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Contents vii
Technology and Teaching : Capitalizing on Conducting Guided Discovery Lessons 324
Technology in Direct Instruction 269 Review and Introduction 324
The Role of Assessment in Direct The Open-Ended Phase 325
Instruction 271
The Convergent Phase 325
The Motivational Benefits of Effective
Closure 326
Feedback 272
Application 326
Using Guided Discovery with Different-Aged
Chapter 9 Learners 326

Lecture Discussions: Interactive Exploring Diversity: Using Guided Discovery

with Cultural Minorities 328
Instruction to Promote Assessing Learning in Guided Discovery
Learning 279 Lessons 329
Organized Bodies of Knowledge: Integrated Using Assessment to Increase
Content 283 Learning 329
The Limitations of Lectures 283
Lecture Discussions: Alternatives to Standard Chapter 11
Lectures 285
Problem-Based Instruction 336
The Effectiveness of Lecture
Discussions 285 Problem-Based Learning: An Overview 338
Planning for Lecture Discussions 286 Problem-Based Learning: Why Does It
Work? 340
Technology and Teaching: Using Technology to
Structure and Organize Content 290 Project-Based Learning 341
Implementing Lecture Discussion Essential Components 341
Lessons 292 Implementing Project-Based Instruction in the
Exploring Diversity: Differences in Background Classroom 343
Knowledge 293 Assessment and Project-Based
Assessing Learning in Lecture Learning 345
Discussions 299 Research on Project-Based Learning 346
Problem Solving 347
Well-Defined and Ill-Defined Problems 349
Chapter 10 A Problem-Solving Model 350
Guided Discovery 306 Helping Learners Become Better Problem
Understanding Guided Discovery 312 Solvers 352

Guided Discovery and Constructivism 313 Inquiry Strategies 355

Guided Discovery and Student Technology and Teaching: Using Technology as
Motivation 315 a Tool to Teach Problem Solving 356

Misconceptions About Guided Identifying a Question 359

Discovery 315 Forming Hypotheses 360
Planning for Guided Discovery Lessons 317 Gathering Data 360
Identifying Topics 317 Assessing Hypotheses 361
Specifying Learning Objectives 317 Generalizing 363
Selecting Examples and Non-examples 318 Analyzing the Inquiry Process 363
Types of Examples 318 Critical Thinking 363
Technology and Teaching: Using Databases in Knowledge of Content 365
Guided Discovery Lessons 321 Basic Processes 365
Planning for Social Interaction 323 Metacognition: Awareness and Control of
Planning for Assessment 323 Cognitive Processes 366
viii Contents

Attitudes and Dispositions 366 Chapter 13

Teaching Critical Thinking in the
Classroom 366
Assessing Learning 407
Exploring Diversity: Problem-Based Instruction Classroom Assessment 409
with Developmentally Different Formal and Informal Assessment 410
Learners 367 Functions of an Assessment System 410
Characteristics of Effective
Assessment 410
Chapter 12
Teachers’ Assessment Patterns 412
Differentiating Instruction 378 Using Assessment to Promote
Understanding Differentiated Learning 413
Instruction 379 Preparing Students 416
Principles of Differentiation 381
Administering Tests 417
What Do Teachers Differentiate? 382
Examining Results 418
Planning for Differentiated Instruction 383 Research on Classroom Testing: Implications
Pre-Assessment: The Beginning Point for All for Teachers 419
Differentiation 383
Exploring Diversity: Effective
Flexible Time Requirements 384 Assessment with Learners from Diverse
Adapting Instructional Materials 386 Backgrounds 420
Offering Different Learning Activities 387 Alternative Assessment 421
Varying Learning Objectives 389 Performance Assessment 422
Technology and Teaching: Technology as a Tool Portfolio Assessment 425
for Differentiating Instruction 389 Designing an Assessment System 426
Instructional Strategies to Differentiate Standards, Accountability, and
Instruction 391 Assessment 427
Grouping 392 Grades and Grading 429
Strategy Instruction 393 Communication 431
Peer Tutoring and Cooperative Technology and Teaching: Using Technology in
Learning 395 Assessment 439
The Challenge of Assessment in Diverse
Classrooms 398 References 449
Strategies for Differentiating Author Index 461
Assessment 398
Subject Index 465
Grading 399
Preface

Teachers make an enormous difference in classrooms, and this book is designed to help you
become a better teacher. The knowledge base for teaching continues to expand, confirming
the powerful influence that teachers have on students and the importance of knowledge for
effective teaching (Alexander, 2006). Research also continues to highlight the central role
teachers play in determining the quality of learning in classrooms (Darling-Hammond &
Bransford, 2005). Teachers do make a difference in how much students learn, and this dif-
ference depends on how they teach (Bransford, Darling-Hammond, & LePage, 2005).
Teachers’ powerful influence on learning is even more convincingly documented in the
research literature today than it was in 1989, when the first edition of this text was
published. Translating this research into teaching strategies that teachers can use to increase
learning in their classrooms continues to be the central goal of this text.

New to This Edition

■ New Chapter: Chapter 12, Differentiating Instruction
■ New Feature: Exploring Diversity, found in every chapter including the following
topics ition:
■ The Diversity of Our Learners (Chapter 1)
■ Urban Schools and At-risk Students (Chapter 2)
■ Personalizing Content to Increase Motivation in Students from Diverse
Backgrounds (Chapter 4)
■ Direct Instruction with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (Chapter 8)
■ Differences in Background Knowledge (Chapter 9)
■ Using Guided Discovery with Cultural Minorities (Chapter 10)
■ Problem-Based Instruction with Developmentally Different Learners (Chapter 11)
■ Effective Assessment with Learners from Diverse Backgrounds (Chapter 13)

■ New Feature: Technology and Teaching, found in every chapter, including the follow-
ing topics:
■ Using Technology to Increase Student Learning (Chapter 1)
■ Using Technology to Communicate with Parents (Chapter 3)
■ Using Technology to Plan (Chapter 4)
■ Using Technology to Create Lesson Focus (Chapter 5)
■ Using Technology to Increase Student Involvement (Chapter 6)

ix
x Preface

■ Capitalizing on Technology in Direct Instruction (Chapter 8)

■ Using Technology to Structure and Organize Content (Chapter 9)
■ Using Databases in Guided Discovery Lessons (Chapter 10)
This book connects two areas in education. One is the research on how teaching influ-
ences learning, which includes a wide range of studies conducted since the early 1970s.
Originally grounded in the research on effective teaching, this literature has expanded
to include topics such as teacher and student thinking, constructivist views of learning,
teaching for understanding, and the importance of social interaction in learning.
Teaching methodology is the second area addressed in this book. To be usable research
findings need to be translated into teaching strategies that teachers can readily apply in
their classrooms. This edition combines the best of these two areas. We apply the research
on teaching to strategies that are theoretically sound, yet practical and usable.

Goals of This Text

We have two goals in combining these areas:
■ To influence how teachers think about teaching
■ To expand and improve their instructional strategies
The way teachers think and what they know are two major factors that influence how
they actually teach. And, the way teachers think depends on what they know; in other
words teacher thinking and teacher knowledge are interdependent. To meet our goals, this
book helps teachers acquire the professional knowledge that influences both their thinking
and the way they actually teach in their classrooms.
Without the research to provide a conceptual foundation methods become
mechanical applications of rules implemented without understanding. Without practical
suggestions for teaching practice the research literature remains abstract and irrelevant.
In this sixth edition we again try to avoid both pitfalls by emphasizing the theoretical and
conceptual underpinnings of the research and the implications of this research for
classroom practice.

Text Themes
Today’s schools are changing and these changes present both opportunities and challenges.
To address these changes we have organized the sixth edition around three powerful and
pervasive forces in education. These forces are translated into three themes that are inte-
grated and applied throughout the text:
■ Standards and accountability
■ The diversity of our learners
■ The use of technology to increase student learning
Standards and accountability are reshaping the ways teachers teach and students learn.
Every state has created standards to guide student learning, and there is a movement to cre-
ate national standards in areas such as reading and math. To respond to this movement, we
have made standards and accountability a major theme for this text. We introduce the
Preface xi
theme in Chapter 1 and relate the process of teacher planning to it in Chapter 4. In addi-
tion, we discuss how standards influence assessment as well as the implementation of spe-
cific teaching strategies in later chapters. The diversity of our learners, the second theme for
this text, reflects the growing diversity of our classrooms. This diversity has important
implications for the way we teach. In addition to an entire chapter on diversity (Chapter 2)
and a new chapter on differentiating instruction (Chapter 12), we also address the topic of
diversity in a feature, Exploring Diversity, found in every chapter.
Chapter 1: The Diversity of our Learners
Chapter 2: Urban Schools and At-risk Students
Chapter 3: Challenges to Home-School Communication
Chapter 4: Personalizing Content to Increase Motivation in Students from Diverse
Backgrounds
Chapter 5: Teacher Attitudes and Learner Diversity
Chapter 6: Involving Students from Diverse Backgrounds
Chapter 7: Using Cooperative Learning to Capitalize on Diversity
Chapter 8: Direct Instruction with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Chapter 9: Differences in Background Knowledge
Chapter 10: Using Guided Discovery with Cultural Minorities
Chapter 11: Problem-Based Instruction with Developmentally Different Learners
Chapter 12: Entire chapter focuses on differentiating instruction
Chapter 13: Effective Assessment with Learners from Diverse Backgrounds
Technology is the third theme of this edition. Technology is changing the way we live,
as well as the way we learn and teach. Various forms of technology, including white boards,
document cameras, computers, and the Internet are all changing our classrooms.
Tomorrow’s teachers need to know how to integrate technology into their teaching. We
address applications of technology in the feature, Technology and Teaching, found in
every chapter.
Chapter 1: Using Technology to Increase Student Learning
Chapter 2: Employing Technology to Support Learners with Disabilities
Chapter 3: Using Technology to Communicate with Parents
Chapter 4: Using Technology to Plan
Chapter 5: Using Technology to Create Lesson Focus
Chapter 6: Using Technology to Increase Student Involvement
Chapter 7: Using Computer-Mediated Communication to Facilitate Cooperative
Learning
Chapter 8: Capitalizing on Technology in Direct Instruction
Chapter 9: Using Technology to Structure and Organize Content
Chapter 10: Using Databases in Guided Discovery Lessons
Chapter 11: Using Technology as a Tool to Teach Problem Solving
Chapter 12: Technology as a Tool for Differentiating Instruction
Chapter 13: Using Technology in Assessment
We also added new sections on Standards in Today’s Schools, Professional Organizations’
Standards, and National Standards to help teachers understand how this reform will affect
xii Preface

their teaching. These changes reflect the evolving realities of modern classrooms, as well as
the new responsibilities today’s teachers are being asked to undertake. In addition we have
added feedback for our Preparing for Your Licensure Exam feature to help students master
each chapter’s content. We hope these changes in the sixth edition prepare you for the
challenges of teaching in the twenty-first century.

