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 The DS2 Procedure
SAS® Programming Methods at Work
Peter Eberhardt

support.sas.com/bookstore
The correct bibliographic citation for this manual is as follows: Eberhardt, Peter. 2016. The DS2 Procedure:
SAS® Programming Methods at Work. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.
The DS2 Procedure: SAS® Programming Methods at Work
Copyright © 2016, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA
ISBN 978-1-62960-170-0 (Hard copy)
ISBN 978-1-62960-222-6 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-1-62960-223-3 (MOBI)
ISBN 978-1-62960-224-0 (PDF)
All Rights Reserved. Produced in the United States of America.
For a hard copy book: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Contents
Preface
About This Book
About The Author
Chapter 1: Solving Bigger Problems
big data. Big data. BIG DATA
PROC DS2
Problem Space
Clarity
Scope
Modularity and Encapsulation
Data Types
Data Space
Embedded SQL
Threaded Data Access
In-Database Processing
Our First DS2 Programs
PROC DS2 as a DATA Step Equivalent
Chapter 2: Object-Oriented Programming for SAS Programmers
Background and Definition
Dog Class
An Example of OOP
Moving Forward
Chapter 3: Variables and Data Types
Variable Names
DECLARE Statement
DATA Step Conversion—Numerics
DATA Step Conversion—Characters
DATA Step Conversion—Date Types
DATA Step Conversion—Binary Types
 DATA Step Conversion—Saving Your Table
More about Dates
Operations and Assignments
IF Operator
SELECT Operator
Arrays
Temporary Arrays
Variable Arrays
Deferred Dimensioning
Array Dimensions
Array Assignment
Missing Values and NULL Values
ANSI Mode and SAS Mode
Testing for Missing or NULL Values
Chapter 4: Scope
Scope
The Program Data Vector (PDV)
KEEP and DROP
Scope in Other Programming Blocks
Chapter 5: Methods
Defining Methods
System-Defined Methods
User-Defined Methods
Recursion
Chapter 6: Packages
User-Defined Packages
Instantiation
Using a Package Variable
Package as Object
Packages and Scope
Package as Method Parameter and Method Return Variable
System-Defined Packages
FCMP Package
TZ Package
Chapter 7: An Example
Problem
The Hash Package
Four Steps to Creation
Lookup and Retrieval
Problem Revisited
Threaded Read
Parameterized Threaded Read
Chapter 8: Data Sources
Overview
Sample Tables
SET
SET Data Set Options
SET with No BY Statement
SET with BY Statement
SET with FedSQL as a Data Source
Merge
Merge with FedSQL as a Data Source
Threads
Thread Methods
Thread Parameters
SQLSTMT Package
SQLSTMT Binding
SQLSTMT – Returning the Rows
References
Index
Preface
Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
I do not know where the journey that led me to write this book will lead me
from here, but I can identify some of the main signposts that helped guide me
to this point.
The journey started at SAS User’s Group International 23 in Nashville. This
was my first SUGI–I went there thinking I knew a lot about SAS, and came
away realizing how little I really knew! I met Rob and Marje Fecht, who
encouraged me to become more involved in the SAS user community. Over
the years, I became more and more involved, first as a presenter, later as a
section chair, and then as a Content Advisory Team member for SAS Global
Forum. I had the opportunity to be the Academic Chair for SESUG 2008,
SESUG 2012, and PharmaSUG China 2015.
SAS Global Forum 2013 was another turn in the journey, specifically when
the Junior Professional Program was introduced. Through this program, I
have met several bright young SAS programmers who have been not only an
inspiration, but also paper collaborators–Xiao Jin Qin, Lucheng Shao, and
Jing Chen. In 2013, at the Junior Professional Program reception, I met Xue
Yao, who talked about a pre-conference workshop she attended that featured
DS2; she was keen to learn more. It turned out we were doing similar work,
health-care related, and we both had an interest in learning more about DS2.
This chance meeting led to our collaborating on SAS Global Forum papers,
and ultimately to this book.
I hope this book helps some of you on your journey with SAS. In particular,
for those of you who read this and say, “I can do a better job,” do not just say
it, do it. We all grow when we share our knowledge and experience.
About This Book

Purpose
PROC DS2: SAS® Programming Methods at Work introduces a new SAS
procedure. New in SAS 9.4, PROC DS2 provides programming concepts that
can be used for the first time by many SAS programmers. Through examples,
the book helps SAS DATA step programmers learn about PROC DS2 features
such as data types, methods, packages, and threads.

Is This Book for You?

PROC DS2: SAS® Programming Methods at Work is for anyone interested in
learning this new SAS procedure. This book explains the basic concepts from
the ground up.

Prerequisites
PROC DS2: SAS® Programming Methods at Work assumes that the reader has at
least a basic understanding of SAS DATA step programming.

Scope of This Book

PROC DS2: SAS® Programming Methods at Work covers the basic concepts of
PROC DS2 so that DATA step programmers can quickly take advantage of the
new procedure.
It discusses more advanced uses of PROC DS2 for high-performance
procedures or in-database computing.

About the Examples

Software Used to Develop the Book’s Content

PROC DS2: SAS® Programming Methods at Work was developed using the third
maintenance release for SAS 9.4.

Example Code and Data

All code in this book was created using the SAS program files that are
provided. No other external data are needed.
You can access the example code and data for this book by accessing the
 author’s page at http://support.sas.com/publishing/authors. Click the name of
the author. Then, look for the thumbnail image of this book. Select Example
Code and Data to display the SAS program files that are included in this
book.
If you are unable to access the example code and data, send email to
[email protected].

SAS University Edition

If you are using SAS University Edition to access data and run your programs,
then check the SAS University Edition page at
http://support.sas.com/software/products/university-edition/index.html to
ensure that you have the products that you need to run the example code.

Output and Graphics Used in This Book

In the book, all output goes to the default Results window. No special drivers
are required.

Additional Help
Although this book illustrates many analyses that are regularly performed in
businesses across industries, you might have specific questions. To fully
support you, SAS and SAS Press offer you the following resources:
• For questions about topics covered in this book, contact the author
through SAS Press.
◦ Send questions by email to [email protected]. Include the book title
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One page that is particularly useful to both the novice and the
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About The Author

Peter Eberhardt has been a SAS consultant since 1982; his company,
Fernwood Consulting Group, Inc., is a SAS Alliance Partner. In addition to
providing consulting services to the Financial and Health Care sectors, Peter
has been an active contributor to the SAS user community as a speaker at user
groups across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and China. He has
also served on the Content Advisory Team for SAS Global Forum and as the
Academic Chair for SESUG (2008, 2012) and PharmaSUG China (2015).
Learn more about this author by visiting his author page at
http://support.sas.com/eberhardt. There you can download free book
excerpts, access example code and data, read the latest reviews, get updates,
and more.
Chapter 1: Solving Bigger Problems
big data. Big data. BIG DATA
PROC DS2
Problem Space
Clarity
Scope
Modularity and Encapsulation
Data Types
Data Space
Embedded SQL
Threaded Data Access
In-Database Processing
Our First DS2 Programs
PROC DS2 as a DATA Step Equivalent

big data. Big data. BIG DATA.

