the perverse was prompting me. I had determined to stay there and
toil as long as I could move my hands, or catch a breath. I went
beyond my resolution. I dug and dug, and after a while the sense of
semi-suffocation and the pain in my breast seemed to cease. My head
appeared to be on fire; the little candle I had before me shone as
a calcium light. I fancied that I was inspired, that I could never
be fatigued, and I wrought feverishly, but effectually, until my
assistant wondered at the amount of earth he was obliged to carry
off. I imagined that hours and days had passed. While I was delving
energetically, though wildly, I lost consciousness, and chaos and
oblivion came. I knew nothing more until I found myself stretched on a
blanket, and my faithful Achates—noble fellow that he was—bathing my
face, chafing my temples, and wondering if I should ever revive.
[Sidenote: NARROW ESCAPE FROM SUFFOCATION.]
Then I learned that I had swooned, and been dragged out of the tunnel
by the feet—more dead than alive. The fever of delirium had seized me,
and this I had mistaken for inexhaustible strength. Unquestionably
I had been very near my end. If I had been allowed to remain there
five minutes longer, I should have been thrown into the trench near
the prison where so many poor fellows had gone before me, and have
furnished the theme for a brief obituary.
Give me liberty or give me death! has become a stereotyped phrase. It
is impossible to tell which is the better of the two; but I came much
nearer gaining one than the other in the tunnel, which I had before
associated only with the former.
[Sidenote: HOPE AND DISAPPOINTMENTS.]
When next I am thrown into prison—I do not believe it will be in my
own country—I trust I shall have the means for constructing tunnels
after an approved manner, and that they will not continue to balk my
desires, and cheat my expectations. Tunnels, I must confess, have
treated me shamefully. Again and again I have built high thoughts upon
them; again and again I have placed implicit faith in them; again
and again I have crowned their issue with the glorious symbol of
freedom; and yet while they kept the word of promise to my ear, they
broke it to my hope. Among perfidies they have been most perfidious,
among treacheries the most treacherous, among disappointments the
most disappointing, among deceits the most deceitful. For nearly
two wretched, painful, terrible years, I thought of tunnels kindly,
advocated them warmly, loved them tenderly, labored for them, in them,
through them; and still in the hour of my direst need, and in the
mightiest peril of my being, they refused me comfort, gave me despair
for bread. I never shall forget—I never can forget—that when freedom
dawned at last, it was through the darkened sky overhead, and not
through the opened end of a channel under ground.
[Illustration]
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│ Transcriber’s Note: │
│ │
│ The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been │
│ retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors │
│ which have been corrected without note. │
│ │
│ Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. │
│ │
│ Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant │
│ form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. │
│ │
│ Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, _like │
│ this_. │
│ │
│ Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs │
│ and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that │
│ references them. The List of Illustrations paginations were │
│ changed accordingly. │
│ │
│ Variant not changed: │
│ Gentlemens and gentlemans. │
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