Supplements

Instructor Manual/Test Bank

We’ve designed this manual to help you use Learning and Teaching, 6th edition, as
effectively as possible. Many of the ideas contained in this manual come from years of using
this text in our own classes as well as our continued work in the public schools. Others are
the result of feedback and discussions we’ve had with teachers, students and our colleagues.
We hope you find the suggestions useful.
The manual is organized by chapters. Each chapter contains chapter overview, objec-
tives, chapter outlines, presentation outlines, multiple choice and short answer test items
and an answer key. The presentation outline is organized in terms of the major topics in
each chapter. Under these topics you will find teaching suggestions including ways to use
large- and small-group activities, as well as ways to integrate the discussion questions and
portfolio activities into your instruction. Following the presentation outline you’ll find
Feedback for Preparing for Your Licensure Exam: Questions for Analysis prior to the test items
and answer key.

The power of classroom practice:

Teacher educators who are developing pedagogies for the analysis of teaching and
learning contend that analyzing teaching artifacts has three advantages: it enables
new teachers time for reflection while still using the real materials of practice; it
provides new teachers with experience thinking about and approaching the
complexity of the classroom; and in some cases, it can help new teachers and teacher
educators develop a shared understanding and common language about teaching.
(Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005)

As Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues point out, grounding teacher education
in real classrooms—among real teachers and students and among actual examples of
students’ and teachers’ work—is an important, and perhaps even an essential, part of
training teachers for the complexities of teaching in today’s classrooms. For this reason we
have created a valuable, timesaving website—MyEducationLab—that provides you with
the context of real classrooms and artifacts that research on teacher education tells us are
so important. The authentic in-class video footage, interactive skill-building exercises,
and other resources available on MyEducationLab offer you a unique valuable teacher
education tool.
MyEducationLab is easy to use and integrate into both your assignments and your
courses. Wherever you see the MyEducationLab logo in the margins or elsewhere in the
Preface xiii
text, follow the simple instructions to access the videos, strategies, cases, and artifacts asso-
ciated with these assignments, activities, and learning units. MyEducationLab is organized
topically to enhance the coverage of the core concepts discussed in the chapters of your
book. For each topic in the course you will find most or all of the following resources:

Connection to National Standards Now it is easier than ever to see how your course-
work is connected to national standards. In each topic of MyEducationLab you will find
intended learning outcomes connected to the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium (INTASC) standards. All of the Assignments and Activities and all of
the Building Teaching Skills and Dispositions in MyEducationLab are mapped to the
appropriate national standards and learning outcomes as well.

Assignments and Activities Designed to save instructors preparation time, these

assignable exercises show concepts in action (through video, cases, or student and
teacher artifacts) and then offer thought-provoking questions that probe your under-
standing of theses concepts or strategies. (Feedback for these assignments is available to
the instructor.)

Building Teaching Skills and Dispositions These learning units help you practice
and strengthen skills that are essential to quality teaching. First you are presented with the
core skill or concept and then given an opportunity to practice your understanding of it
multiple times by watching video footage (or interacting with other media) and then
critically analyzing the strategy or skill presented.

Video Examples Intended to enhance coverage in your book with visual examples of
real educators and students, these video clips (a number of which are referenced explicitly
in this text) include segments from classroom lessons as well as interviews with teachers,
administrators, students, and parents.

General Resources on Your MyEducationLab Course The Resources section on

your MyEducationLab course is designed to help you pass your licensure exam; put
together an effective portfolio and lesson plan; prepare for and navigate the first year of
your teaching career; and understand key educational standards, policies, and laws. This
section includes the following:
■ Licensure Exams. Access guidelines for passing the Praxis exam. The Practice Test
Exam includes practice questions, Case Histories, and Video Case Studies.
■ Portfolio Builder and Lesson Plan Builder. Create, update, and share portfolios and
lesson plans.
■ Preparing a Portfolio. Access guidelines for creating a high-quality teaching
portfolio that will allow you to practice effective lesson planning.
■ Licensure and Standards. Link to state licensure standards and national s
tandards.
■ Beginning Your Career. Educate yourself—access tips, advice, and valuable
information on
■ Resume Writing and Interviewing. Expert advice on how to write impressive
resumes and prepare for job interviews.
xiv Preface

■ Your First Year of Teaching. Practical tips to set up your classroom, manage stu-
dent behavior, and learn to more easily organize for instruction and assessment.
■ Law and Public Policies. Specific directives and requirements you need to under-
stand under the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act of 2004.
Visit www.myeducationlab.com for a demonstration of this exciting new online teaching
resource and to download a MyEdLab guide correlating MEL course assets to this text.

Acknowledgments
In preparing this edition of Learning and Teaching, we want to sincerely thank the people
who have supported its development. We want to particularly thank our editor, Kelly
Villella Canton, for her guidance, support, and cooperation as we attempted to implement
a number of new ideas for this edition. She epitomizes what authors look for in an editor.
We also want to thank Annalea Manalili and Paula Carroll for their help in bringing the
project to fruition, as well as our reviewers: Norbet O. Aneke, City University of New York;
Christine K. Lemley, Northern Arizona University; Janet Schiavone, George Washington
University; and Alice M. Waddell, Mary Baldwin College.
Finally, we again want to thank the many teachers in whose classrooms we’ve worked
and visited, and on whose instruction the case studies in the book are based. They helped
make this text more real and true to the realities of classroom life.
P.E.
D.K.
 1
Learning to Teach

1
 Chapter Outline Learning Objectives

When you’ve completed your study of this chapter, you

should be able to

Defining good teaching 1. Define effective teaching and explain how it influences
learning.

The search for effective teaching 2. Describe the search for a definition of good teaching.
■ Teacher characteristics and the search for the right method
■ Teacher effectiveness research: Teacher do make a
difference?
■ Understanding effective teaching: A focus on student
learning

Contemporary views of teaching and learning 3. Describe different views of learning and explain how
■ From behaviorist to cognitive perspectives they influence teaching.

■ Constructivism: Students as creators of understanding

Text themes 4. Describe different ways that teachers can help

■ Standards and accountability students with exceptionalities succeed in their
classrooms.
■ Exploring Diversity: The diversity of our learners
■ Technology and Teaching: Using technology to increase
learning

Learning to teach 5. Explain how the text themes–standards and account-

■ The importance of knowledge in teaching ability, diversity, and technology–influence classroom
teaching and learning.
■ Teacher decision making
■ Educational reform
■ Learning to teach in an era of reform
■ Standards-based professional development
■ Developing a professional portfolio

Using this book to learn to teach 6. Describe how to use this book to learn to teach.

This book focuses on effective teaching and the different ways teachers help students learn.
Next to the students themselves, teachers are the most important influence on student suc-
cess (Marzano, 2007). This chapter begins by examining effective teaching, and what you
can do to help your students learn. In this chapter we also describe the different compo-
nents of learning to teach, including the different forms of professional knowledge that
contribute to teacher expertise. In addition, we describe how decision making integrates
this knowledge into purposeful teacher actions.
Finally, in this chapter we introduce three themes that run through this text: standards
and accountability, diversity, and technology. Standards and accountability are reshaping

2
Learning to Teach 3
classrooms and influencing teacher decision making in myriad ways, ranging from planning
to instruction to assessment. We describe how standards influence each of these dimensions
of teaching in later chapters.
Exploring diversity, the second text theme and a feature in every chapter, examines how
different forms of diversity influence classroom teaching. Technology and Teaching, a third
text theme and an additional feature found in chapters, describes how teachers can use
technology to increase student learning.
To begin our discussion, let’s look in on a group of teachers talking about their stu-
dents. As you read the vignette, think about your own definition of effective teaching and
how you plan to help your students learn.

Three middle school teachers are eating lunch together on their 40-minute break
between classes. After weather and local politics, the conversation turns to teach-
ing, or, more specifically, to students.
“How are your seventh graders this year?” Paul Escobar asks. “I can’t seem to
get them motivated.”
Stan Williams replies with a frown. “I’ve got three basic math classes, and I’ve
spent the first two months reviewing stuff they’re supposed to know already. They don’t
seem to want to think,” he concludes, turning to the others with an exasperated look.
“Mine aren’t so bad,” Leona Foster replies. “In fact, the other day we had a great
discussion on individual rights. We were discussing the Bill of Rights, and I got them
to think about their rights and responsibilities in our school. Some of them actually got
excited about it. And it was even one of my slower classes. I was impressed with
some of their comments.”
“But how am I going to get them to think if they don’t even know how to multi-
ply or divide?” Stan answers in frustration.
“I know what you’re talking about, Stan,” Paul interjects. “I’m supposed to teach
them to write, but they don’t even know basic grammar. How am I supposed to
teach them subject-verb agreement when they don’t know what a noun or verb is?”
“Exactly!” Stan answers. “We’ve got to teach them basics before we can teach
them all the other stuff, like problem solving and thinking skills.”
“Hmmm. . . . It might be more complicated than that,” Paul replies. “I had a real
eye-opener the other day. . . . Let me tell you about it. I’ve been going to workshops on
using writing teams to teach composition. I tried it out, putting high- and low-ability stu-
dents on the same team. They were supposed to write a critical review of a short story
we had read, using television movie critics as a model. We talked a little about basic
concepts like plot and action and watched a short clip of two movie critics arguing
about a movie. Then I turned them loose. I couldn’t believe it—some of the kids who
never participate actually got excited.”
“That’s all fine and good for English classes, but I’m a math teacher. What am I
supposed to do, have them critique math problems? Oh, I give this math problem
two thumbs up! Besides, these are supposed to be middle school students. I
shouldn’t have to sugarcoat the content. They should come ready to learn. My job is
to teach; theirs is to learn. It’s as simple as that.”