It seems that not a day goes by that we do not hear a familiar chant; even the
most techno-Luddites chant it—“big data. Big data. BIG DATA.” Although
there is no doubt that the volumes of data are growing, big data is the smaller
of our problems. Yes, data are big, but how we handle that big data is an even
bigger problem. If the problems that we have today were the same as the ones
that we had 10 or even five years ago, our bigger and better hardware could
easily handle them.
Today, we have far more complex problems. Today, the mega-retailer is no
longer happy with data about the profitability of a product by store. It wants
to know who is buying what, when and where are they are buying it, in what
combinations are they buying it, and what can be offered at check-out to
increase the basket value. This is a complex problem, and bigger and better
hardware does not solve it. The complex and mercurial nature of today’s
problems means that we have to develop complex yet flexible solutions. How
can we, as SAS developers, develop more complex and flexible solutions? One
way is to use PROC DS2.

PROC DS2
 The DATA step has served SAS programmers well over the years. Although it
is powerful, it has not fundamentally changed since its inception. SAS has
introduced a significant programming alternative to the DATA step—PROC
DS2—a new procedure for your object-oriented programming environment.
PROC DS2 is basically a new programming language based on the DATA step
language. It is a powerful tool for advanced problem solving and advanced
data manipulation. PROC DS2 makes it easier to develop complex and flexible
programs for complex and flexible solutions. These programs are robust and
easier to understand, which eases maintenance down the road.
Starting with SAS 9.4, PROC DS2 is part of the Base SAS package. For users in
a high-performance analytics environment, there is PROC HPDS2. However,
in this book, only PROC DS2 is discussed.

Problem Space
PROC DS2 deals with this more complex problem space by using many object-
oriented programming (OOP) constructs. With OOP constructs, SAS
programmers can develop more robust and flexible programs using the
following:
• clarity
• scope
• modularity and encapsulation
• data types

Clarity
In DS2, you must be clear with each identifier that you are using. An
identifier is one or more tokens or symbols that name programming language
entities such as variables, labels, method names, package names, and arrays,
as well as data source objects such as table names and column names. To
ensure clarity, in DS2, identifiers are declared using a DECLARE statement.
The DECLARE statement clearly states both the name and data type of the
identifier. Before you can use an element in a DS2 program, you must tell DS2
the name and data type of the element. The benefit (besides making the
programmer think more clearly about the nature of the program!) is that
because the program does not compile if an invalid identifier is used,
misspellings and other hard-to-detect errors can be addressed and corrected at
the beginning.

Scope
In programming, scope is the area in which a variable is visible. In other
words, scope lets you know where a variable can be accessed. In DS2, there
are two levels of scope:
• global
• local
Global variables have global scope. That is, they are accessible from anywhere
in the program. Local variables have local scope. That is, they are accessible
only from within the block in which the variable was declared and only while
that block is executing. Each variable in any scope must have a unique name,
but variables in different scopes can have the same name. This enables you to
use consistent and meaningful variable names in different parts (or methods)
of your program without overwriting values. The benefit is that you can more
easily isolate worker variables (e.g., a DO loop variable, an intermediate
calculation, etc.) from variables that will ultimately be written out to result
sets.

Modularity and Encapsulation

A programming block is a section of a DS2 program that encapsulates
variables and code. Programming blocks enable modularity and encapsulation
by using modular and reusable code to perform specific tasks. This, in turn,
can lead to shorter development time and the standardization of often-
repeated or business-specific programming tasks. Layered programming
blocks enable advanced encapsulation and abstraction of behavior, which
enhances the readability and understandability of a program.
In addition, a programming block defines the scope of identifiers within that
block. An identifier declared in the outermost programming block has global
scope. An identifier declared in a nested block has local scope.
Table 1.11 lists some of the most common programming blocks, adapted from
the SAS 9.4 DS2 Language Reference Manual.
Table 1.1: Common Programming Blocks

Block Delimiters Notes

ProcedurePROC DS2…QUIT

Data DATA… Variables that are declared at the top of a data

program ENDDATA program have global scope within the data program.
In addition, variables that the SET statement
references have global scope. Unless you explicitly
drop them, global variables in the data program are
 included in the program data vector (PDV).
Note: Global variables exist for the duration of the
data program.

Method METHOD… A method is a sub-block of a data program, package,

END or thread program. Method names have global scope
within the enclosing programming block. Methods
contain all of the executable code. PROC DS2 has
three system-defined methods: INIT(), RUN(), and
TERM().
Variables that are declared at the top of a method
have local scope. Local variables in the method are
not included in the PDV.
Note: Local variables exist for the duration of the
method call.

Package PACKAGE… Variables that are declared at the top of a package

ENDPACKAGE have global scope within the package. Package
variables are not included in the PDV of a data
program that is using an instance of the package.
Note: Package variables exist for the duration of the
package instance.

Thread THREAD… Variables that are declared at the top of a thread

ENDTHREAD have global scope within the thread program. In
addition, variables that the SET statement references
have global scope. Unless you explicitly drop them,
global variables in the thread program are included
in the thread output set.
Note: Thread variables exist for the duration of the
thread program instance. They can be passed to the
data program using the SET FROM statement.
Random documents with unrelated
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 CHARLES II.

1680.

Charles had landed in Scotland to attempt to reconquer the throne of the

Stuarts, and had been doomed to witness the ruin of all his hopes at the
disastrous battle of Worcester. He had displayed great courage on that
occasion, but he had been compelled to take to flight, with many of his
bravest and most distinguished officers. The following narrative, extracted
from a fuller account in the Pepys MS., is in his own words:—
“After that the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of
recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself, and the first
thought that came into my

He let himself drop into the sea.

