d from
so small an instrument. 'Twas clear that the hollow belly of the
fiddle had some part in the effect, and then I remembered the big
bass viols I had seen used in the church at home, and reflected
that the larger the instrument the deeper and more powerful the
tones.

And here came in the genie to supply the link which led to the
formation of my plan. In my mind's eye I saw a big hollow vessel
shaped like a bass viol floating on the water of the moat, and Joe
Punchard clinging to it, and I wished with all my heart that one of
our jailers would discover such an instrument, and hand it to us
for the use of our band. 'Twas but a step from wishing to devising.
We had no bass viol; could we not make one? No one would oppose us;
the band was highly popular with the garrison, and I was sure that
they would willingly provide us with material for the construction
of yet another instrument.

Accordingly, next morning I suggested that we should ask the
commandant to give us some planks of wood with which to make an
instrument of a new model. The men were amused at the notion, never
suspecting that I had any other design than to enrich the harmony
of our ensemble. 'Twould be good fun, they agreed, though they had
great doubt (as I had myself) whether our unskilled workmanship
would produce anything but a useless monstrosity so far as music
was concerned. They were willing to try, however, the attempt would
help us to kill time; and the commandant proving perfectly
agreeable to humor us, we gut the planks, borrowed some tools from
the soldiers, and set to work.

The next following days saw half a dozen of us busily employed in
the courtyard in knocking together a long shallow box, in the upper
side of which we pierced S-shaped holes like those of the fiddle,
with a notched bridge at about one-third of its length for holding
four strings, and wooden screws at the other end for stretching
them taut. Joe Punchard, good fellow, was the most ardent of the
artificers, plying the tools with a dexterity born of his work for
master cooper Matthew Mark years before. We got from the soldiers,
who showed a great interest in our task, cords of different
thickness, and several lengths of iron wire which we twisted
together somewhat after the manner of the thickest string of the
fiddle. We then stretched this and three cords over the bridge on
the top of the box, screwed them to a high tension, and plucked
them to see if they emitted no