D efining Good Teaching

“It’s as simple as that,”. . .or is it? Teaching has always been a challenging profession, but changes
both within and outside classrooms have made it even more challenging. Teachers are being
asked to teach thinking and problem-solving skills at the same time that students come from
4 Chapter 1

increasingly diverse backgrounds. Both students and teachers are being held accountable by
standards and high-stakes testing. Your personal definition of good or effective teaching is
becoming not only more crucial but also more complex.
But, what is effective teaching? How does effective teaching relate to learning? What
responsibilities do teachers have to motivate their students? What are the implications of
student diversity on the teaching/learning process? And, how can you use new technolo-
gies to promote learning?
These are important questions for teachers because they center on the question
“What is good teaching?” These concerns are particularly important to developing
teachers because your answers to these questions will influence the kind of teacher you
become. As you ponder these questions, thinking about yourself and the classrooms
you’ve experienced, each of you will construct a personal definition of effective teach-
ing. This individual response is as it should be: each teacher is as unique as each student.
But beyond this individual uniqueness, some strands exist that pull these questions
together.
Let’s consider these commonalities a bit further. Does your definition of effective
teaching apply to all levels? For example, are there similarities in the ways effective
kindergarten and high school teachers instruct? What about students? Would your
definition of good teaching apply equally well to low- and high-ability learners? And,
how about subject matter? Does an effective history teacher teach the same way as an
effective English or art teacher? Finally, how does time influence your definition? Do
effective teachers teach the same way at the beginning of the school year as at its close,
at the beginning of a unit as at the end, or even at the beginning of a lesson and at its
completion?
Each of you will wrestle with these questions, either implicitly or explicitly, as you
begin and continue your teaching career. The purpose of this book is to help you resolve
these questions based on the best information available to the profession.
The field of teaching is at a particularly exciting time in its history. Education has
always been one of the most rewarding professions, but at the same time, it continues to
be one of the most challenging. An effective teacher combines the best of human relations,
intuition, sound judgment, knowledge of subject matter, and knowledge of how people
learn—all in one simultaneous act. This task is extremely complex, and one of the factors
making it particularly difficult has been the lack of a clear and documented body of
knowledge on which to base professional decisions.
The situation has changed. Education now has a significant and rapidly expanding
body of research that can guide your teaching practice. That’s what this text is all about; it
is a book about teaching practice that is based on research. As you study the chapters, you
will be exposed to this detailed body of research, and you will learn how this research can
be applied in your classroom to increase student learning.
We developed this text around a series of themes that will be introduced in this
chapter. As your study continues, you will see how research helps teachers as they make
their professional decisions. This research, as with all research, is not perfect, but having
it as a foundation is a giant step forward (Richardson, 2001). This research marks a major
advance in education and is already finding its way into tests used to certify teachers
(Educational Testing Service, 2008), and into both preservice and inservice programs for
teachers. Your study of this text will provide you with the best information available to
the profession at this time.
Learning to Teach 5

T he Search for Effective Teaching

Historically, teaching has been a profession in search of a body of knowledge that could
inform classroom practice. In the past, educators often looked to teacher characteristics to
guide them, as we’ll see in the next section.

Teacher Characteristics and the Search for the Right Method

As researchers began to seek connections between teaching and learning, they initially
focused on teacher characteristics, such as neatness, sense of humor, or cognitive flexibility
(Rosenshine, 1979). Initial research asked whether teachers having these desirable traits
resulted in increased learning. For example, do students taught by a teacher with a good
sense of humor learn more and/or have better attitudes than those taught by a more serious
teacher? Unfortunately the question was oversimplified; magnificent teachers of many
different personalities can be found.
In hindsight, the research on teacher characteristics was not completely misguided.
Two teacher characteristics—teacher experience and understanding of subject matter—
have proved to be powerful variables influencing how teachers understand events in the
classroom and explain content (Berliner, 1994; Shulman, 1987). Veteran teachers are able
to use their experience to interpret the complex events that occur in classrooms and to
make the many split-second professional decisions that are needed every day. Similarly,
subject-matter expertise allows effective teachers to frame and explain ideas in ways that
make sense to students. We will return to both of these ideas later in the chapter.
The next wave of research focused on global methods, attempting to link certain teach-
ing strategies, such as inquiry instruction or discovery learning, with student outcomes,
such as scores on standardized achievement tests (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974; Medley, 1979).
This research was characterized by a belief that a particular type of teaching, such as dis-
cussion, was better than an alternative, such as lecture. To investigate this question, teachers
were trained in a particular technique and then asked to teach their students by this
method. The performance of their students was compared to the performance of students
taught by an alternate method.
Like research on teacher characteristics, this line of research was also flawed.
Researchers concluded that no one way of teaching was better than others and, instead,
teachers required professional decision making to adjust their teaching methods to situa-
tional variables that included the students themselves as well as the content being taught.

Teacher Effectiveness Research: Teachers Do Make a

Difference

As a consequence of the results or, more accurately, the nonresults of earlier efforts,
research on teaching finally focused on teachers’ actions in classrooms, attempting to
find links between what teachers actually do in classrooms and student learning. These
studies marked a new way of thinking about research in education. Unlike previous
work, this research focused on the teacher and the kinds of interactions teachers had with
students (Good & Brophy, 2008). Researchers identified teachers whose students scored
6 Chapter 1

higher than would be expected on standardized tests and other teachers whose students
scored lower. They then went into classrooms, videotaped literally thousands of hours of
instruction, and tried to determine what differences existed in the instruction of the
teachers in the two samples. Because these efforts focused on differences between less and
more effective teachers, it became known as the teacher effectiveness research (Good &
Brophy, 2008). A number of significant differences were found, which we’ll describe in
later chapters.

Understanding Effective Teaching: A Focus on Student

Learning
The effective teaching literature made an invaluable contribution to education because it
both confirmed the critical role teachers like you play in student learning and provided
teachers with a knowledge base to help them make their instructional decisions.
Despite impressive results, critics also identified a major shortcoming in the teacher
effectiveness research—it identified strategies that effective teachers use in their classrooms but
didn’t explain why they worked. In essence, critics were reminding us that students and student
learning should be our primary focus in teaching. These criticisms resulted in fundamental
changes in our views of effective teaching methods, with a major shift from focusing solely on
the teacher to also considering how students learn and how teachers could help.

C ontemporary Views of Teaching and

Learning
At the same time that perspectives on teaching were changing, similar changes were occur-
ring in the way researchers viewed learners and learning (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking,
2000). Behaviorist views of learning, which emphasized external influences in the form of
rewards and punishment, gradually gave way to more cognitive perspectives. These cogni-
tive perspectives emphasized students’ use of strategies to organize, store, and retrieve
information (Bruning et al., 2004). More recently, research has emphasized the critical role
that learners play in constructing new knowledge (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). We analyze
these changes in the sections that follow.

From Behaviorist to Cognitive Perspectives

For the first half of the twentieth century, behaviorist views of learning predominated in
education. Behaviorism emphasized the importance of observable, external events on
learning and the role of reinforcers in influencing student learning. The goal of behaviorism
was to determine how external instructional manipulations effected changes in student
behavior. The teacher’s role was to control the environment through stimuli in the form
of cues and reinforcement for appropriate student behavior. Students were viewed as
empty receptacles, responding passively to stimuli from the teacher and the classroom
environment.
Over time educators found this perspective on learning to be oversimplified and
perhaps misdirected. Although learners do indeed react to stimuli from the environment,
Learning to Teach 7

Table 1.1 Comparison of Behaviorist and Cognitive Views of Learning

View of Learning View of Learner View of Teacher

Behaviorist Accumulation of responses Passive recipient of Controller of stimuli and shaper of

through selective reinforcement stimuli from behaviors through reinforcement
environment
Cognitive Development of strategies to Active meaning maker Partner in the process of meaning
encode and retrieve information through strategy use making; teacher of organizational and
retrieval strategies

research revealed that students were not passive recipients, but instead actively changed
and altered stimuli as they attempted to make sense of teacher lessons. Student character-
istics such as background knowledge, motivation, and the use of learning strategies all
influenced learning (Bruning et al., 2004). The role of the teacher also changed from
dispenser of rewards and punishment to that of someone who helped students organize
and make sense of information. These differences between behaviorism and cognitive
psychology, which focuses on thought processes within learners, are summarized in
Table 1.1.

Constructivism: Students as Creators of Understanding

Recently, constructivism—a recent development in cognitive psychology—has focused our

attention on the central role that learners play in constructing new knowledge. Influenced
by the work of Jean Piaget (1952, 1959) and Lev Vygotsky (1978, 1986), as well as the work
of linguists and anthropologists, constructivism is a view of learning that emphasizes four
key components:
1. Learners construct their own understanding rather than having it delivered or transmit-
ted to them.
2. New learning depends on prior understanding and knowledge.
3. Learning is enhanced by social interaction.
4. Authentic learning tasks promote meaningful learning.
Constructivism has fundamentally changed the way we view teaching and learning. As
opposed to passive recipients of information, learners become active meaning-makers,
building upon their current knowledge. To facilitate the process, teachers design learning
activities in which learners can work with others on meaningful learning tasks. Many of
the teaching strategies that you’ll learn about in this text are based upon constructivist
views of learners and learning.
In addition to these broad, general changes in views about teaching and learning,
content-specific ones have also arisen. The National Council for the Teaching of
Mathematics (NCTM) has developed guidelines that stress student involvement in
meaningful problem-solving activities (NCTM, 1991, 2000). Those in the field of science
have also published guidelines that call for deeper, more thoughtful, and intensive study
of science topics (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993).
8 Chapter 1

Common to all of these is refocused attention on the learner and what teachers can do to
help students learn.
These changes make this an exciting time to study education and become a teacher.
Researchers are uncovering a number of links between teacher actions and student achieve-
ment. Because of this research, and other related research, our views of teacher expertise
and professional development have changed. Our goal in preparing this text is to commu-
nicate these findings and their implications to prospective teachers and practicing teachers
in the classroom.

T ext Themes
In response to recent developments in education, three themes appear throughout the text:
■ Standards and accountability
■ The diversity of our learners
■ The use of technology for increasing learning
Because these topics influence so many different aspects of teaching, they are integrated
throughout the text. Let’s examine them briefly.

Standards and Accountability

Standards, statements that describe what students should know or be able to do at the end of a
period of study (McCombs, 2005), have become a major influence on teachers’ lives.
Standards, together with accountability, the process of requiring students to demonstrate
mastery of the topics they study as well as holding teachers responsible for this learning, have
changed the ways teachers plan, instruct, and assess student learning.
The “standards movement” is commonly traced to the publication of A Nation at Risk:
The Imperative for Educational Reform, published by the National Commission on
Excellence in Education (1983). This document famously stated:
If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre
educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of
war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squan-
dered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge.
Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those
gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral
educational disarmament. (p. 9)
This report came at a time when other countries, such as Germany and Japan, were
outcompeting us both industrially and educationally, and it struck a chord with leaders in
this country; if we were to compete internationally, we had to have better schools.
Standards together with accountability were one way to accomplish this.
Since 1983, a number of reform efforts have attempted to address the concerns raised
by A Nation at Risk. The revised federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA),
enacted by the George W. Bush administration in 2001 was one of the most significant.
Renamed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the law asked America’s schools to
Learning to Teach 9
document their success in terms of the extent to which students could meet specified stan-
dards. No Child Left Behind has been controversial, but it and the standards movement in
general have left a lasting legacy.
Standards are here to stay; since the turn of this century, every state in the nation has
developed standards in different content areas, and there is currently a movement to institute
standards at the national level (Finn & Petrilli, 2009). In addition, reformers are advocating
the use standards-based assessments to evaluate teachers and using the results for decisions
about teacher pay and retention in their jobs (McNeil, 2010). Standards are having a major
impact on education and will play a major role in your future professional life.

Standards in Today’s Schools Standards at the state level have been written for con-
tent areas ranging from core curriculum areas, such as reading, writing, math, and science
to others less prominent, such as

■ Physical education
■ Fine arts
■ Economics
■ Agricultural science
■ Business education
■ Technology applications
■ Trade and industrial education
■ Spanish language arts and English as a second language

Even this list is not exhaustive.