head was, that, if I could possibly, I would get to London as soon, if not
sooner, than the news of our defeat could get thither; and it being near dark
I talked with some, especially with my Lord Rochester, who was then
Wilmot, about their opinions which would be the best way for me to escape,
it being impossible, as I thought, to get back to Scotland. I found them
mightily distracted, and their opinions different, of the possibility of getting
to Scotland; but not one agreeing with mine for going to London, saving my
Lord Wilmot; and the truth is I did not impart my design of going to
London to any but my Lord Wilmot. But we had such a number of beaten
men with us of the horse that I strove, as soon as it was dark, to get from
them; and though I could not get them to stand by me against the enemy, I
could not get rid of them now I had a mind to it. So we—that is, my Lord
Duke of Buckingham, Lauderdale, Derby, Wilmot, Tom Blague, Duke
Darcey, and several others of my servants—went along northwards towards
Scotland; and at last we got about sixty that were gentlemen and officers,
and slipped away out of the high road that goes to Lancashire, and kept on
the right hand, letting all the beaten men go along the great road; and
ourselves not knowing very well which way to go, for it was then too late
for us to get to London on horseback, riding directly for it; nor could we do
it, because there were many people of quality with us that I could not get rid
of.
“So we rode through a town short of Wolverhampton, betwixt that and
Worcester, and went through, there lying a troop of the enemies there that
night. We rode very quietly through the town, they having nobody to watch,
nor they suspecting us more than we did them, which I learnt afterwards
from a country fellow.
“We went that night about twenty miles, to a place called White Lady’s,
hard by Tong Castle, by the advice of Mr. Giffard, where we stopped and
got some little refreshment of bread and cheese, such as we could get, it
being just beginning to be day. This White Lady’s was a private house, that
Mr. Giffard, who was a Staffordshire man, had told me belonged to honest
people that lived thereabouts.
“And just as we came thither there came in a country fellow, that told us
there were three thousand of our horse just hard by Tong Castle, upon the
heath, all in disorder, under David Leslie and some other of the general
officers; upon which there were some of the people of quality that were
with me, who were very earnest that I should go to him and endeavour to go
into Scotland, which I thought was absolutely impossible, knowing very
well they would all rise upon us, and that men who had deserted me when
they were in good order would never stand to me when they had been
beaten.
“This made me take the resolution of putting myself into a disguise, and
endeavouring to get a-foot to London in a country fellow’s habit, with a pair
of ordinary grey cloth breeches, a leathern doublet, and a green jerkin,
which I took in the house of White Lady’s. I also cut my hair very short,
and flung my clothes into a privy-house, that nobody might see that
anybody had been stripping themselves, I acquainting none with my
resolution of going to London but my Lord Wilmot, they all desiring me not
to acquaint them with what I intended to do, because they knew not what
they might be forced to confess; on which consideration they with one
voice begged of me not to tell them what I intended to do.
“So all the persons of quality and officers who were with me—except
my Lord Wilmot, with whom a place was agreed upon for our meeting in
London if we escaped, and who endeavoured to go on horseback, in regard,
as I think, of his being too big to go on foot—were resolved to go and join
with the three thousand disordered horse, thinking to get away with them to
Scotland. But, as I did before believe, they were all routed by a single troop
of horse; which shows that my opinion was not wrong in not sticking to
men who had run away.
“As soon as I was disguised I took with me a country fellow, whose
name was Richard Penderell, whom Mr. Giffard had undertaken to answer
for to be an honest man. He was a Roman Catholic, and I chose to trust
them, because I knew they had hiding-places for priests, that I thought I
might make use of in case of need.
“I was no sooner gone out of the house with this country fellow (being
the next morning after the battle, and then broad day) but as I was in a great
wood, I sat myself at the edge of the wood, near the highway that was there,
the better to see who came after us, and whether they made any search after
the runaways, and I immediately saw a troop of horse coming by, which I
conceived to be the same troop that beat our three thousand horse; but it did
not look like a troop of the army’s, but of the militia, for the fellow before it
did not look at all like a soldier.
 “In this wood I stayed all night, without meat or drink, and by great good
fortune it rained all the time, which hindered them, as I believe, from
coming into the wood to search for men that might be fled thither; and one
thing is remarkable enough, that those with whom I have since spoken, of
them that joined with the horse upon the heath, did say that it rained little or
nothing with them all the day, but only in the wood where I was—thus
contributing to my safety.
“As I was in the wood I talked with the fellow about getting towards
London, and asking many questions about what gentlemen he knew. I did
not find he knew any man of quality in the way towards London. And the
truth is my mind changed as I lay in the wood, and I resolved on another
way of making my escape; which was, to get over the Severn into Wales,
and so to get either to Swansea or some other of the sea towns that I knew
had commerce with France, to the end I might get over that way, as being a
way that I thought none would suspect my taking; besides that I
remembered several honest gentlemen that were of my acquaintance in
Wales.
“So that night as soon as it was dark, Richard Penderell and I took our
journey on foot towards the Severn, intending to pass over a ferry half way
between Bridgenorth and Shrewsbury. But as we were going in the night,
we came up by a mill, where I heard some people talking (memorandum
that I had got some bread and cheese the night before at one of the
Penderells’ houses, I not going in) and as we conceived it was about twelve
or one o’clock at night, and the country fellow desired me not to answer if
anybody should ask me any questions because I had not the accent of the
country.
“Just as we came to the mill, we could see the miller, as I believed,
sitting at the mill door, he being in white clothes, it being a very dark night.
He called out, ‘Who goes there?’ Upon which Richard Penderell answered,
‘Neighbours going home,’ or some such like words, whereupon the miller
cried out, ‘If you be neighbours, stand, or I will knock you down.’ Upon
which we believing there was company in the house, the fellow bade me
follow him close, and he run to a gate that went up a dirty lane, up a hill;
and opening the gate the miller cried out, ‘Rogues, rogues.’ And thereupon
some men came out of the mill after us, which I believed were soldiers. So
we fell a-running both of us, up the lane as long as we could run, it being
very deep and very dirty, till at last I bade him leap over a hedge, and lie
still to hear if anybody followed us, which we did, and continued lying
upon the ground about half an hour, when hearing nobody come, we
continued our way on to the village upon the Severn, where the fellow told
me there was an honest gentleman, one Mr. Woolfe, that lived in that town,
where I might be with great safety, for that he had hiding-holes for priests.
But I would not go in, till I knew a little of his mind whether he would
receive so dangerous a guest as me, and therefore stayed in a field, under a
hedge, by a great tree. Commanding him not to say it was I, but only to ask
Mr. Woolfe whether he would receive an English gentleman, a person of
quality, to hide him the next day, till we could travel again by night—for I
durst not go but by night.
“Mr. Woolfe, when the country fellow told him it was one that had
escaped from the battle of Worcester, said that for his part, it was so
dangerous a thing to harbour anybody that was known, that he would not
venture his neck for any man, unless it were the King himself. Upon which
Richard Penderell, very indiscreetly, and without my leave, told him it was
I. Upon which Mr. Woolfe replied, he should be very ready to venture all he
had in the world to secure me. Upon which Richard Penderell came and
told me what he had done, at which I was a little troubled; but then there
was no remedy, the day being just coming in, and I must either venture that
or run some greater danger.
“So I came into the house by a back way, where I found Mr. Woolfe, an
old gentleman, who told me he was very sorry to see me there, because
there were two companies of the militia sort at that time in arms in the
town, and kept a guard at the ferry to examine everybody that came that
way; and that he durst not put me into any of the hiding-holes of his house
because they had been discovered, and consequently if any search should be
made, they would certainly repair to these holes, and that therefore I had no
other way of security but to go into his barn, and there lie behind his corn
and hay. So after he had given us some cold meat that was ready, we,
without making any bustle in the house, went and lay in the barn all the
next day, when towards evening, his son who had been prisoner at
Shrewsbury, an honest man, was released, and came home to his father’s
house. And as soon as ever it began to be a little darkish, Mr. Woolfe and
his son brought us meat into the barn, and then we discoursed with them
whether we might safely get over the Severn into Wales, which they advised
me by no means to adventure upon, because of the strict guards that were
kept all along the Severn where any passage could be found, for preventing
anybody escaping that way into Wales.
“Upon this I took resolution that night the very same way back again to
Penderell’s house, where I knew I should hear some news what was become
of my Lord Wilmot, and resolved again upon going for London.
“So we set out as soon as it was dark, but we came by the mill again; we
had no mind to be questioned a second time there, and therefore asking
Richard Penderell whether he could swim or no, and how deep the river
was, he told me it was a scurvy river, not easy to be passed in all places, and
that he could not swim. So I told him the river being but a little one, I would
undertake to help him over. Upon which we went over some closes by the
river-side and I entering the river first to see if I could myself go over, who
knew how to swim, found it was but a little above my middle, and
thereupon taking Richard Penderell by the hand, I helped him over. Which
being done, we went on our way to one of Penderell’s brothers (his house
not being far from White Lady’s), who had been guide to my Lord Wilmot,
and we believed might by that time be come back again, for my Lord
Wilmot intended to go to London upon his own horse. When I came to this
house I inquired where my Lord Wilmot was, it being now towards
morning, and having travelled these two nights on foot.
“Penderell’s brother told me he had conducted him to a very honest
gentleman’s house, one Mr. Pitchcroft[A], not far from Wolverhampton, a
Roman Catholic. I asked him what news. He told me that there was one
Major Careless in the house, that was that countryman whom, I knowing, he
having been a major in our army, and made his escape thither, a Roman
Catholic also, I sent for him into the room where I was, and consulted him
what we should do the next day. He told me that it would be very dangerous
for me to stay in that house or go into the wood—there being a great wood
hard by Boscobel; that he knew but one way how to pass the next day, and
that was to get up into a great oak, in a pretty plain place, where we might
see round about us; for the enemy would certainly search at the wood for
people that had made their escape.
“Of which proposition of his, I approving, we (that is to say Careless and
I) went, and carried up some victuals for the whole day; viz., bread, cheese,
small beer, and nothing else, and got up into a great oak, that had been
topped some three or four years before, and being grown out again very
bushy and thick, could not be seen through, and here we stayed all the day. I
having in the meantime sent Penderell’s brother to Mr. Pitchcroft’s, to know
whether my Lord Wilmot was there or no; and had word brought me by him
at night that my lord was there; that there was a very secure hiding-hole in
Mr. Pitchcroft’s house, and that he desired me to come thither to him.
“Memorandum.—That, while we were in this tree we saw soldiers going
up and down in the thicket of the wood, searching for persons escaped; we
saw them now and then peeping out of the wood.
“That night Richard Penderell and I went to Mr. Pitchcroft’s, about six or
seven miles off, when I found the gentleman of the house, and an old
grandmother of his, and Father Hurlston, who had then the care, as
governor, of bringing up two young gentlemen, who, I think, were Sir John
Preston and his brother, they being boys. Here I spoke with my Lord
Wilmot, and sent him away to Colonel Lane’s, about five or six miles off, to
see what means could be found for my escaping towards London; who told
my lord, after some consultation thereon, that he had a sister that had a very
fair pretence of going hard by Bristol, to a cousin of hers, that was married
to one Mr. Norton, who lived two or three miles towards Bristol, on
Somersetshire side, and she might carry me there as her man, and from
Bristol I might find shipping to get out of England.”
After various adventures, some of them attended with great danger, they
arrived safely at the house of Mr. Norton, the king passing as the servant of
Mrs. Lane. The next day while he was dining with the servants, one of them
gave so accurate a description of the battle of Worcester, that Charles took
him to be a soldier of Cromwell. He turned out, however, to have been a
soldier of the royal army, and one of the regiment of guards. “I asked him
what kind of man the King was, and he gave me an exact description of the
clothes I wore at the battle, and of the horse I rode, adding that the King
was at least three inches taller than I. I left the place hastily, being much
alarmed to find that the man had been one of my own soldiers.” Charles
learnt soon after that Pope, the butler, had recognised him, and having
previously heard that the man was honest, and incapable of treason, he
thought it best to confide in him, and accordingly mentioned his real name
and rank. Pope at once put himself under his orders, and was of the greatest
service to him.
 Just at the very moment when the King was setting out for the house of
one of his partisans, Mrs. Norton was taken with the pains of labour, and as
she was cousin to Mrs. Lane, whose servant Charles pretended to be, that
lady found it difficult to invent a pretext for quitting her. A letter written to
announce that Mrs. Lane’s father was dangerously ill, however, answered
this purpose, and the fugitives set out for the house of Frank Wyndham at
Trent.
When they arrived there the bells were ringing merry peals, and
inquiring the cause, they learned that one of the soldiers of Cromwell’s
army had entered the town, boasting that he had killed the King. Wyndham,
however, had provided a boat, and Charles, accompanied by that loyal
gentleman and by Lady Coningsby, went to a place appointed for his
reception. But as no vessel appeared, he set out for the neighbouring town.
On arriving there he found the streets filled with red coats, the town being
in possession of fifteen hundred of Cromwell’s troops. This sight somewhat
alarmed Wyndham, “and he asked me,” says the King, “what we should
now do? ‘We must go boldly,’ I said, ‘to the best inn, and ask for the best
room,’ and we accordingly did so. We found the courtyard of the inn full of
soldiers, and as soon as I alighted, I thought it would be best to walk boldly
amongst them, and to take my horses to the stable. I did this, and they grew
very angry at my rudeness.” When he arrived in the stable, Charles found
himself confronted by a new danger. The ostler pretended to recognise him
as an old acquaintance whom he had met at Exeter, but Charles had
sufficient presence of mind to turn this to his own account. “True,” he
replied, “I have been in the service of Mr. Potter, but I am just now in a
great hurry, for my master is going straight to London; when he comes back
we will renew the acquaintance over a mug of beer.” Shortly afterwards the
King and his suite joined Lord Wilmot outside the city, but the master of the
ship they had hired, yielding to the fears of his wife, refused to fulfil his
engagement with them; Charles then once more took the Trent road.
Another vessel which had been procured at Southampton, had been
seized by the authorities for the transport of troops, and certain mysterious
rumours which began to circulate in the neighbourhood, made it dangerous
for the King to stay any longer with Colonel Wyndham, at Salisbury;
however, he found an asylum where he remained for five days, during
which Colonel Gunter hired a boat at
 They grew very angry at my rudeness.

