Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee o ——— 2 == ~~ 2s —— SE 2 ee Oe. 6 ae ee a= os - + — et _—— , ~~ -- er ee em | -- ee large heap of straw; but what was his astonishment | seen was immoral and discordant. It is too true that, to see it occupied by a man, his hair disheveled, beard long, and eye haggard and bloodshot. The mad- man, for such he was, looked at Desfosseux with a fierce air, then made him a quick sign; and as he stood still, darted at him as if to attack him. A few caresses seemed to apenenr him; he took Desfosseux by the hand and made him sit down beside him, heaping all the straw round him in the manner and with the ges- tures of a monkey. At eight o’clock a morsel of black bread fell in the door, which he took up, looked at threw into a heap of dirt, and then picked it up an began to eat. During the day more bread was brought; but as the madman was asleep, Desfosseux seized an devoured it, at the risk of being himself devoured by his terrible companion, who might have been enraged at the abstraction of his pittance. At twilight the madman awoke, and talked for some time with in- conceivable volubility ; night came on and his excite- ment sensibly increased, and he began to eap about and make hideous contortions, shaking his chains with a kind of pleasure, In this appalling situation Desfosseux awaited with impatience until the madman fell asleep, to go out at the wicket. About midnight, hearing him move no longer, he advanced first one leg and then the other when he was seized by the madman with a werful grasp, who threw him on the straw and placed himself before the wicket, where he remained till daylight mo- tionless as a statue. The next night another attempt, and another obstacle. Desfosseux, who grew distract- ed, op oyed his strength, and a desperate struggle en- sued; Desfosseux, being struck by his chains, and cov- ered with bites and blows, was compelled to call for the keepers. They mistaking him at first for one of the madmen who had got loose, were also about to put him in a cell; but he managed to make himself known, and | natura! tone. at length obtained the favor of being brought back to us. We remained eight days in the dungeon, after which to Iwas put in the Chaussee, where I found a party of |I was sub-aid-de-cam _ country, upon my wo —I shall not be sorry to see it | risoners who had received me so well on my arrival. hey were making good cheer and denied themselves nothing: for, ia as pom of the money procured by the “letters of Jerusalem,’’ they had got a supply from some females whom they money visited them. parang become, as at Douai, the object of special vigilance, the chain. CHAPTER VIII. Ir was the 20th of November, 1797: all the morning we remarked a more than usual commotion in the prison. The prisoners had not left their cells, and the gates were every moment opened and shut with much noise; the jailers went to and fro with a busy air, and they were which the sound reached our ears. About eleven o’clock two men, clothed in blue uniforms, entered Fort Mahon, where for eight days I had been replaced | tion, or of having defeated some plot in prison. The with the companions of my essay to escape: it was the | ‘*Well,”’ said | the galley-slaves was a young man who would have “have been a good study for a painter or an actor. With captain of the chain and his lieutenant, the captain, smiling in a kind of familiar way, we any return horses (fugitive galley-slaves)?’’ And e while spoke all press testify most respect to him. ‘Good good-day, M salutations were even re had never seen either suming an air of acquaintance, ho to favor. It was no wonder if Viez was a lit these homages i knew very well what he was about. He Desfosseux, ‘Ah! ah!’ said he, ‘‘ here is a darby cut- ter (one skilled in cutting off his chains), who has trav- eled before with us. I heard that you had a narrow escape of being a head shorter (guillotined at noeai my boy. You caceped well, by Jove; for look you, it is better to go back to the meadow ( ne) than let the executioner play at pitch and toss with your knowl- e-box (head). Besides, my lads, let the world be quiet, and we shall get beef and celery,”’ The captain had only begun his inspection and continued it, ad- dressing similar jokes to all his ‘‘ merchandise,” for by that name he ed the condemned prisoners. The critical moment arrived, and we went into the Cour des Fers, where the house-surgeon came to us to examine if we were all in a state to bear the fatigues | fetters examined. At six o’clock we were placed in of a journey. We were all pronounced adequate, al- | long cars, back to back, the legs hanging down outside, though some were in a most woful plight. Each pris- | covered with hoar frost and motionless from cold. the prison livery and assumes his Appia, Sony own clothes; those who have none have a frock and | a scrutiny w rotect them | shirt, mouth, ears, nostrils, etc., etc. It was not only if at all| the files in cases