Let’s look at several examples of state standards. Standards in different states are labeled
in different ways, such as “Essential Knowledge and Skills” (Texas Education Agency, 2008a),
“Learning Standards” (Illinois State Board of Education, 2008b), “Content Standards”
(California State Board of Education, 2008a), or “Sunshine State Standards” (Florida
Department of Education, 2007). Regardless of the labels, each state’s standards describe
what students should know or be able to do.
Since space doesn’t allow us to list examples from every state, we’re going to present
representative samples for sake of illustration. For those of you reading this text who don’t
live in these states, you can easily access your own state’s standards by clicking on the fol-
lowing link: http://www.education-world.com/standards/state/index.shtml. Then, click on
the pull down menu and select your state.
How do standards from different states appear? The following is an example in fourth-
grade math from the state of Texas (Texas Education Agency, 2008b).
(4.2) Number, operation, and quantitative reasoning. The student describes and
compares fractional parts of whole objects or sets of objects
The student is expected to:
(A) use concrete objects and pictorial models to generate equivalent fractions.
The number (4.2) identifies this as the second standard in the list of fourth-grade stan-
dards in math, and the letter (A) describes what students should be able to do to meet this
standard. Different states code their standards in different ways, but all are designed to
describe learning and assessment targets for teachers and students.
10 Chapter 1

As another example, the following standard comes from the state of Illinois in middle
school science (Illinois State Board of Education, 2008a).
Illinois Science Assessment Framework
Standard 12F— Astronomy (Grade 7)
12.7.91 Understanding that objects in the solar system are for the most part in
regular and predictable motion. Know that those motions explain such phenomena
as the day, the year, the phases of the moon, and eclipses.
Although the way the standard is coded is different from the coding used in Texas, both
describe what students should know or be able to do.
Standards can also target important outcomes in secondary language arts. For exam-
ple, consider the following example from the state of Florida (Florida Department of
Education, 2009):
The student understands the common features of a variety of literary forms.
(LA.E.1.4)
1. identifies the characteristics that distinguish literary forms.
2. understands why certain literary works are considered classics.
This standard is broader and more abstract, but it is still designed to guide both teachers
and students in the classroom.
Professional organizations have also weighed in on the need for standards in educa-
tion. Let’s take a look.

Professional Organizations’ Standards Professional organizations are designed

to provide leadership in different areas of education. Many professional organizations,
such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2008), the National
Council of Teachers of English (International Reading Association & National Council of
Teachers of English, 2008), and others that focus on science, social studies, early child-
hood education, special education, the arts, health education, and bilingual education
also have produced standards that shape teachers’ lives. For example, the following are
examples from the NCTM (2008). (These are only samples for pre-K–2 and grades 6–8;
you can access standards for grades 3–5 and 9–12 together with complete lists online at
www.nctm.org.)

Number and Operations Standard

Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all
students to—
■ Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.

Pre-K–2 Expectations
In prekindergarten through grade 2 all students should—
■ Develop and use strategies for whole-number computations, with a focus on
addition and subtraction.
■ Develop fluency with basic number combinations for addition and
subtraction.

Grades 6–8 Expectations

In grades 6–8 all students should—
■ Select appropriate methods and tools for computing with fractions and
decimals from among mental computation, estimation, calculators or
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
behind a screen in the room, and remain there as long as possible so
as to postpone discovery. “The gatekeeper always comes in as soon
as I ring a bell, giving him notice that I am alone,” writes La Valette,
“and if you will cough and make a movement behind, showing some
one is there, he will wait patiently for a time. The longer this
detention the more time I shall have had to get away.” La Valette
then went out into the great lodge, where half a dozen officials
lounged idly or were seated, watching the lady pass. The gatekeeper
only made the remark: “You are leaving earlier than usual, Madame.
It is a sad occasion.” He thought she had taken a last farewell of her
husband, for the execution was fixed for the following day. The
disguised La Valette counterfeited poignant grief extraordinarily well,
with handkerchief to eyes and heart-rending expressions of sorrow.

They reached the outer gate at length, where the last guardian sat,
keys in hand, one for the iron grating, the other for the wicket
beyond, and La Valette was soon outside but not yet free. The sedan
chair was there, but no chairmen, no servants. The fugitive got
inside under the sentry’s eyes, and shrunk back behind the curtains
to avoid observation, but still a prey to the keenest anxiety and
ready for any desperate act. Two minutes passed, and seemed a
whole year. Then a voice cried, “The fellow has disappeared, but I
have got another chairman,” and the sedan was now lifted from the
ground and carried across the street, to where a carriage was in
waiting on the Quai des Orfevrés. The transfer was quickly effected,
the horses whipped up and started at a rapid trot across the Saint
Michel Bridge, and so by the rue de la Harpe to the rue Vaugirard
behind the Odéon. La Valette began at last to have hope of liberty,
which grew when he recognised in the coachman a devoted friend,
the Comte de Chasseuon, who spoke to him encouragingly, saying
there were pistols in the carriage and that they must be used if
required. As the carriage drove on, La Valette exchanged his
woman’s clothes for a groom’s suit, and when it stopped he jumped
out at the bidding of his friend, M. Baudus, who was to act as his
new master.
It was now eight in the evening, pitch dark and the rain falling in
torrents; the neighborhood was deserted and silent save when the
sound of galloping horses’ hoofs were heard, and several
gensdarmes passed at a hard gallop. No doubt the escape had been
discovered, and pursuit had begun. La Valette, wearied and agitated,
having lost one shoe, walked on as best he could, through the mud,
following his master into the door of a house in the rue de Grenelle,
which was actually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the residence
of the Duc de Richelieu. M. Baudus stopped to speak a few words to
the Swiss after bidding La Valette to run up-stairs. “Who is that?”
asked the Swiss. “My servant,” replied M. Baudus, “going up to his
own room.” This was enough for La Valette, who hastened to the
third floor, where some one met him, and without speaking led him
into a room, the door of which was immediately closed on him.
There was a stove alight, giving out heat and flame, and La Valette,
stretching out his hands to warm them, touched a match box and a
candle. He at once accepted this as permission to light up. He found
himself in a good sized garret, furnished comfortably with bed, chest
of drawers and a table, on which was a scrap of paper with a few
words. “Make no noise, only open the window at night time, put on
slippers and have patience.” On this table was also a bottle of
excellent Burgundy, several books and a basket containing toilet
appliances. He had fallen among friends certainly, but why in this
house, under the same roof as a department of State, presided over
by a perfect stranger, the Duc de Richelieu? But M. Baudus was an
employee in the office, and he remembered perhaps the Eastern
proverb that “the thief in hiding is safest under the walls of the
King’s castle.” It seemed, however, that a certain Madame Bresson,
whose husband was cashier in the Foreign Office, had resolved to
help the first fugitive seeking safety, in gratitude for the escape of M.
Bresson on a previous occasion. The two were now moved to pity
and indignation at the ignoble spite vented by the government, and
their cruel treatment of political enemies.

La Valette’s escape from the Conciergerie spread fear and dismay

among the adherents of Louis XVIII. No one went to bed that night
in the Tuileries. Reports were circulated that a vast conspiracy had
been formed, and the escape was to be a signal for the storm to
burst. Some time elapsed before the alarm was given from within
the prison. The warder attendant had entered the prisoner’s room as
usual, but, deceived by the noise made behind the screen, had again
withdrawn, to return five minutes later and make closer
investigation. He saw Madame de La Valette standing there alone,
and the truth broke in upon him. He turned to run out, but the
devoted wife clung to him crying, “Wait, wait, give my husband time,
let him get further away.” “Leave go, leave go,” he replied, roughly
shaking her off, “I am a lost man;” and he rushed away shouting,
“He is gone; the prisoner has escaped!” Dismay and confusion
prevailed on all sides. Gaolers, attendants and gensdarmes ran here
and there. One or two hurried after the sedan chair, which was still
in sight, jogging along the quay, and fell upon it savagely. It was
empty, as we know, and his carriage had already removed the
fugitive to a distance.

A certain calm now fell upon the bewildered keepers, and more
systematic pursuit was organised. Visits were forthwith paid to all La
Valette’s friends and acquaintances. Orders were issued to close and
watch the barriers, hand-bills were hastily printed, giving particulars
of the escape. For half an hour Madame de La Valette was
consumed with the liveliest anxiety, but as her husband was not
brought back she was satisfied he had not been recaptured. But her
situation was painful in the extreme, for the gaolers bitterly
reproached her, using threats and curses. Then a high official
appeared upon the scene, and, interrogating her rudely, upbraided
her angrily for the part she had played. She was plainly told not to
look for release and was committed to a room, which she knew had
been Marshal Ney’s last resting-place, and was full of the saddest
memories. Directly under her windows was the courtyard of the
female prison, and she was within earshot of the conversation of the
lowest of her own sex. There they kept her in the strictest seclusion,
her lady’s maid was not permitted to join her, and she was waited
upon by one of the female gaolers. She was not allowed to write or
receive letters, or see visitors. Not a syllable of news reached her,
and she was left in such increasing anxiety and agitation of mind
that she did not sleep for nearly three weeks. La Valette’s little
daughter had been received into a convent, where she was not
unkindly treated, although the mothers of other inmates objected to
their association with the child of a condemned and prosecuted man.

Meanwhile the fugitive had found safety and comparative comfort in

the hands of his loyal and devoted friend. He spent the first night at
his window, breathing the free air; then towards the small hours
slept the sleep of the just. When he woke he found a servant
sweeping out his room, and was visited by his host, who assured
him he had nothing whatever to fear. Neither the threats launched
against those who gave him an asylum nor the rewards promised to
those who would betray had the slightest weight with Madame
Bresson, who was prepared to watch over him with the most
scrupulous fidelity—so much so, that when he asked for small beer
to quench his incurable thirst, he was refused. “We are not in the
habit of drinking beer here, and if it is ordered it may suggest that
we have some new lodger in the place.” M. Bresson emphasised his
caution by the story of a M. de Saint Morin, who was betrayed and
perished on the scaffold during the Terror because he would eat a
fowl, the bones of which he picked and threw out of the window.
They were seen by a neighbor, who knew that the old woman who
owned the house could not afford to eat fowls, and it was concluded
that she was giving shelter to some one of better class. This led to
the discovery and arrest of M. de Saint Morin. “No, no,” said M.
Bresson, “you can have as much drink as you please,—syrups and
eau sucré—but no beer.”

The days passed, the excitement in Paris did not diminish, the police
were increasingly active, and it became more and more necessary to
smuggle La Valette away. Various plans were suggested, one that he
should escape in the carriage of a Russian general, who would pass
the barrier, having La Valette concealed in the bottom of the coach.
A condition was that the general’s debts to the amount of 8,000
francs should be paid, and the money would have been forthcoming,
but he would not move without knowing the name of the fugitive,
and this was deemed dangerous to divulge. Another plan was that
La Valette should march out of Paris, incorporated with a Bavarian
Battalion on its way home. The officer in command readily agreed,
and the King of Bavaria, a warm friend of La Valette’s, heartily
approved. But the notion became known to the police, and the
Bavarian regiment was constantly surrounded by spies enough to
arrest the whole battalion.