New Shoreham, and Charles set out in haste for Brighton. While he was
at supper there, with his attendants and with Tattershall, the owner of the
boat, the latter fixed his eyes, upon the King, and took occasion after the
meal to draw one of the royal attendants aside, and complain of his having
been deceived. “The gentleman in the grey dress was the King; he knew
him well, having been with him in 1648, when he was Prince of Wales, and
commanded the royal fleet.” This information was promptly conveyed to
Charles, who thought it the more prudent course to keep his companions
drinking with him all night, in order to make sure of their holding no
conversation that he did not overhear.
Just before their departure, and while he was alone in his room,
Tattershall came in, and kissing his hand, which was resting on the back of
a chair, said, “I suppose, if I live I shall be a lord, and my wife will be a
lady.” Charles laughed, to show that he understood him, and joined the
company in the other room. At four in the morning of the 16th of October
they set out for Shoreham. When Charles and Wilmot, his sole companion,
had entered the vessel, Tattershall fell upon his knees and swore to the King
that whatever might be the consequence he would land him safe and sound
on the coast of France.
The boat made for the Isle of Wight, that being its ordinary course; but
towards six o’clock in the evening, Charles, having previously arranged the
matter with Tattershall, addressed the crew. He told them that his
companion and himself were merchants, who were running away from their
creditors, and asked them to join him in begging the captain to take them to
France, backing his entreaties, at the same time, with a present of twenty
shillings for drink. Tattershall raised a great many objections; but at last,
with apparent repugnance, he turned the vessel’s head towards France. At
daybreak they sighted the city of Fécamp. At the same time they discovered
a suspicious-looking sail which they took for an Ostend pirate. Without
waiting to test the truth of their suspicions, the two fugitives took to the
ship’s boat and arrived safely in port. (Guizot: Memoirs of Charles the
Second; Lingard: History of England.)
 BLANCHE GAMOND.

