fferings
of a Redeemer.

Soon after this event, orders came for removing some of the prisoners to
a most loathsome place of confinement in the suburbs of the city.
It fell to Alonzo's lot to be one. He therefore formed a project for
escaping. He had observed that the gratings in one of the windows of the
apartment were loose and could be easily removed. One night when the
prisoners were asleep, he stripped off his clothes, every article of
which he cut into narrow strips, tied them together, fastened one end to
one of the strongest gratings, removed the others until he had made an
opening large enough to get out, and then, by the rope he had made of
his clothes, let himself down into the yard of the prison. There he
found a long piece of timber, which he dragged to the wall, clambered up
thereon, and sprang over into the street. His shoes and hat he had left
in the prison, as a useless encumbrance without his clothes, all which
he had converted into the means of escape, so that he was now literally
stark naked. He stood a moment to reflect:--"Here am I, said he, freed
from my local prison indeed, but in the midst of an enemy's country,
without a friend, without the means of obtaining one day's subsistence,
surrounded by the darkness of night, destitute of a single article of
clothing, and even unable to form a resolution what step next to take.
The ways of heaven are marvellous--may I silently bow to its
dispensations!"

* * * * *

Alonzo passed along the street in this forlorn condition, not knowing
where to proceed, or what course to take. It was about three o'clock in
the morning; the street was illuminated by lamps, and he feared falling
into the hands of the watch. For some time he saw no person; at length a
voice from the other side of the street called out,----"Hallo, messmate!
what, scudding under bare poles? You must have experienced a severe gale
indeed thus to have carried away every rag of sail!"

Alonzo turned, and saw the person who spoke. He was a decent looking
man, of middle age, dressed in a sailor's habit. Alonzo had often heard
of the generosity and honourable conduct of the British tars: he
therefore approached him and told him his real case, not even concealing
his being taken in actual hostility to the British government, and his
escape from prison. The sailor mused a few minutes. "Thy case, said he,
is a little critical, but do not despair. Had I met thee as an