my comrades, that it would result in my confinement in a dark dungeon,
with bread and water for diet. I retired to my cell, and closed the door
with the determination that I would neither eat nor sleep until I had
devised some means of escape. I ate nothing and drank nothing during the
day, and by nine o'clock I had matured the plan that we carried into
execution. It may be that I owed something to the fact that I had just
completed the reading of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," containing such
vivid delineations of the wonderful escapes of Jean Valjean, and of the
subterranean passages of the city of Paris. This may have led me to the
line of thought that terminated in the plan of escape adopted. It was
this: I had observed that the floor of my cell was upon a level with the
ground upon the outside of the building, which was low and flat, and
also that the floor of the cell was perfectly dry and free from mold. It
occurred to me that, as the rear of the cell was to a great extent
excluded from the light and air, this dryness and freedom from mold
could not exist unless there was underneath something in the nature of
an air-chamber to prevent the dampness from rising up the walls and
through the floor. If this chamber should be found to exist, and could
be reached, a tunnel might be run through the foundations into the yard,
from which we might escape by scaling the outer wall, the air-chamber
furnishing a receptacle for the earth and stone to be taken out in
running the tunnel. The next morning, when our cells were unlocked, and
we were permitted to assemble in the hall, I went to General Morgan's
cell, he having been for several days quite unwell, and laid before him
the plan as I have sketched it. Its feasibility appeared to him
unquestioned, and to it he gave a hearty and unqualified approval. If,
then, our supposition was correct as to the existence of the air-chamber
beneath the lower range of cells, a limited number of those occupying
that range could escape, and only a limited number, because the greater
the number the longer the time required to complete the work, and the