which they sought, but also for oner then puts off trowsers of pare en insufficient to from the cold and damp. Hats and clothes, decent, belouging to the prisoners, are torn ticular way to the border off the hat and the co No prisoner is allowed to r more than six francs: the overplus is given to the captain, who gives it on the route in proportion as it is needed, easily elude out. These preliminaries adjusted, we went into the great | other man’s ch | rank as a penmerven fellow, from my address and in- new, and who con- | astonishment. still sought to escape; | little when at length the day arrived for the departure of | chea nocking off irons in the great court, of | war, Lemiere, the staff-major Simon, and a robber about, nape whe should | tute of buttons, and nankeen pantaloons, which seemed -lay, M. Viez: | to defy the inclemency of the weather; his head-dress Thierry,” resounded on all sides. These | was a helmet without a peak, through the holes of ated by the prisoners who | which atattered night-cap was visible. In_ the Bicetre iez or Thierry, but who, as- | he was only known by the name of ‘‘mademoiselle,’’ et some and I learned that he was one of those e giddy | wretches, who abandoned themselves in Paris to a with so much SDpieiae: but as he was accustomed to course of the most disgusting debaucheries. “The ar- did not quite turn his brain, and he | gousins, who ran at the first noise, did not received selves the least. trouble to get the Petit Matelot from ' in a par- | watch sprin prerss escape; they take, for instance, | ters in less t from the coat. | for upward of an hour, and it is really a miracle that his precaution is | stall, where we laid so close that the body of one served | by placing louis in large sous hollowed | for court, where were the guards of the chain, better ey-sergeants, who were for uvergne, water-carriers, mes- ed on their trade in the In the midst of them known as argousins, or the most part men of sengers, or coalmen, who ca intervals between the journeys. was a large wooden chest, containing the fetters which are used all similar ex tions. We were made to king care to match us in apreosen two and two, hight, by means of a chain of six feet in length, united to the cordon of twenty-six prisoners, who could thus only move in a body; each was confined to the chain by a sort of iron riangle, called the cravat, which, re yer on one side by a turning screw, is cl on the other with a nail firmly riveted. This is the most perilous part of the operation; the most turbulent and riotous then keep a et; for at the least movement, instead of falling on the anvil, the blows would break their skull, which every stroke of the hammer grazes. Then a prisoner comes with long scissors and cuts off the hair and whiskers of the prisoners, pretending to leave them irregular. At five in the evening, the fettering was finished; the eesies retired, and the prisoners alone remained. Left to themselves, far from despairing, these men gave themselves up to all the tumults of riotous gay- ety. Some vociferated horrible jokes, echoed from all es with the most disgusting shouts; others amused themselves by provoking the etupid laughter of their companions by beastly gestures. Neither the ears nor the modesty were even spared, all that was heard or profited b —- nee ee The New York Library. ew herded together like foul beasts, rolling about ther haggard eyes, whence ale or misery banished sleep on the other side, eight ill-looking fellows were eatin reedily without, not for one moment losing sight o eir carbines or their clubs. A few miserable candles, affixed to the blackened walls of the stable, cast a murk glare over this scene of horror, the silence of whic was only broken by stifled ans, or the clank of fetters. Not content with striking us indiscriminately, the argousins made their detestable and brutal witti- cisms about the prisoners; and if a man, fevered ‘with thirst, asked for water, they said to him, * Let him who wants water put out his hand.’’ The wretch obey! mistrusting nothing, and was instantly overwhelined with blows. Those who had any money were neces: sarily careful; they were but very few, the long resi- dence of the majority in prison having, for the most. part, exhausted their feeble resources. These were not the only abuses which marked the progress of the galley chain. To economize to his own profit the expenses of the journey, the captain genei- ally made one of the cordons to go on foot. But this cordon was always that of the strongest men, that is. the most turbulent of the condemned. Woe to the females whom they met, or the shops which they came near. The women were assaulted in the grossest man- ner, and the shops strip in a twinkling, as 1 saw, at Morlaix, at a grocer’s, who did not save even a loaf of sugar, or a pound of soap. It may be asked, what the Rares were about during the commission of this offense? The guards were pretending to be very busily preventing it, but without