1687.

Blanche Gamond belonged to a Protestant family of Saint-Paul-Trois-

Châteaux. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when the Protestants
were subjected to the most rigorous persecution, Mademoiselle Gamond,
whose piety was of the most fervent and exalted kind, resolved to fly the
kingdom. The city of Saint-Paul was closely invested, and the dragoons
overran all the neighbouring country in search of the Protestants. Blanche
left the city and wandered about for some time alone, and afterwards with
her parents, who had joined her. At times they were exposed to all the
hardships of forest life, and it was only at intervals that they could venture
to show themselves in towns. In this manner they travelled through the
greater part of Dauphiné; but they were obliged to separate at last, to escape
the more easily from the dragoons; and our poor heroine was about to pass
the frontier with her brother and her mother and sister, when she was taken
near Goncelin. Her brother escaped from the soldiers, but her mother and
her sister were brutally ill-treated by these wretches, and were taken to
Grenoble and thrown into a horrible dungeon. Blanche Gamond was then
twenty-one years of age. She was subjected for a long time to the most
terrible tortures; but insulted, mercilessly beaten, dying of hunger, and
sinking under a lingering illness, as she was, she bore all with the courage
and the resignation of a martyr.
The following is her account of her attempt at escape, the consequences
of which were most disastrous to her:—
“We were told to get ourselves ready in three days for a voyage to
America; ‘and when,’ it was added, ‘you are once on shipboard you will be
made to walk the plank, and will be thrust into the sea, so that the detested
race of the Huguenots may perish with you.’
“ ‘It concerns me little,’ I replied, ‘whether my body be eaten by the fish
in the sea or by the worms in the earth.’
“When they had left us alone, Susan de Montélimart said, ‘We might
make our escape by this window if we could only break the bars.’
 “ ‘We are at such a height from the ground,’ I replied, ‘that we should
either kill or lame ourselves; and then we should only be recaptured and
treated worse than before. If that should happen, I could never survive my
sufferings. I prefer death, therefore, and will rather set out for America. God
will deliver us, as he delivered the victims of La Rapine.’ ”
La Rapine, or D’Herapine, who had been formerly condemned for
robbery, under his real name of Guichard, had become director of the
hospital of Valence, where he was told to employ all the means in his power
for the conversion of the Protestants—a commission which he executed
with all the cynicism and the ferocity of one of the worst of scoundrels.
“Susan replied, ‘If they had done to me what they have done to you I
should have died ere this; but they are killing us of hunger; and, besides,
they are going to take us to America, and we shall be half dead when they
throw us in the sea. We might get out of this window. We seem to be
despising the means which God has placed within our reach; but, for my
part, I mean to attempt to use them.’
“At length, by her persuasion, I joined her in cutting a piece of cloth into
shreds, and sewing it together; and when we had made a long band in this
manner we tied a piece of stone to the end of it and lowered it, to ascertain
the height of the window from the ground. We were on the fourth storey,
and we found that our band was too short; but we lengthened it, and finally
the end touched the ground. I then put my head out of the window and said
to my dear sisters, ‘Alas! we shall kill ourselves, for it almost frightens me
to death to look down.’
“That same evening, when our guards were asleep, we crept to the
window with bare feet, for we were afraid that the priest, whose chamber
was beneath ours, would hear our footsteps. Susan was the first to get out,
and she was followed by Mademoiselle Terrasson de Die, then by me and
by Mademoiselle Anne Dumas, of La Salle, in Languedoc. When I got
outside and began to lay hold of the band, my strength failed me, and I
heard the bones of my arm crack. My dress caught in a hook outside the
window, and I was obliged to support myself with one arm while I
disengaged myself with the other. I no longer felt either strength or courage,
and I cried, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ But I seized the band with my
teeth, and joining my two hands over it, I fell, rather than lowered myself,
to the ground, striking against the stones with such violence that I cried,
‘Mercy! My God, I am either killed or maimed for life!’

I was obliged to support myself with one arm.