At last, after waiting eighteen days, Baudus came with the joyful
news that certain Englishmen in Paris were willing to give their help
in furthering the escape. A Mr. Michael Bruce was the first to move in
the business. He was well received in the best French society, and
he was approached by certain great ladies, chief among them the
Princesse de Vaudémont. Bruce was delighted when invited to assist
a distinguished but unfortunate person, unjustly condemned to
death, and he at once took into his confidence a British general, Sir
Robert Wilson, who had already chivalrously essayed to save the life
of Marshal Ney. In common with many of his countrymen he had felt
that the hard fate meted out to Napoleon’s chief adherents was a
disgrace to the country which had played so large a part in the
Emperor’s overthrow. Wilson readily agreed, and took upon himself
to make the necessary arrangements. Bruce did not appear; his
known sympathy for Ney would have laid him open to suspicion, and
he might have drawn the attention of the police to his movements
and exposed La Valette to detection. Sir Robert Wilson sought
assistants among the younger officers of the Army of Occupation,
and finally chose Captain Allister of the Fifth Dragoon Guards and
Captain Hely-Hutchinson of the Grenadier Guards, afterwards the
third Earl of Donoughmae. After some discussion it was settled that
La Valette should assume the disguise of a British officer, and as
such should travel to the frontier by the Valenciennes road to
Belgium, that generally taken by the English officers then in Paris.
Some little difficulty was found in obtaining the necessary uniform,
but it was at last made to La Valette’s measure by the master tailors
of his Majesty’s guards.

On the evening of the ninth of January, 1816, La Valette bade

farewell to the hosts, who had so nobly protected him and walked as
far as the rue de Grenelle, where he found a cabriolet awaiting him,
driven by the same faithful friend, the Comte de Chasseuon, by
whose aid he had escaped from the Conciergerie. They passed the
tall railings of the Tuileries gardens, and laughed at the long series
of sentinels, any one of whom would have gladly checked their
progress, and at length reached the rue du Hilder, where Captain
Hely-Hutchinson had an apartment. His three English friends, Sir
Robert Wilson, Hely-Hutchinson and Michael Bruce, were there to
welcome him, and they all sat down to talk rapidly over the
important adventure fixed for the following day. The general was
very precise in his instructions. They must be moving early, awake
and up at 6 o’clock. La Valette was as spruce and smart as became a
captain in the guards. “I shall call for you at 8 A. M. in my own open
cabriolet, as I mean to drive you myself as far as Compiègne,” said
he. “Hutchinson, here, will accompany us on horseback.”

All happened as planned. Although some surprise was expressed at

the sight of a general officer in full uniform, driving in a gig, no
questions could be addressed to a person of his rank. The guards
turned out and saluted, and the barrier of Clichy was reached
without accident; then the first post-house at La Chapelle, where the
horse was changed. Here a party of gensdarmes seemed disposed to
be inquisitive, but Captain Hely-Hutchinson dismounted and gossiped
with them on the coming arrival of troops. More gensdarmes were
encountered along the road, but none accosted them, and La Valette
hugged his pistol close and would have resisted recapture. There
was a long halt at Compiègne awaiting the general’s large carriage,
which Captain Ellister was bringing after them from Paris. It was
during this half that Sir Robert Wilson, having caught sight of some
straggling gray hairs beneath La Valette’s wig, produced a pair of
scissors and deftly acted as barber in removing them. Taking the
road in the new carriage they sped along rapidly through the night,
and reached Valenciennes, the last French town, at 7 o’clock in the
morning. Here the captain of gendarmerie on duty summoned them
to his presence to exhibit their passports, but Sir Robert Wilson
refused haughtily. “Let him come to me. It is not the custom for a
general officer to wait on captains. There are the passports; he can
do as he pleases.” It was bitterly cold, the officer was abed and did
not care to turn out, but gave the passports his visé without more
ado. A last obstacle offered in the person of an officious custom-
house officer, but he was quickly satisfied, and the frontier was
passed in safety. Some close chances had been surmounted on the
way. They ran the risk of detection at the various post-houses,
where the carriage was examined closely and the passengers
interrogated. Once the identity of La Valette was questioned; he was
travelling under the assumed name of Colonel Losack, and no such
name could be found in the British army list, but Sir Robert Wilson
carried it off with a high hand. A nearer danger was that La Valette
had very marked features, and he was well known to many officials,
having been Napoleon’s Postmaster General, while the hand-bills
notifying the escape and describing him in detail had been very
widely distributed. At one town, Cambray, a dangerous delay
occurred through the obstinacy of the English sentry at the gate,
who refused to call up the guardian to pass them through during the
night. He had received no orders to that effect and was deaf to all
entreaties, although they came from a general officer.

From Valenciennes the carriage proceeded to Mons, and arrived

there in time to dine. La Valette then continued his journey towards
Munich, where he was most hospitably received by the Elector of
Bavaria. Sir Robert Wilson made the best of his way back to Paris by
another road, and arrived in the capital after an absence of no more
than sixty hours. Now misfortune came upon him, and the three
generous and disinterested friends fell into the hands of the police.
One of the innumerable spies on the lookout for La Valette came
upon Sir Robert Wilson’s carriage, covered with mud in the stable,
and learned that the general had just returned after a long journey
to the North. The general’s servant was found, and, being
questioned, admitted that the general had just been to Mons with an
officer of the guards who could not speak English. A watch was set
on this servant, who was the general’s messenger when
communicating with the British Embassy. The servant was suborned,
and for a price promised to bring any letters written by Sir Robert
first to the Préfet of Police. One was addressed to Earl Grey in
London, and it contained a full and particular account of the escape.
On the strength of the evidence thus unfairly obtained, the three
Englishmen, Wilson, Hely-Hutchinson and Bruce, were arrested.

The English ambassador, Sir Charles Stuart, declined to interfere on

behalf of his compatriots. His answer was that these gentlemen had
broken the law by interfering with the course of French justice, and
they must abide by their acts. Accordingly, they were lodged in the
prison of La Force, and in due time brought to trial at the Assize
Court. Sir Robert Wilson appeared in the dock in the full uniform of a
general officer, his breast covered with decorations and orders, for
he had served with great distinction, and was especially favored by
the continental sovereigns, whose troops he had often led on the
field. Captain Hely-Hutchinson wore the uniform of an officer of the
British guards. Mr. Michael Bruce appeared as a private gentleman.
All admitted the truth of the charge, and it was not thought
necessary to advance proof, but Madame de La Valette (who had
been detained six weeks in prison) was brought into court and
questioned. She evoked much respectful sympathy, and was
overcome with deep emotion at the sight of her husband’s chivalrous
preservers. “I have never seen any of them before, but I shall never
forget them and all that I owe to them so long as I live,” was her
cry.

When put upon their defence, the prisoners all boldly justified their
conduct. “The appeal made to our humanity and national
generosity,” declared Sir Robert Wilson, “was irresistible. We would
have done as much for the most obscure person in the same dread
situation. Perhaps we were imprudent, but we would rather incur
that reproach than that of having abandoned a man in sore straits,
who threw himself into our arms.” “Whatever respect I owe this
tribunal,” added Mr. Bruce, “I owe it also to myself to affirm that I do
not feel the slightest compunction for what I have done.” The judge
summed up impartially, but declared that the law must be
vindicated, and a verdict of guilty was returned, followed by the
minimum sentence of three months’ imprisonment. The large verdict
of public opinion was and still is entirely in their favor. Even the
outraged majesty of the French law was soon soothed, for the
Government repented of its vindictive treatment of men, whose chief
offence was loyalty to a fallen master, and, although unhappily they
could not bring the gallant Marshal Ney to life, they pardoned La
Valette and suffered him to return to France. The hardest measure
meted out to the two officers came from their military superiors. The
Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief of the British army, forfeited their
commissions with a scathing reprimand. The infraction of discipline
was soon condoned by the nobility of the action, and ere long the
offenders were reinstated in their commands.
 CHAPTER II
THE GREAT SEAPORT PRISONS

The bagnes, the survival of the old galleys at Brest, Rochefort and
Toulon—Character and condition of the convicts—Day and night
at the galleys—Forgery of official documents and bank notes—
Robberies cleverly effected by expert thieves—Severe discipline
enforced—The bastonnade—Cruelties of the warders—Escapes
very frequent—Petit, a man impossible to hold—Hautdebont—
The payole or letter-writer, a post of great profit—Usury at the
bagne—Wanglan an ex-banker does a large business in money
lending, and creates a paper currency—Some convicts always in
funds—Collet lives in clover—Sharp measures taken with
usurers.

Some attempt was made in 1810 to improve the French prison

system, and the maisons centrales, or district prisons, were
instituted; but no great progress was made with them. At that time
the principal punishment inflicted was labor in chains at the seaports
in the so-called bagnes of Brest, Rochefort and Toulon, or the
travaux forcés, the survival of the old galleys, the population of
which found a permanent home ashore, when the warships ceased
to be propelled by human power. These bagnes will now be
described. The earlier records have already been given in the volume
immediately preceding.

The name bagnes, which was at one time in general use to express
these hard labor prisons, is derived from bagnio, the bath attached
to the Seraglio at Constantinople, which was the Turkish
establishment for galley slaves. The bagnes were sometimes known
as prisons mouillés, or floating prisons, because the prisoners were
for a long time housed in hulks; but as their numbers increased,
buildings were at length erected on the shore, containing vast
dormitories, each capable of holding five or six hundred prisoners.
The grand total at the Naval Arsenal often exceeded several
thousand men. The régime was not exactly severe. The labor was
easy, and consisted of little more than rough jobs about the
wharves, moving guns to and fro, storing shot and shell, occasionally
excavating for new buildings. As described by an eye-witness, penal
labor was a mere farce. “The bulk of the convicts,” wrote the
Director of Naval Arsenals, in 1838, “do no more than doze. They
may be seen, eight or ten of them, following a light cart, not half
laden, which they pull in turn, two and two. The hospital is full of
them as invalids or nurses. They are to be found in private houses
and hotels, engaged as private servants.” In earlier days things had
been much worse.

Under the Directory and under the First Empire many who possessed
private means were allowed to purchase improper privileges. A
certain old convict at Rochefort was allowed to go at large in the
town, where he was admitted into society and welcomed for his
affable manners. He went so far as to make overtures to the
authorities to purchase his release, by building and equipping a ship-
of-war at his own expense. It was said in those days that Napoleon I
was willing to forgive crimes at a price; that big robberies were
sometimes condoned by a gift to the State. One convict, Delage,
sentenced for embezzlement, was a man of large private fortune,
which he was allowed to spend freely in ameliorating his condition.
He arrived at Rochefort in a carriage and pair, escorted by two
gensdarmes. He was located in a separate room at the Hospital,
which he furnished comfortably, and later his wife and children
joined him at the bagnes. He was in the habit of leaving the prison
every morning at gun-fire to spend the day with his family, and
return in the evening, on the excuse that he had a situation in the
port, and must sleep on board the ship. This man was known as le
joli forçat on account of his good looks and pleasant demeanor.
Others of the same class were to be seen parading the town in
fashionable garb, bearing the badge of their real position only in the
basil, or ankle-iron, which all were obliged to wear. Criminals with
accomplishments or skill in trades could always find remunerative
employment. Private families found tutors for their children and
music or dancing masters in the bagnes, while all high officials might
employ convict coachmen, grooms and cooks.

