glotin and Sontag; but the first was a poltron, and the latter a man of scruples, who likewise thought this step would be the ruin of his brother in Berlin.

The centinels were doubled-therefore my escape through my hole, which had been two years dug, could not, unperceived by them, be effected; much less could I, in the face of the guard, clamber the twelve feet high pallisadoes. The following labour therefore, though herculean, was undertaken.

Lieutenant Sontag measuring the interval, between the hole I had dug and the entrance of the gallery in the principal rampart, found it to be thirty-seven feet. Into this it was possible I might, by mining, penetrate. The difficulties of

the enterprise was lessened by the nature of the ground, a fine white sand. Could I reach the gallery, my freedom was certain. I had been inform- 1 ed how many steps to the right or left must be taken, to find the door that led to the second rampart; and on the day when I should be ready for flight, the officer was secretly to leave this door open. I had light and mining tools, and I was further to rely on money and my own discretion.

I begun and continued this labour about six months.

My work, at first, proceeded so rapidly, that while I had room to throw back my sand, I was able in one night to gain three feet; but ere I had proceeded ten feet, I discovered all my difficulties. Before I could continue my work, I was obliged to make room for myself by emptying the sand out of my hole upon the floor of my prison, and this was an employment of some hours. The sand was obliged to be thrown out by the hand, and after it lay thus heaped in my prison, must again return into the hole, and I have calculated that after I had proceeded twenty feet, I was obliged to creep under ground, in my hole, from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms, within twenty-four hours, in the removal and replacing the sand. This labour ended, care was to be taken, that in none of the crevices of the floor there might be any appearance of this fine white sand. The flooring was next to be exactly replaced, and my chains to be resumed. So severe was the fatigue of one day, in this mode, that I was always obliged to rest the three following.

To reduce my labour as much as possible, I was constrained to make the passage so small that my

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body had only space to pass, and I had not room to draw my arm back to my head. The work too must all be done naked, otherwise the dirtiness of my shirt must have been remarked: the sand was wet, water being found at the depth of four feet, where the stratum of gravel began. At length the expedient of sand bags occurred to me, by which it might be removed out more expeditiously. I obtained linen from the officers, but not in sufficient quantities; suspicion would have been excited at observing so much linen brought into the prison. At last I took my sheets, and ticken that enclosed the straw, and cut them up for sand bags, taking care to lie down on my bed as if ill when Bruckhausen paid his visits.

The labour, towards the conclusion, became so intolerable as to excite despondency. I frequently sat contemplating the heaps of sands, during a momentary respite from work, and thinking it impossible I could have strength or time again to replace all things as they were, resolving patiently to wait the consequence, and leave every thing in its present disorder. No, I can assure the reader, that to effect concealment, I have scarcely had time in twenty-four hours to sit down and eat a morsel of bread. Recollecting, however, the prodigious efforts, and all the progress. I had made, hope would again revive, and exhausted strength return, again would I begin my labours, that I might preserve my secret and my expectations; yet it has frequently happened that my visitors have entered a few minutes after I had reinstated every thing in its place.

When my work was within six or seven feet of being accomplished, a new misfortune happened,