op mang exy real obstacle to it, knowing that they would ultimately prgee by the plunder: since the prisoners must sell their booty through their once loaded with fetters, the condemned thinks him- self obliged to trample under foot all that is honored and respected by the society which has cast him off; _ there are for him no longer any restraints, but from material obstacles; his charter is the length of his chain, | and he knows no law but the stick to which his jailer — accustoms him. Thrown amidst beings to whom) nothing is sacred, he takes care how he testifies that steady eeneon which betokens repentance; for then | he would the butt of a thousand jokes, and his keepers, troubled at his serious mood, woulée accuse | him of meditating some plot. It is best, if he would | keep them unsuspicious of his intentions, that he should | always appear reckless and abandoned. A prisoner | who sports with his destiny is never an object of mis- | trust; the experience of the greater part of the | wretched —— who have escaped from the Bagne | proves this. hat is certain is, that with us, those who had the greatest interest in vets, were the | least dejected; they were the leaders. When night | came on, they began to sing. Imagine fifty scoundrels, | the greater vart drunk, all screeching different airs, In the midst of this din a ‘‘return horse’’ thundered out | with the lungs of a Stentor, some couplets of ‘* The | Galley Slave’s Complaint.”’ All our companions were not so happy; in the third | cordon, composed of the least diane dank, we heard sobs, saw tears flowing; but these symptoms of grief, | or of repentance, were hailed by the shouts and threats of the two other cordons, where I figured in the first | near me two men—one a schoolmaster | condemned for rape; and the other an ex-officer of | health, sentenced for forging—who, without mirth or medium, or exchange with them for strong liquors. ! _melancholy, talked together with a very calm and | was the same with the thefts made on the prisoners | who were added to the chain in its passage; scarcely were they ironed, when their neighbors hustled them, and took from them all the little sums they might have, Far from preventing or checking these spoliations, the argousins even suggested them, asI saw them doa with an ex-gendarme who had sewed up a few louis in his leather breeches. ‘‘ Here is some fat!’’ said they, ‘‘Ts there much amusement?’’ asked the agogue, | and in less than three minutes the poor devil was penni- ‘‘ Amusement!’ said his companion, with an air of | less. At such times the party attacked call out loudl for the argousins, who take good care not to approach until the robbery be perfected, and they thump, with heavy cudgels, the poor wretch who has been plundered. At Rennes, the bandits I am speaking of carried their infamy to such an extent, as to despoil a sister of charity, who had brought us some tobacco and money, in a stall where we were to pass the night. The most crying of these abuses have disappeared, but many yet exist, which it will be difficult to root out, if we _consider to what sort of men the conducting of the chain must be intrusted, and the materials they have to work upon, Our toilsome journey endured for twenty-four days, and on reaching Pont-a-Lezen, we were placed in the depot of the Bagne, when the prisoners perform a kind of quarantine, until they have recovered from their fatigue, and it has been ascertained whether they have any contagious disease. On our arrival we were washed in pairs, in large tubs filled with water, and on quittin the bath our clothes were allotted to us. I seeeived, like the others, a red frock or cassock, two pair of trowsers, two sail-cloth shirts, two pair of shoes, and a n cap; each garment and article was marked with e initials GAL, and the cap had besides a tin plate, on which was the number of the entry in the register, When they had prea us our clothing, they riveted an iron ring round the leg, but did not couple us. The depot of Pont-a-Lezen, ners a sort of lazzaretto, there was not a very rigorous vigilance kept up. I was even told that it was easy to get out of the rooms and climb the outside walls. I learnt this from 2 man named Blondy, who had once escaped this way from the e at Brest, and hoping to profit by this infor mation, I made arrangements to avail myself of ths first opportunity. We sometimes had loaves given to us, weighing eighteen F ney each, and on quitting Morlaix I had hollowed out one of these and filled it with a shirt, a r of trowsers, and some handker- chiefs. It was a new kind of portmanteau, and passed | fluence. Ih ‘We are going to Brest,”’ said the schoolmaster. “Yes,” answered the officer of health, “ we are going B ; [ know the country, I passed through it when in the 16th Brigade—a good again.’ ‘Yes, amusement—I ask you, if we can procure any pleasure if we are well treated—if provisions are 9 me Th the first place, you will be taken care of,” | replied the officer, ‘and well taken care of; for at the | Bagne at Brest only two hours are needed to find all the beans in the soup, while at Toulon the search would take eight days.”’ Here the conversation was interrupted by loud cries, aspatng oang dy g the second division. They were knock- g on the head three prisoners, the ex-commissary of | named the Petit Matelot (little sailor), who were ac- _ cused of having betrayed their comrades by informa- rson who had pointed them out to the vengeance of | dilapidated green slippers, a hunting-waistcoat desti- degraded ve them- the hands of the galley-slaves, and he died four days afterward of the blows he had received. Lemiere and Simon would have perished but for my inter- ference; I had known the former when in the roving army, where he had rendered me some service, I de- cla that it was he who had —— me with the tools necessary for undermining the walls at Fort Mahon, and thenceforward they left him and his com- panion unmolested We passed the night on the stones in a church, then | unsuspected. Lieutenant Thierry had not given me to converted into a magazine. The argousins made regu- | a special watch; on the ‘pogew gf having learnt the lar rounds to assure themselves no one was en- | grounds of my condemnation, he had told the commis- At daybreak sary, when s ing of me, that with men as orderly over, and the as I ‘was he could manage the chain as easily as a girls’ school. I then inspired no mistrust, and looked about me to execute gS project. I, at last, contem- plated cutting through the wall of the room in which . was placed. A steel chisel, left. by accident on the foot of my bed by a turnkey econ, who riveted the ankle cuffs, served me to make the opening, while Blondy cut my irons. This completed, my comrades made a figure of straw, which they put in my place, to deceive the lance of the argousins on guard, and soon, clothed in the garments I had concealed, I got into the courtyard of the depot. The w which environed it were at least fifteen feet high, and to climb them I found I must get something like a ladder; a pole served | as a proxy, but it was so heavy and so long that it was impossible for me to drag it over the wall, to aid mv descent on the other side. After many trials, as vaix. as they were painful, I was compelled to risk the leap, _in which I succeeded so badly, and came down with so much violence on my legs, that I could scarcely drag gaged in fiddling (sawing their fetters). we were all on foot; the lists were On , to undergo we were entirely strip ngs, shoes, ch extended to our 8 , Which enable a prisoner to cut his fet- three hours. examination lasted half of us had not our noses or feet frozen off with one- together in a cattle cold. At bed-time we were hea person who laid nearest to him, and if any individual got entangled in his own, or any ain, a heavy cudgel rained down a tor- rent of blows on the hapless offender. As s00n as we had laid down on afew handfuls of straw, which had already been used for the litter of the stable, a whistle | blew command us to the most absolute silence, | myself into a bush that was near. I moped, that when which was not allowed to be disturbed by the least | the pain had somewhat abated, I could escape before complaint, ever when, to relieve the gu placed at | daybreak, but it became more excessive, and my feet the extremity of the stable, the argousins actually | swelled so prodigiously, that I was compelled to give walked over our bodies. up all hopes of ese I dragged myself along, as The supper consisted of a pretended bean soup, and | well as I was able, to the door of the depot, to Bia a few morsels of half-mouldy bread. The distribution | to my cell, thinking thereby to diminish the number of was made from large wooden Sroughe, containing thirty | blows which would be assuredly bestowed upon me. A rations: and the cook, armed with a large 2 ladle, | sister whom I asked for, and to whom I told all, hed did not fail to repeat to each prisoner, as he served me conveyed into a room where my feet were dressed. him, ‘‘ One, two, four, hold out your porringer, This excellent woman, who compassionated my lct ou thief;"’ the wine was put into the same trough went to the commandant of the depot, and obtained rom which the soup and meat were served out, and my on by her solicitations, and at the end of three then an argo ng a whistle, hanging to his but- weeks, being completely recovered, I was conveyed to ton-hole, blew it thrice; saying, ‘ Attention, robbers, | . and only faery + Be yes, or a no. Have you The Bagne is situated in the bosom of the bay; piles tee es.”’ “ u ae the pillow of the bread?’ “Yes.”’ “ Meat?” “Yes."’| of guns, and two pieces of cannon, mounted at the ‘Wine?’ “Yes.” “Then goto sleep, or pretend to ace pointed out to me the entrance, into which I was do so,” troduced, after having been examined by the two A table was laid out at the door, at which the captain, lieutenant, and chief ousins, seated themselves to