“The dear sisters who were waiting for me ran up to me and asked me
where I was hurt.
“ ‘Everywhere,’ I replied; ‘I am sure that I have broken my thigh,’ and I
begged of them to tie it up for me with my apron. I then limped away, my
two sisters supporting me on either side. I made sixty or seventy steps in
great pain, and reached the gate of the Faubourg de Valence: but it was
closed. They helped me to get upon the wall, but when I stood upon the top
of it, and saw how high it was, I said to my three dear sisters, ‘This is a
second precipice, and I am not brave enough to attempt to descend. Leave
me and go alone.’
“They let me down from the wall and left me there, and then they tried
to get down themselves, and succeeded after great trouble. When they had
reached the other side, Mademoiselle Dumas cried out to me, ‘We are
going. We are very sorry to leave you behind. God preserve you from our
enemies. I wish you prosperity, and give you my blessing, and I beg of you
to give me yours in return.’
“ ‘Who am I,’ I replied, ‘to give you my blessing? but I pray that God
will give you his. I pray fervently that he will lead you in all his ways; and I
conjure you to leave this place as quickly as you can, or all of us may be
recaptured.’
“I was thus left quite alone, still suffering the cruel and violent pains
which had never left me from the moment of my fall. It was not yet
daybreak, and I lifted up my heart to God. But I fainted in the midst of my
prayer, and did not come to myself for, at least, a quarter of an hour. I had
no one to console me, or even to offer me a single drop of water; but as
soon as I came to myself I cried out, ‘Lord, do not abandon me.’ I lay for a
time without being able to make any movement, and then I thought that at
daybreak they would be sure to find me, and then I should be recaptured
and taken to the hospice. ‘O God,’ I prayed, ‘grant me this mercy that this
day may see the last of my troubles, for death is better than life. I have lived
enough. Take my soul to thee, O God. Oh grant, if it please thee, that I may
be taken to the tomb, and not to the hospice this day.’
“Day then began to break. I had not enough strength to raise myself, so
that those who passed by did not know that I was lamed. I was only just
able to hide my face from them by covering it with my tappeta. I was
interrupted during my prayers by the agony which I suffered from my
broken thigh and dislocated ankle. After a time a gentleman came by, and
said, ‘It would be better, mademoiselle, for you to be at your own house
than to remain here, and it would certainly be more becoming.’
“ ‘If you knew who I was, sir,’ I replied, ‘you would not address me in
such language.’
“In another moment they opened the gate of the Faubourg and the
passers-by said very hard and cruel things about me, seeing me lying at full
length in the road so early in the morning.”
She begged one of them to fetch Mademoiselle Marsilière, a Protestant
converted to Catholicism, whom she knew, and she prayed God that this
early friend might turn out a good Samaritan, but this prayer was not heard.
“Are you asking for me?” said Mademoiselle Marsilière, when she
approached the poor wounded creature. “Yes, mademoiselle; save me—for
mercy’s sake help me. Take me to some place where I may die, so that no
one may witness my sufferings.”
“But Mademoiselle Marsilière replied that I should endanger her safety
as well as my own. ‘I must go,’ she said, ‘before any one sees me, or I shall
be put in prison myself.’
“I was wounded to the heart at this treatment from a co-religionist, and I
asked her if she had the courage to leave me in this condition. ‘Help me, at
least,’ I said, ‘to crawl behind this wall, so that I may not be seen by the
passers-by.’ ”
But neither the prayers nor the sufferings of the unfortunate Blanche had
the least effect on the prudent and charitable person whom she had called to
her aid. Mademoiselle Marsilière went away, but returned shortly
afterwards with the almoner of the religious house of which she was a
member, who, without paying the least regard to the distressed condition of
the wounded girl, began to address to her a series of questions about her
escape and her accomplices. At length two men, seizing her by the
shoulders and the feet, carried her to the hospice and laid her down upon the
stones in the courtyard.
It is impossible to enter fully here into all the details of the rigorous
punishment endured by the poor girl for some months after this. She bore
all with her ordinary courage and patience, but the mere recital of such
atrocities would give too much pain to the most unfeeling heart.
She was at last allowed to return to her parents, and she recovered her
health after her long sufferings, and retired to Switzerland with her family.
 JEAN BART AND THE CHEVALIER DE FORBIN.

1689.

Jean Bart escorting a fleet of twenty merchantmen, had hoisted his flag on
board the frigate La Raileuse, of twenty-eight guns, having for second in
command under him the Chevalier de Forbin, captain of Les Jeux, a frigate
of twenty-four. They were attacked by two English ships, one of forty-eight,
and the other of forty-two guns, and they nobly sacrificed themselves to
save the merchant fleet. Jean Bart lost nearly all his men and was slightly
wounded in the head, but Forbin was still more unfortunate, for he received
six wounds, and nearly all of his crew perished. They were compelled to
surrender, but the fleet of merchantmen was saved, while all the English
officers and a great number of the common seamen were killed.
They were taken to Portsmouth, where they of course expected to be
treated as prisoners of war on parole, but the governor of the fortress would
not even grant them this scanty honour. They were shut up in a sort of inn
with barred windows, and sentinels were placed before their door. This
wretched treatment naturally made them anxious to escape, and they did not
even wait until their wounds were cured before they began to form their
plans. An Ostend fisherman, a relation of Jean Bart—as some say, Gaspar
Bart, his brother—having put in to Portsmouth, found means to gain
admission to the prison, and to confer with his two friends on the project
which occupied all their thoughts. On one of his visits he left a file behind
him, with which they cut the bars before their windows, hiding the marks
by covering them with pieces of moistened bread and soot.
It happened fortunately that the surgeon sent to attend them was a
Fleming, himself a prisoner, and equally desirous with his two patients of
recovering his liberty. In due time too, the men who had been appointed to
wait on them were gained over by a liberal present, and by still more liberal
promises. The great difficulty was to find means of putting to sea; but the
attendants who alone had power to leave the prison undertook to make the
necessary arrangements for the embarkation. They accordingly hailed one
day a Norwegian shallop, the master of which was at the time lying in a
drunken sleep in his cabin. He was quietly transferred from his own vessel
to another; and this was no sooner done than the two attendants ran to tell
the prisoners to prepare for instant flight.
As soon as the surgeon came to pay his accustomed visit, he was told to
give the Ostend fishermen notice to take everything necessary for a voyage
of some days on board the Norwegian vessel. He lost no time in executing
his commission, and the sloop was soon amply supplied with bread, cheese,
beer, and other necessaries. It was then arranged that the surgeon should
return at midnight with the fisherman and the two attendants, and as soon as
he arrived beneath the prison window should signal his presence by
throwing a small stone against the panes.
The signal was heard at the appointed hour. Jean Bart removed the bars
in front of his window, fastened his bedclothes end to end, and sliding down
the band, reached the ground in safety. The surgeon, the fisherman, and the
two attendants led them at once to a little creek in which the vessel was
moored, and they all embarked with the exception of the fisherman, who
went quietly back to his own ship. In leaving Plymouth the fugitives had a
narrow escape. They were seen by the look-out on the guard ship, and
hailed with the customary “Who goes there?” By great good fortune Jean
Bart knew a little English, and he replied, “Fishermen.” They were then
suffered to pass.
The poor lieutenant had not been able to follow his captain. He had lost
an arm; he was very corpulent; and as he could not have rendered the least
assistance during the voyage, his presence would only have tended to
compromise the safety of his friends. He took, therefore, the heroic
resolution of remaining in prison, and of assisting the fugitives by keeping
the guard amused while they were running away. He continued this
subterfuge after Jean Bart had left the house, and pretended to be
conversing with him in his room, until long after he had had time to effect
his embarkation in safety. He then drew in the sheets which had served his
commander as a rope, and quietly went to bed. He affected great surprise
next day when he was informed of the escape of his fellow-prisoners,
pretending to believe they had basely abandoned him, and cursing them
very heartily in both English and French.
His gaolers were deceived by this ruse, and put several questions to him
as to the conversations with his commander, in the hope of ascertaining the
direction the fugitives had taken. “These traitors,” he replied, “have told me
nothing; all that I know is that Bart lately had a pair of shoes made, and that
he remarked when he tried them on, how useful they would be to any one
who had to take a long walk.” This completely deceived them, and they sent
horse soldiers out in all directions in the hope of recapturing the fugitives,
who were then in the middle of the Channel.
Jean Bart at length sighted the coast of Brittany, and disembarked at a
small village a few leagues from St. Malo. The journey from Plymouth had
occupied forty-eight hours, and, this time included, he had not been in
captivity more than eleven days. The party were received with transports of
joy, for the merchantmen whom they had saved had spoken in the highest
terms of their courage, but it was thought their patriotic devotion had cost
them their lives. Jean Bart’s first care was to indemnify the Ostend
fisherman whom the English had made responsible for his flight, and his
next to purchase the liberty of his brave lieutenant, who was released a
month after the escape of his commander.
 DUGUAY-TROUIN.