For the rest, life was irksome. The progress of the ordinary prisoner
has been well described by Maurice Alhoy, who paid many visits of
inspection to the various bagnes. The journey to the coast was made
in the cellular carriage, which came into use in 1830, in substitution
for the abominable chain gang, by which the wretched forçats
marched through France. The way was long, the coach moved at a
foot pace, there was no rest or ease on the road. On arrival the
passengers, broken with fatigue, were carried to the reception ward,
identified, examined, stripped of their clothes and dressed in the
uniform of the bagne,—a crimson blouse, yellow pantaloons and a
coarse canvas shirt. These clothes were covered with marks, the first
syllable of the word galérien, “GAL,” in black letters. A woollen cap of
red or green, according to the term of sentence, covered the head.
When dressed and passed fit for full labor (grande fatigue), the
coupling took place. For long years French forçats were chained
together in pairs, and the merest chance decided upon the chain
companionship. The pair, thus indissolubly joined for a term of years,
might begin as perfect strangers to each other, having nothing in
common, neither ways nor tastes, not even language. The coupling
was accomplished by first riveting an iron ring above the ankle, to
which one end of the chain was attached, the other end being
riveted to the ankle of his fellow. The whole chain measured nine
feet, half of it belonging of right to each. But if each had different
ideas and intentions, they naturally pulled in opposite directions, the
limit of difference being reached at nine feet. Sometimes, as at the
hour of mid-day rest, there was a difference of opinion between the
partners. One might wish to walk, the other to be quiet; but the to
and fro movement of the first dragging at the chain would disturb
the second, and then the matter could only be settled by a fight or a
compromise. To quarrel was to risk punishment, so the usual course
was for one to take out a pack of cards and cry: “Je te joue tes
maillons,” “I will play you for your half of the chain.” The game
would proceed calmly while the stake, the disputed chain, lay coiled
between the players; and in the end, according to the issue, both
would walk, or both would lie down to sleep. Often enough one of a
couple was quite indifferent as to the behavior of his chain-
companion. A case was known where a fight was started between a
chaussette, or convict, permitted to go about singly, and one of a
chain couple. In the course of the struggle the second and passive
member of the twins, who had watched it quite unconcernedly, was
dragged nearer to the edge of a deep ditch by his companion, into
which both were nearly precipitated. Had not the conflict ceased
both would probably have been drowned.

The first three days after arrival were allowed for rest and recovery.
On the fourth day at gun-fire (6 A. M. in winter and 5 A. M. in
summer) the new arrival’s chain was released from the bar, which
ran the length of the wooden guard bed, the night’s resting-place for
all, and he was marched out with his fellow convict to labor. On
passing through the great gates a blacksmith struck with a hammer
upon the leg iron to test its solidity. A short pause followed for the
issue of a ration of sour wine, and the parties were then distributed
to the various works in hand. It was for the most part unskilled
labor, mere brute force applied to moving heavy burdens. They were
harnessed like beasts to carts, laden with stone, or set to work in
gangs at raising the great weight of the pile driver, or operating the
steel drill, driven down into the solid rock. But work was continued
incessantly and in all weathers, “rain or shine,” in the pelting storm
and under the fierce rays of the summer sun, with a short rest at
mid-day; bodies thrown down anywhere they stood, when the signal
was given. Work went on for ten hours daily until the hour of return
to the bagne, where the evening meal, the common feed at the
trough, awaited them. Each squad, a dozen or more, gathered round
the same gamelle, or great tub, filled with a mess of bean soup, into
which they dipped their wooden spoons, fighting like dogs over a
bone, each for his portion. The weakest fared worst, and the
strongest and greediest carried off the lion’s share. The same vessel
was passed from hand to hand, and they drank foul water with dirty
mouths. After the sorry feast an hour or two of idleness followed,
and the convicts lay on the great wooden bed (rama), conversing
with one another. At last the whistle for all to “turn in” was heard,
when every one, without undressing, rolled himself in his grass
blanket, and sought oblivion, often vainly, in sleep. Nothing now
broke the silence but the footsteps of the night watchman going his
rounds under the dim light of the oil lamps, and the occasional
falling of his hammer as he struck the bars and chains to be certain
that they had not been tampered with. When this was done just
before the rising hour it was called “morning prayer.”

Use becomes second nature, and many forçats could bring

themselves to endure the miseries and discomforts of the life at the
bagne. They had their hours of relaxation, which they spent in the
manufacture of fancy articles, to be sold for the few francs that
helped to increase and improve their daily rations according to their
taste. Some kept and trained dogs to perform marvellous tricks or
taught mice to draw a carriage. A convict well known in his time,
nicknamed Grand Doyen, who had done forty out of sixty years in
various prisons, is remembered for his extraordinary power of
taming rats. By a strange contrast this Grand Doyen was a man of
cruel character and abominable temper, who was ever at enmity with
his fellows. He was constantly in gaol, now for fraud, now for
robbery with violence, at last for murder, with extenuating
circumstances. He spent all his life, from the age of nineteen, in
detention of some sort. No one liked him, and in his loneliness he
captured a young rat, and trained it to live with him. He began by
drawing its teeth and shortening its tail. He taught it all kinds of
tricks, harnessed it to a cart, and secured it with a collar and chain,
which he fastened to a waistcoat button, leaving sufficient length to
the chain to allow the vermin to shelter in his waistcoat pocket.
Once, when at Bicêtre waiting for a chain, Grand Doyen let the rat
loose to run about the yard, where it was pounced upon by the
prison cat. Grand Doyen, in defence of his pet, promptly killed the
cat with his wooden sabot. Then the rat got into trouble by gnawing
a hole in a convict’s clothes, and an order for his execution was
forthwith issued. Grand Doyen, in despair, saved his friend by
substituting another rat, which he had caught on purpose, and
decorated with the chain of his favorite before handing it up to
justice. The warder asked why he had not killed the rat as ordered,
and was put off by the excuse that he had not the heart, so he
brought it now to the warder, who was not so sensitive, and
hammered it on the head with his key. The pet rat was still alive,
safely hidden by Grand Doyen, who was on the point of removal
from Bicêtre. How was he to get it past the gates? Inventiveness
was stimulated by the difficulty, and Grand Doyen, being in
possession of one of those enormous loaves in which French ration
bread is baked, tore out the crumb in the centre, and made a
comfortable hole for his pet. Then, carrying his loaf under his arm,
he took his place on the chain, and passed safely through the gates.

Hospice de la Bicêtre

A celebrated hospital founded by Louis XIII in 1632 for invalid

officers and soldiers. It is now devoted to the aged, the incurable
poor, and the insane.
The ingenuity of the prisoners was equalled by their industry. The
most unpromising materials and the rudest tools served to produce
the most artistic pieces. Cocoanut shells, beautifully carved, formed
elegant goblets. Old bones were converted into chessmen or paper
knives or penholders, the tools by which they were shaped being
scraps of iron picked up in the yards. The products of their
cleverness were not always avowable or harmless. The bagne was
often the home of false money makers, and their audacity must
have been something marvellous. That prisoners employed in the
workshops should be able to escape observation and manufacture
files, keys and other tools to be employed in compassing escape,
was not so strange; but it was almost incredible, that, working in the
open or under the shelter of a ship’s side, they could cast metal
coins, having first made the molds and melted the substances, then
polish and perfect them so as to deceive any but the sharpest eye.
There were still more marvellous frauds accomplished. Forgery and
all kinds of imitation of signatures, the preparation of official
documents, even the seals to attach to them, were within the
powers of these clever convicts. One case is on record, in which
release was all but secured by means of a forged authority, but at
the last moment one document was missing, and when search was
made for it among the papers in the office, the fraud was
discovered. In this instance several signatures had been imitated,
including that of the Chancellor and the King himself. On another
occasion one of the trade-instructors received a letter, enclosing a
note for five hundred francs, but unhappily found, when rejoicing at
his good fortune, that the bank-note was false, although it had
deceived many expert persons.

When a certain tradesman got into money difficulties, and his papers
were seized by a sheriff’s officer, one paper was found amongst
them, which he had been foolish enough to retain. It was a letter
from a convict in the bagne of Rochefort, claiming payment for the
fabrication of a receipt at the instance of the bankrupt. “May I
remind you,” ran the letter, “that at your request I manufactured a
receipt, for which you promised me two louis, if the document
served its purpose. As it was exactly what you wanted I now claim
the completion of your promise. You can pass the two louis in to me
by enclosing them in half a pound of butter, which I can receive at
the canteen. I trust that you will not oblige me to apply to you
again.” This letter was handed over to the police, with the result that
the fraudulent tradesman was arrested and sentenced to ten years
for having made use of the false receipt.

The most adroit thieves were to be met with at the bagne.

Extraordinary stories are preserved of the daring ingenuity and
marvellous skill in which the thefts were carried out. The story is told
of a bishop, who visited the bagne, and who was moved to great
pity for one unhappy criminal, to whom, after exhortation, he gave
his blessing and his hand to kiss. As usual he carried on his middle
finger his Episcopal ring with a valuable precious stone. When he left
the prison, the ring had disappeared. It is not recorded in what
manner it was abstracted, nor whether Monseigneur recovered his
jewel. On another occasion a convict actually stole a cashmere shawl
from the back of a visiting lady. The victim was Mdlle. Georges, a
famous actress, who, when visiting the bagne of Toulon, spoke
kindly to several of the inmates, and was especially drawn to
sympathise with one of good address, who had once been an actor.
This man actually purloined her shawl, and in triumph started to
carry it off, but had the good taste to bring it back and replace it on
her shoulders, exclaiming, “This is the first time I have ever made
voluntary restitution.” At another time a watch was stolen from one
of the visitors, who was examining the articles which the convicts
offered for sale. The chief guardian, certain that the thief must be
among a particular group of convicts, declared that he would flog
them in turn until the watch abstracted had been given back. The
punishment was actually in progress, when the official received a
letter from the visitor who had been robbed, saying that on his
return to his hotel he had been met by a poor creature, dressed in a
ragged old blouse, who approached and handed him a small parcel
containing his watch. It had been passed out, either by the culprit
himself or one of his comrades, and was now surrendered under
threat of the bastonnade.

An expert thief known in all the bagnes was Jean Gaspard, who,
although crippled and compelled to walk on crutches, could use his
hands, the only good limbs left him, with wonderful skill. His
ostensible business was that of a wandering beggar, and he relied
upon his infirmities to insinuate himself into crowds of people. He
then worked with ready skill, and managed to pass his plunder to
friendly accomplices, who removed it to a distance. He was a
professional thief. He had inherited his skill from his forbears. His
father and mother, his brothers and sisters, all his relatives, in short,
were thieves; and some of them had suffered the extreme penalty of
the law.

