d as tobacco was very cheap, and could be always bought from the
soldiers, Julian's store of money was not much diminished by the outlay.

He himself had now regularly taken to smoking; not at first because he
liked it, but because he saw how much it cheered and comforted his
comrades, who, however, generally used it in the sailor fashion of
chewing. Escape was never talked of. The watch kept was extremely
strict, and as on getting outside of the walls of the courtyard, they
would but find themselves in a town girt in by walls and fortifications,
the risk was altogether too great to be encountered. It had been
attempted many times, but in the great majority of cases the fugitives
had been shot, and their bodies had always been brought back to the
prison in order to impress the others with the uselessness of the
attempt. A very few, indeed, had got away; at least, it was supposed
that they had done so, as their bodies had not been brought back; but it
was generally considered that the chances were enormously against their
being able to make their way over the wide extent of country between
Verdun and the sea, and then to succeed in obtaining a passage to some
neutral port, from which they could make their way to England. Several
times offers of freedom were made to such of the prisoners as
volunteered to enter the French army or navy, but very few availed
themselves of them.

At the end of ten months, Julian was able to speak French fluently.
Large bodies of troops were continually marching through the town bound
for the east, and the prisoners learned from the guards that the general
belief was that Napoleon intended to invade Russia.

"I have a good mind to enlist," Julian said one day, to his friend the
mate. "Of course, nothing would persuade me to do so if it were a
question of fighting against the English. But now that I have learnt
French fairly, I begin to find this life horrible, and am longing
intensely to be doing something. There are the reasons that I have
already told you of why, even if I were free, I could not go home. I
might as well be taking part in this campaign as staying in prison.
Besides, I should have infinitely better chances of escape as a soldier
than we have here, and if I find I don't like it, I can at least try to
get off."

"Well, placed as you are, Wyatt, I don't know that I should not be
inclined to do the same. At any rate, you would be seeing something of
life, instead of living li