isfy the pressing wants
of appetite! It was now ascertained that eight of the sufferers still
survived; and this time an authentic account of the happy discovery was
dispatched to St. Etienne, where it excited the most enthusiastic
demonstrations of sympathy and gladness. But there is no pleasure
unmixed with alloy; no general happiness unaccompanied by particular
exceptions. Among the workmen, was the father of one of the men who had
disappeared in the mine. His paternal feelings seemed to have endowed
him with superhuman strength. Night and day he never quitted his work
but for a few minutes to return to it with redoubled ardor; one sole,
absorbing thought occupied his whole soul; the idea that his son, his
_only_ son, was with those who were heard from within. In vain he was
solicited to retire; in vain they strove to force him from labors too
fatiguing for his age. "My son is among them," said he, "I hear him;
nothing shall prevent my hastening his release;" and, from time to time,
he called on his son, in accents that tore the hearts of the bystanders.
It was from his hand that the instrument had been drawn. His first
question was "my child?" Like Apelles, let me throw a vail over a
father's grief. His Antoine was no more, he had been drowned.

For four days several medical men were constantly on the spot, to
contribute all the succors that humanity, skill, and science could
afford. It was they who introduced through the hole, broth and soup, by
means of long, tin tubes, which had been carefully prepared beforehand.
The poor captives distributed it with the most scrupulous attention,
first to the oldest and weakest of their companions; for,
notwithstanding their dreadful situation, the spirit of concord and
charity had never ceased for a single moment to preside among them. The
man who was appointed by the others to communicate with, and answer the
questions of their deliverers, displayed, in all his replies, a gayety
quite in keeping with the French character. On being asked what day he
thought it was, and on being informed that it was Monday, instead of
Sunday, as he had supposed, "Ah!" said he, "I ought to have known that,
as we yesterday indulged ourselves freely in drinking--water." Strange
that a man should have the heart to joke, who had been thus "cabin'd,
cribb'd, confin'd," during five days, destitute of food, deprived of
air, agitated by suspense, and in jeopardy of perishing by the most
horrible of all