Thieving at the bagne was greatly encouraged by the facilities that

offered for getting rid of the plunder. The business of “receiving”
flourished when the gangs marched to and fro, free people hanging
about, who managed to enter into relations with the thieves.
The administration of the bagnes left much to be desired. The
discipline was severe, even cruel, and relied chiefly upon the lash,
the bastonnade as it was called, which might be inflicted for all sorts
of offences. Attempts to escape, extending to sawing through irons
or the assumption of disguises, were punished by the whip; also a
theft of value up to five francs, drunkenness, gambling, smoking and
fighting with comrades. Any convict might be flogged, who made
away with his clothing, wrote clandestine letters, or was found in
possession of a sum of more than ten francs. There were graver
penalties for escape and recapture. In the case of a convict
sentenced for life, the punishment for escape, upon recapture, was
three years of the double chain—that is he was kept in close
confinement, and not allowed to go to work in the open air. An
extension of the term of imprisonment by three years was the
punishment for those sentenced to shorter terms. A theft of more
than five francs was met with extension of term. Last of all the
guillotine was the penalty for striking an officer or killing a comrade,
or for entering into any combined plan of revolt.

Repression and safe custody were the guiding principles of the

bagnes. Their supreme rulers, who were always naval officers,
commissaries of the marine ranking with captains, might at times
realise that they had a higher duty than that of keeping a herd of
black sheep, but any idea of amelioration or improvement rarely
entered their heads. They were rough old sailors, of coarse
manners, with little of the milk of human kindness, imposing their
authority harshly, exacting submission with a word and a blow. Some
revolting stories are preserved of the cruelties of the garde-
chiourmes, the slang name of the officers of the bagne.

Several couples of convicts were once at work unloading a cargo of

wood. Some sorted out the wood, while others levelled a mound of
earth and piled up the barrows, which were dragged away. One of a
chained couple suddenly struck work, declaring that he could hardly
stand, from fever and weakness. “You shall go to hospital to-
morrow,” replied his officer. “Go on working now. I will give you a
dose of medicine to help,” and with that he applied his stick to the
poor creature’s back. His comrade thereupon charged himself with
the whole labor, and drew the barrow alone, while the sick man
staggered along, becoming worse and worse every moment, and
unable even to carry the weight of the chain. Then his companion
lifted him in his arms on to the barrow, and proceeded to drag it
along. The guardian, resenting this act as defiance of his will,
applied his stick to the back of the good Samaritan, calling forth
redoubled effort, which ended in the upset of the barrow, which
dragged over the sick man, who died then and there. This story is
vouched for by an eye-witness of the atrocity. He rewarded the
kindly convict, and would have reported the guardian, but was
afterwards unable to recognise him.

The régime, as we have seen, was tyrannical, but it must often have
been lax, to judge by the frequency of the escapes at the bagnes.
The regulations were stringent. Notice of an escape was immediately
proclaimed by three guns, and flags were run up at all commanding
points. At the same time the personal description of the fugitive was
circulated through the neighborhood, and brigades of gensdarmes
were sent in pursuit. Handsome rewards were offered for recapture;
twenty-five francs (five dollars) if it was effected within the port,
double that amount if within the town and one hundred francs
(twenty dollars) for apprehension beyond the walls. In spite of all,
the determination to break prison, a fixed idea with all animals in
captivity, was always present with the inmates of the bagne. It has
well been said that the prisoner, in his endeavors to escape, displays
skill and energy enough to win him inevitable success in any
reputable line of life. The stories of the results achieved at the
bagnes, the conquest of many difficulties, the triumph over all
surveillance, imperfect, perhaps, but systematic and generally alert,
read like a fairy tale.

One undefeated convict, by name Petit, escaped continually. He was

always getting the better of his gaolers. He took a pride in stating
precisely the hour at which he would arrive at Toulon and the day
upon which he would leave it a free man. The event always came off
exactly. Petit, at one time, when recaptured, after escaping from
Brest, was lodged in the prison at Abbeville. He at once warned the
prison officials that he could not stay in such an unsatisfactory
prison. On the next day he had disappeared. He had broken into a
room where the linen was kept, climbed several high walls, fell at
length into the garden and got out and away, although his two feet
were chained together. He got rid of his irons outside the walls, and
had the audacity to return and sell them openly in the market place
of Abbeville.

Opportunity and good luck usually favored escape. Hautdebont was

a convict tailor employed in the workshops where the guardians’
uniforms were made up. He caught sight of a new suit hanging on a
peg, which he calculated would fit him, and at a moment when the
master-tailor’s eye was withdrawn, Hautdebont took down the
uniform, put it on and walked out. Unhappily for the fugitive the suit
was immediately missed. The foreman tailor raised an alarm, and
Hautdebont was quickly caught and sentenced, among other
penalties, to lose his place in the tailor’s shop. Excessive bad luck
was the portion of the convict who had exactly calculated that, by
surmounting the boundary wall at a particular point, he would reach
a certain retired and solitary street. All went well till, having
surmounted the wall, he lowered himself on the far side to fall
straight into a cart, where a guardian was taking his mid-day rest.
He awoke and snapped greedily at the hundred francs’ reward which
had fallen straight into his hands.

Convicts have often to thank their own quick-wittedness and self-

possession for succeeding in attempted escape. One convict at
Brest, helped by a free workman, who had promised him shelter and
a suit of plain clothes, reached the outskirts of the town, where he
made up as a laborer, concealed his closely cropped hair under an
old hat, borrowed a barrow and a pick and started off for Orleans as
if he were in search of a job. His leisurely gait and frequent halts
betrayed no feverish desire to get away. The people gave him bon
jour as he passed, and the gensdarmes whom he met accepted a
pinch of snuff; and he went on his way without interference. He
marched thus for a couple of hundred miles, taking by-roads, still
wheeling his barrow before him, resting by night in the woods, and
at last reaching Orleans in the heart of France, where he found
friends, who helped him out of the country.

Ingenuity and boldness of plan of escape were often equalled by the

limitless patience with which it was pursued. More than once a long
passage was tunnelled underground, leading to liberty beyond the
Arsenal walls, and this in spite of surveillance and the galling
inconvenience of carrying chains. In one case a space had been
contrived at the end, large enough to contain the disguises, into
which the fugitives were to change when the moment arrived, and
to store the food saved up for the journey. The paving stones were
taken up, and places of concealment contrived beneath to hide the
intending fugitive until pursuit had passed on. Once a man got
within a heap of stones, and presently more stones were brought
outside to add to the heap. He narrowly escaped being built in alive.
By desperate efforts he broke through and gained the boundary
wall, which he escaladed, and fell into the arms of a couple of
fishermen on the far side, who seized him and took him back to the
bagne. The promised reward was generally too strong a temptation
to working men to let a fugitive go free.

There were convicts with no sense of loyalty to their comrades,

always ready to betray an intended escape, eager to gain the
reward. Others, again, had invented a strange business, that of
giving assistance to a comrade, resolved to attempt an escape, by
helping him in the work of excavation, or of standing sentinel to
prevent surprise by the guard. On the arrival of any convict, known
to be well furnished with funds, he was approached by these friends
with proposals. Sometimes the kindly convict made a double coup,—
for when he had started to escape he betrayed the plot and was
paid the authorised reward by the other side. The guards sometimes
encouraged an attempt to escape, and then turned on the would-be
fugitive after he had gone so far from the prison to be worth the full
sum of a hundred francs.

Great cleverness in preparing, and promptitude in assuming, a

disguise was frequently shown. One convict manufactured the whole
of an officer’s uniform out of paper, which he painted and completed
so as to escape detection. Petit, who has been mentioned already,
whose escapes were almost miraculous, got away once from the
court at Amiens, after being recaptured, by entering the dressing-
room of the advocates, where he stole a robe and wig, in which he
walked out into the street. A convict named Fichon, at Toulon,
disappeared so effectually that it was concluded he had left for
good. But he was still on hand, although the most minute searches
were fruitless. He had hidden under water in the great basin of the
dockyard, and had arranged a leather duct to bring him air from the
surface. At night he emerged from his moist asylum, landed, ate his
food, placed for him by his friends, and at daybreak took to the
water again.

Long brooding on the impossibilities of regaining freedom has been

known to produce mania. An Italian, named Gravioly, at the bagne
of Rochefort, was driven mad by his failures to escape. He was
sentenced for life after three brutal attempts to murder. The
hopelessness of his condition led him to secrete a knife, with which
he suddenly wounded the adjutant of the day, broke his chain and
ran amuck through the prison, brandishing his weapon and attacking
all who tried to stop him. Another adjutant fell before him, and the
guard at the gate he killed. Another murderer, of exemplary prison
character, after years of good behavior in the maritime hospital,
struck one of the nursing sisters a fatal blow, which severed her
head. It was supposed that she had discovered his intention to
escape, and he was unable to persuade her to hold her tongue. In
these days we should call this man a homicidal maniac, but he was
executed; and, on mounting the scaffold, smiled pleasantly at the
guillotine.
The disciplinary methods at the bagnes were brutal enough, but the
severity of the system was softened by privileges and concessions,
that would not be tolerated in any modern prison. It was much the
same as in Australia in the early days and at this moment in the
Spanish penal colony at Ceuta. The freedom given to some convicts
in service naturally favored escape, and in one case a high official
was robbed of his full uniform by a convict employé, who, having
changed his costume, mounted his master’s horse and rode off
through the principal gate, after having received the compliments of
the sentries and guards at the grand entrance. When the reins were
tightened and these improper privileges were forbidden, others of a
minor and mitigating character still survived. There were situations
in the service of the prison, as sweepers, barbers, cooks and
lamplighters. Some became gardeners, others coopers, more were
nurses and bedmakers in the hospital, and a few were permitted to
act as hucksters in the sale of food and condiments within the prison
buildings. A post of great profit was that of payole or prison scribe,
which was given to an educated convict who was allowed to write
the letters of his comrades. The payole became the confidant of
every one, and knew all their most precious secrets. Often enough
he abused his position, and, after eloquently stating the case to a
prisoner’s family, would misappropriate the funds forwarded by soft-
hearted relations. The payole was constantly the author of the so-
called “Jerusalem letters,” the equivalent of the begging letter or
veiled attempts at blackmail, which often issued in large numbers
from the bagnes.

Reference has been made already to the ingenious manufacture of

articles for sale, but a less honorable, although more profitable,
trade was that of usury, which long flourished in the bagnes. The
business was started by an ex-banker named Wanglen, who was
condemned to travaux forcés in the time of the Empire. He brought
with him to the bagne a certain amount of capital, carefully
concealed, and with the skill acquired in his business he trafficked in
usury, and made advances, like any pawnbroker, upon the goods and
valuables secretly possessed by his fellows as well as upon the
pécule or monthly pittance accorded as wages to the convicts. He
had so large a trade that he created a paper currency to take the
place of the specie so generally short in the prison. But his business
suffered seriously from the competition that might have been
expected in such a place; for after a time his notes were cleverly
imitated by forgers, and he had no redress but to return to cash
payments. This man Wanglen is said to have made a great deal of
money by the time he retired from business, and to have had many
successors. When a borrower could offer no tangible security the
good word of a convict reputed to be a man of substance was
accepted instead; and such men were to be found in the bagnes.

