ne
offered to come with me. They were very noble; they declared that the
scheme was mine and I should have the fruit of it, for if more than one
tried, detection was certain. I agreed and thanked them--thanked them
with tears in my eyes. Then one of them very secretly produced a map.
We planned out my road, for I was going straight to Holland. It was a
long road, and I had no money, for they had taken all my sovereigns
when I was arrested, but they promised to get a subscription up among
themselves to start me. Again I wept tears of gratitude. This was on
Sunday, the day after Christmas, and I settled to make the attempt on
the Wednesday afternoon.

'Now, Cornelis, when the lieutenant took us to see the British
prisoners, you remember, he told us many things about the ways of
prisons. He told us how they loved to catch a man in the act of
escape, so that they could use him harshly with a clear conscience. I
thought of that, and calculated that now my friends would have told
everything to the commandant, and that they would be waiting to bottle
me on the Wednesday. Till then I reckoned I would be slackly guarded,
for they would look on me as safe in the net ...

'So I went out of the window next day. It was the Monday afternoon ...'

'That was a bold stroke,' I said admiringly.

'The plan was bold, but it was not skilful,' said Peter modestly. 'I
had no money beyond seven marks, and I had but one stick of chocolate.
I had no overcoat, and it was snowing hard. Further, I could not get
down the tree, which had a trunk as smooth and branchless as a blue
gum. For a little I thought I should be compelled to give in, and I
was not happy.

'But I had leisure, for I did not think I would be missed before
nightfall, and given time a man can do most things. By and by I found
a branch which led beyond the outer wall of the yard and hung above the
river. This I followed, and then dropped from it into the stream. It
was a drop of some yards, and the water was very swift, so that I
nearly drowned. I would rather swim the Limpopo, Cornelis, among all
the crocodiles than that icy river. Yet I managed to reach the shore
and get my breath lying in the bushes ...

'After that it was plain going, though I was very cold. I knew that I
would be sought on the northern roads, as I had told my friends, for no
one could dream of an ignorant Dutchman going south away from his
kinsfolk. But I had learned enough from the ma