1694.

Duguay-Trouin, commanding the frigate La Diligente, of forty guns, was

driven by a storm into the midst of a squadron of six English vessels, of
from fifty to seventy guns each. After fighting five of them for several
hours, and refusing to surrender, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of
his officers, he was struck by a spent shot, and rendered insensible. When
he came to himself he was a prisoner in the hands of the English. He was at
first sent to Plymouth; and he had already begun to make preparations for
his escape, when orders were given that his confinement should be made
more rigorous. The captain of a company on guard at the prison had fallen
in love with a young woman of Plymouth, and had confided his passion to
Duguay-Trouin, who had promised to use all his influence to induce the fair
one to consent to marriage. He took advantage of the comparative freedom
which he enjoyed through his good offices on the captain’s behalf, to come
to a good understanding with the lady on his own account; and he was
enabled by her aid to make arrangements with a Swedish captain for the
hire of a vessel, properly provisioned and manned, for his intended flight.
While the captain thought that Duguay-Trouin was pleading for him with
the lady in a neighbouring inn, to which he had been permitted to extend his
walks, the commander was leaping over the wall of the garden, with
another officer who was to join him in trying to escape. The Swedish
captain and six sailors were waiting for them at a neighbouring spot, and
they all reached the little vessel in safety.
“We embarked,” he says in his “Memoirs,” “at about six in the evening.
We had scarcely started when we ran almost between two English vessels,
and were obliged to answer their inquiries as to our destination. We told
them we were fishermen putting out to sea, and they allowed us to pass. At
daybreak we came upon another English ship making for Plymouth. She
was going to turn in pursuit of us, although we did not lie in her route, and
we should certainly have been taken but for a sudden gust of wind, which
carried us away from her almost without any effort of our own.
 “We had been rowing all the time, and we were very tired when we
reached the open sea. We relieved one another at nightfall, and the master of
the vessel and I tried to make out our way with the aid of a small compass,
illumined by the feeble rays of a lantern. While thus engaged I was so
overpowered with fatigue that I fell asleep; but I was soon awakened by the
noise of a terrible gust of wind, which threw the little vessel on her side,
and filled her with water in an instant. By a quick movement of the helm I
was fortunate enough to avoid the threatened shipwreck—a disaster that
must have proved fatal, as we were more than fifteen leagues from land. My
companions, who were also asleep, were quite as suddenly awakened as
myself by the waves beating about their heads. Our biscuit and our beer
were quite spoiled by the seawater, and it took us a long while to bale out
the water with our hats. At about eight o’clock on the following day we
landed at a spot two leagues from Tréguier, on the coast of Brittany.”
 THE ABBÉ COUNT DE BUCQUOY.

1700-1702.