A notable one was the celebrated Collet, whose criminal career will
be detailed further on. Collet, strange to say, was always in funds.
According to M. Sers, who wrote at some length on the bagnes,
from facts under his own observation, Collet, during the twenty
years of his imprisonment, was never known to hold a single
centime more, in the hands of the official paymaster, than the
regulation allowance, yet he lived luxuriously the whole of these
twenty years. He always wore respectable clothing and the finest
underlinen, very different from that supplied by the prison; he lived
on the fat of the land, despising the mess of pottage, the horrible
haricot of beans, that made up the daily ration. He was supplied
always with abundant and succulent repasts from the best hotel in
the town. The source of his wealth and the means used to bring it to
his hand were secrets never divulged during his long term of
imprisonment, although inquiries were constantly made, and every
effort tried to unravel the mystery. The secret died with him; and
even after death nine pieces of gold were found sewn into his
waistcoat pocket.

The authorities in due course set their faces against these convict
usurers, called capitaines, whose processes were very properly
condemned as tending to demoralise convicts and aggravate their
miserable condition. A very strict surveillance was instituted, and
when detected the capitaines were severely punished. Sometimes
they were flogged; but other methods were tried, one in particular,
calculated to bring the culprit into ridicule, always a potent weapon
in dealing with Frenchmen. The prison barber was ordered to shave
the culprit’s head, leaving one lock only upon the crown. He was
then dressed as an old woman, and made to sit upon a barrel at the
entrance to the prison, where he was exposed to the jeers of his
comrades on their return from labor. The same measure was meted
out to the capitaine’s assistants, for the big men always employed a
number of agents or canvassers in extending their business.

Thus, it is seen, that ours is a world of worlds, one within the other;
and assuredly the prison world is not less interesting, though much
less inviting than many others held in greater esteem.
 CHAPTER III
CELEBRATED FRENCH CONVICTS

Life history of some noted convicts—Collet travels through Europe—

In trouble at Montpelier, arrested and lodged in gaol—Brought
to hotel to amuse the Préfet’s guests—Escapes as a cook’s boy
—Fresh swindles—Arrested and sent to bagnes—Other
remarkable convicts—Salvador or Jean Ferey, full of strange
tricks and laughing at iron bars—The Marquis de Chambreuil—
Cognard, the false Comte Pontis de Sainte Helene—Vidocq—His
personal experiences at the bagnes—Escape from Brest—
Recapture—Other remarkable escapes.

The quality of the criminals upon which the bagne laid its hands will
be best realised by describing one or two of the most notable
convicts who passed through them.

A very remarkable person was Anselme Collet, who has had few
equals in his nefarious profession, that of swindler on the widest
scale. He was essentially the product of his age, which undoubtedly
encouraged his development and afforded him peculiar facilities for
the display of his natural gifts. Chief among these were boundless
audacity, readiness of resource, an attractive person, insinuating
address, and skill to assume many different parts.

Collet was born at Belley, in the department of the Ain, and from his
earliest days gave evidence of a desire to go wrong. He was a born
thief and an unmitigated liar, and as he was constantly in trouble his
family handed him over to a maternal uncle, a priest, on the point of
expatriating himself because he could not take the oath exacted
from all ecclesiastics. Three years later Collet returned from Italy
and entered the military school at Fontainebleau, and was presently
incorporated as a sub-lieutenant in an infantry regiment. He had
seen too much of the priests to take kindly to soldiering, and when
in garrison at Brescia, he spent more time in the Capuchin
monastery than in the barracks. Soon after this his regiment went on
service, and he was seriously wounded. While in hospital at Naples
he nursed a French major, who died in his arms and gratefully
bequeathed him all he possessed, a sum of three thousand francs
and some valuable jewelry. When Collet was discharged from the
hospital, he joined the monks and was associated with a body of
missioners destined for La Pouille. Collet’s task was that of treasurer.
Returning to his monastery on one occasion, he found himself short
of three thousand francs, which he had embezzled, and he saw
nothing for it but flight. He had been kindly received by the syndic of
the town, from whose office he had stolen a number of passports
signed in blank. He had no intention of staying at the monastery,
and persuaded the superior that he had an inheritance to claim in
France, to which, being a deserter, he dared not return. He got a
letter of introduction to a banker at Naples, and was entrusted with
a valuable diamond ring and commissioned to buy another like it in
that city. Collet managed to swindle the banker out of 22,000 francs,
kept the ring, bought a smart suit of clothes and, filling up a blank
passport as the Marquis de Darda, proceeded to Capua. Here he
picked up a portfolio containing the papers of Chevalier de Tolozan,
which title he now adopted with the red ribbon of the Legion of
Honor, and passed on to Rome. Here he found a French ecclesiastic,
a native of Lyons and an intimate of the Tolozan family, who took
Collet under his wing and introduced him to Cardinal Fesch,
Napoleon’s uncle and the then Archbishop of Lyons. Collet made the
most of his time, and swindled people, right and left,—60,000 francs
here and 20,000 there; 5,000 and 10,000 more borrowed under
false pretences, with jewels stolen from tradesmen, and moneys
craftily secured. Rome became too hot for him. He filled up a new
passport, called himself a bishop, changed costume and character
and went to live in the city of Mondovi, safe from the police, already
in pursuit of him. Well furnished with funds Collet threw off his guise
of priest, and led a life of pleasure with the young dandies of the
place, among whom he created a desire to perform in amateur
theatricals. Subscriptions were raised, Collet becoming costumier. He
got together a large wardrobe made up of priest’s robes, military
uniforms and diplomatic dresses, with sham jewelry and crosses and
ribbons of many orders. He soon made off with this valuable stock in
trade, and the first disguise he assumed was that of a general
officer. He next became a Neapolitan priest, and thus passed on to
Sion, in Switzerland, where he was received with open arms by the
bishop, who appointed him to the cüre of a lucrative parish. What
followed may be told in his own words. “I stayed here five months,”
he says, “performing all the duties of a priest, confessing, marrying,
baptising, visiting the sick and burying the dead. Our church was in
a ruinous condition, and subscriptions had been raised for its repair
and restoration. There were 30,000 francs in hand, but posing as a
man of wealth I offered to make up the sum necessary for the new
works, and my generosity was soon seconded by fresh subscriptions.
I meant to lay hands on all and, starting with the money,
accompanied by my architect and others, proceeded to a
neighboring town to purchase pictures, candelabra, a chalice and so
forth. None of these purchases were paid for in cash. I sent the
Mayor back to Sion, but stayed myself another night, then started
for Strasburg.” Thence Collet took the road to Germany, and, passing
the mountains of the Tyrol, reëntered Italy, changing his costume en
route continually. By passing himself off in various characters he laid
everybody under contribution. A banker at Savona advanced him
100,000 francs, but he was nearly detected, and he became once
more a bishop, by name Dominico Pasqualini, Bishop of Monardan,
and was received most cordially by his confrère, the Bishop of Nice.
Twenty-seven seminarists were to be ordained next day, and the
Bishop of Nice besought his fellow prelate to examine them. Collet
tried to get out of it by assuring his Eminence that he saw no
necessity for doing so, as it was little likely the Bishop would desire
to ordain “incompetent asses;” but the Bishop of Nice insisted, and
the Monseigneur de Monardan put on his robes and assisted in the
ordination of thirty-three abbés. Travelling westward Collet arrived at
Fréjus, en route for Spain, now the plenipotentiary of his Majesty,
King Joseph, representing the Inspector-General, and charged with
the equipment of the army at Catalonia. From Fréjus he went on to
Draguignan, preceded by official orders to await his coming, and
there commenced to form his staff. He appointed a half-pay officer
as his aide-de-camp, the son of the sub-préfet at Toulon his private
secretary, named officers of ordnance, commissioners and pay-
masters, and had a suite of twenty persons by the time he had
reached Marseilles. At Marseilles he laid hands on 130,000 francs in
the government treasury and at Nimes secured about 300,000 more.

His star paled at Montpelier. After spending an hour on an early

parade he went to lunch with the Préfet, to whom he promised
promotion and the decorations of the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honor. Upon returning to his hotel he found it in the hands of the
gensdarmes, and himself under arrest. Collet’s staff shared his fate,
and all whom he had misled were held in custody for several weeks,
while the villain of the piece hourly expected to be shot. One day the
Préfet had a party, and to amuse them sent orders that Collet should
be brought from his prison under escort. He was left for a moment
alone in the serving-room, from which there was no exit save
through the dining-room. At this door two sentinels were stationed.
Collet’s wits were at work. While he waited to make a spectacle for
the guests he caught sight of the white suit of an assistant cook,
which had been left in the serving-room. Hastily putting it on and
taking up a dish of sweets he knocked at the passage door, and was
suffered to go through without recognition or interruption. He took
refuge in a house close to the Préfecture, and remained there in
hiding while the alarm was given, and search and pursuit organised.

After escaping from the town he wandered about the country

devising fresh swindles. One of the most successful of these was at
the expense of a bank at Tulle, where he cashed a forged letter of
credit for 5,000 francs, and got off as far as Lorient. A clerk of the
bank followed him thither, caught him and handed him over to
justice. He was more carefully held this time, and passed on to
Grenoble, where he was sentenced to five years of travaux forcés,
which by special favor he expiated at Grenoble. Here he was
recognised and denounced by one of his former staff officers, with
the result that he was sent to Toulon to finish his term. When set at
liberty he fixed his residence at Poussin, in the department of Ain,
where he was kept under surveillance, but managed to evade it, and
proceeded to commit fresh crimes. At Toulouse he imposed upon the
superior of a religious house, where he was given shelter. To show
his gratitude he proposed to endow it with a gift of land. The
property was chosen, the purchase agreed upon, but Collet could
not immediately produce the funds, and his bankers, according to
Collet, talked of delaying completion. Collet meanwhile set himself to
borrow from friends he had beguiled, and managed to extract
74,000 francs in all from them. Next day he disappeared.

He played the same trick at Rochbeaucourt in the Dordogne. Now

posing as the Comte de Gôlo he desired to purchase a chateau.
Using the same methods as at Toulouse, he again made himself
scarce with the moneys he borrowed. Then he appeared at Le Mans.
He acquired property, and was on the point of exchanging land for
diamonds at a jeweller’s, when the rumors of former fraud reached
the place, and the police were set on his track. He was arrested,
tried and convicted, and was sentenced to twenty years at the
bagne, after exposure for an hour in the carcan, or iron collar, on the
platform of the guillotine. He was sent first to Brest, but was
transferred later to Rochefort, where he died in 1840, having
endured his captivity with philosophy, and not, as has been said
already, in extreme discomfort. “I have but one grief,” he said in the
hospital of the bagne, “and that is that I am dying a forçat. My
money is of no use to me;” for he undoubtedly possessed
considerable funds, although the secret of their whereabouts was
never disclosed. Collet had no small opinion of himself, and claimed
to be an interesting criminal. His head was turned by the attention
he attracted, and he actually replied in an open letter to the charges
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