The Count de Bucquoy, who was originally an officer in the army, had
become, under the combined influence of the Jesuits and the monks of La
Trappe, a religious enthusiast, but had afterwards quarrelled with his
priestly friends. He was of an active mind, and, if we may believe his own
account of himself, he was too much addicted to the advocacy of advanced
ideas. This, and his hostility to Louis XIV., caused him to be arrested at
Sens, on a charge of having been heard to mutter disaffection at an inn.
While he was being taken to Paris he tried to escape, but without success;
and his account of the attempt shows that he did not then possess the skill in
conducting that class of enterprises which he afterwards acquired.
He was sent to For-l’Évêque; and from the very first day of his
imprisonment he began to consider how he could recover his liberty. He
remembered that one of the body-guard, who had been imprisoned in the
same place, had nearly made his escape through a window of a loft, which
looked out upon one of the quays, then called the Valley of Misery, and that
he had failed, owing solely to his terror at the sight of the precipice on
which his prison was built.
Bucquoy, however, made up his mind to repeat this attempt. He tried at
first to form a clear idea of the plan of this terrible place. He discovered that
the loft in question served as a kind of antechamber to his small cell, and
that it was, at the same time, the lumber-room of the prison. Wishing to
make sure of everything before risking his life, he one day pretended to be
ill, and asked to be led upstairs to breathe the air at a small window which
over-looked that part of the building. The height from the quay was
appalling; and, in addition to that, every one of the numerous window-
gratings to which he would have to cling in making his descent was covered
with short, sharp spikes. The sight was enough to strike terror into the
stoutest heart.
When he had once more been locked up in his cell, he, however,
confirmed himself in his resolution to escape through the loft. All that was
necessary was to find means to leave the cell unobserved, and to reach a
certain part of the antechamber.
To get out without the consent of the gaoler, he would have had to break
the door down; but he soon saw that it would be impossible to do this, as he
was wholly unprepared with tools, and as the noise of his operations would
be certain to alarm his guards. It occurred to him, however, that he might
burn away the door; and with this view he obtained permission to cook for
himself in his own cell. He asked for a few eggs and some charcoal, and
paid liberally for both, in order the more readily to induce the gaoler to
supply them. All being ready, and the whole household asleep, he placed the
brasier close to the door and fanned the flame until it ignited the ponderous
timbers. When he had by this means burnt a hole large enough to admit his
body, he passed through, first taking care to extinguish the flames, as it was
not his wish to destroy the building. In this operation he was nearly
suffocated by the smoke from the smouldering beams. He was without a
rope to tie to the window of the loft, but he made a substitute for it by
binding together a number of strips of webbing cut from a mattrass which
he found among the furniture. He then fastened this band to a bedstead,
which he dragged to the window, and, gliding gently down, was fortunate
enough to pass the windows without receiving any fatal injury from the
spikes, and to reach the quay. It was daybreak, and the market people
opening their shops did not fail to observe him, all torn and bloody as he
was, for many of the spikes had entered his flesh. But a greater danger
threatened him, in the unwelcome attentions of a number of young men,
who had only just risen from supper, and who chased him through the
streets with drunken cries. A timely shower of rain, however, dispersed
them, and he was saved.
In trying to avoid them he made many turns and doubles, and at last
found himself at the door of a café, near the Temple, which he entered for
the purpose of making some slight changes in his appearance, in case he
should meet his tormentors again. His dress, however, began to excite
remark among the customers, and fearing he was already known, he hastily
paid his reckoning, and went out without knowing what direction to take.
He at last took refuge at the house of a relation of one of his servants, to
whom he told a plausible story to excuse the negligence of his attire. The
woman fetched him some food at his request, but feeling he could not
confide in her discretion, he soon left the house to seek a more secure
asylum.
After spending some nine months in sending petition after petition from
his various hiding-places, he tried to leave the kingdom, but choosing his
time badly, was arrested at La Fère and sent to prison. He made two
attempts to escape, and failed only by a hair’s breadth in the second, having
scaled a wall and swum across a ditch before he was discovered. He was at
length taken back to Paris, and imprisoned in the Bastille.
To enter the Bastille was almost to abandon hope, for escape seemed
impossible. But even while he was passing the gates of the prison, Bucquoy
was reconnoitering it to find means to effect his escape. He took particular
notice of the drawbridge and the counterscarp, but he was not allowed much
time for his observations; for he was at once hurried away to the Bretignière
tower.
After passing a few days in one of the lowest dungeons of this tower, he
was placed in a cell, shared by a number of prisoners in common. He
proposed that they should make a joint effort to recover their liberty, but he
was denounced by one of their number, an abbé. He was then once more
shut up in his dungeon. He was suffered to leave it, however, on feigning to
be ill and at the point of death. He was believed to be paralytic, and as it
was thought there was no further danger of his attempting to carry out his
plans, he was once more sent to the common room. In course of time he had
made the circuit of nearly all the towers of the building, never failing to
study the plan of each of them attentively; and he was at length sent to the
Bertaudière, where he had for companion a German baron, whom he
undertook to convert from the Lutheran faith, and whom he persuaded to
aid him in his attempt to escape. They had already commenced operations
on an old window which had long been closed up, when they were betrayed
by another prisoner. Bucquoy was adroit enough to exculpate himself, and
to throw the blame upon his betrayer, but he was removed to a cell in the
tower, La Liberté, together with the baron, whose conversion he represented
was not quite complete.
They then began to renew their preparations, this time with the view of
reaching the ditch of the Porte Saint Antoine. They made a hole in the wall
by means of certain jagged pieces of iron and brass, old nails and knife-
blades, which the abbé had carefully collected in the course of his long
sojourn in the prison; and which, by the aid of the fire in the room, they
fashioned into tools. At the same time they began to make a ladder, using
for this purpose the strips of osier in which their wine bottles were
enveloped, and telling the gaoler they were collecting them to serve as fuel.
A hole which they had scooped out under the flooring of their cell served to
conceal all these things.
Working steadily every day, and never losing sight of their design, they
contrived in a short time to make a tolerable ladder. All was now nearly
ready, and they were on the very point of making their attempt, when on
visiting their subterranean cupboard one day, it gave way beneath them, and
precipitated them into a room on the floor below occupied by a jesuit. The
poor man’s mind was ill at ease, and this terrible accident made him quite
mad. The abbé was taken back to his cell by a gaoler, but he was not
allowed to remain there long, and he was thus doomed to lose almost in a
moment the fruits of long months of most trying exertion. He found means,
however, to get rid of his German baron, who was no further use to him, as
he could not be persuaded to embark in another attempt. But the baron had
abjured his religion, and this gained the abbé such a reputation as a
converter of heretics, that he was sent to attempt the reformation of a
certain Protestant, named Grandville, who was considered a very excellent
boon companion by his fellow prisoners, and who was known to be most
anxious to make his escape.
Two other prisoners were placed in the same cell with them, and the
abbé soon found means to come to an understanding with all his
companions in misfortune. After he had bound them to him by the most
solemn oaths, he informed them that he had a small file concealed in his
clothes, which had hitherto escaped the closest search, and he proposed that
they should cut through the bars of their windows with it, and make their
way into the courtyard. He had managed to keep some pieces of osier that
he and the German had plaited, and by the aid of his new confederates, he
soon added largely to his store. They laboured together like the workmen of
the tower of Babel, for they were almost as much hindered by differences of
opinion, as the others were by differences of speech. At last they made up
their minds to take the only course possible to them: viz. to descend by the
ladder into the ditch. Once there, it was agreed that each should look after
himself.
 On the appointed day—or, rather, night—they removed the bars as soon
as they found all was silent in the fortress. Fearing that their suspended
bodies might be seen from the other cells, they first let down a long white
sheet, which covered all the windows between their cell and the ground. As
it was necessary to prevent the ladder from falling close to the wall, the
abbé had some days previously erected a kind of sundial at the end of a long
pole, and the sentinels had already learned to regard it without suspicion.
After they had taken all these precautions, and had smeared the white ropes
of their ladder with soot, the abbé asked to be allowed to be first to make
the descent, promising to await his companions in the ditch. He was, at the
same time, to warn them of the approach of the sentinels by pulling a
smaller rope, falling from the window to the ground. When all had been
thus arranged he got out of the window, and reached the ditch in safety; but
he remained there two hours without receiving a sign from his companions.
He pulled the rope repeatedly, to no purpose, and he began to fear they were
engaged in some new dispute, when he saw them lowering some cumbrous
machine they had constructed to aid them in their flight. Two of them came
down, but the rest had not at first been able to pass through the window, and
this had been the cause of the delay. When they found, at length, they could
force themselves through, they were still willing to stay with the
unfortunate Grandville, whose obesity compelled him to remain behind, but
he generously refused to allow them to make this useless sacrifice on his
behalf.
Their sad story ended, the abbé urged them, with all the eloquence of
which he was master, to follow his plan of escape; but not being able to
persuade them he began to look to his own safety. He had only a small osier
ladder; with this he contrived to gain the top of the ditch as soon as the
sentinel’s back was turned; he then climbed the counterscarp and reached a
deep gutter, and passing over another wall and ditch, finally dropped into
the Rue St. Antoine, nearly lacerating his arm on a hook outside a butcher’s
shop in his fall. Before leaving the wall he looked round for his comrades,
and hearing the cry of a half-strangled person, followed rapidly by a
musket-shot, he concluded that they had tried to carry out their intention of
seizing the guard but had been overpowered; and as he never heard of the
unfortunate creatures again he remained all his life confirmed in this
impression. Not caring to await a similar fate, he ran rapidly from the Rue
St. Antoine to the Rue des Journelles; and after making half the circuit of
Paris he arrived at the house of some friends, who furnished him with the
means of leaving the country.
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