Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p1.djvu/312

with woollen socks over our shoes, that our footsteps might not be heard, and each having a rope, a small poker, or a stake, and a knapsack, took leave of our friends, and departed. We first went into the back-yard, and, assisted by Rochfort, who was now convalescent, but not sufficiently strong to join the party, got over the wall, passed through the garden and palisades, crossed the road, and climbed silently upon our hands and knees up the bank at the back of the north guard-room – lying perfectly still as the sentinels approached, and as they receded again advancing, until we reached the parapet over the gateway leading to the upper citadel. Here the breast-work, over which we had to creep, was about five feet high, and fourteen thick; and it being the highest part of the citadel, we were in danger of being seen by several sentinels below; but fortunately the cold bleak wind induced some of them to take shelter in their boxes. With the utmost precaution we crept upon the summit, and down the breast-work towards the outer edge of the rampart, when the sentinel made his quarter-hourly cry of ‘Sentinelle, prenez garde à vous,’ similar to our ‘All’s well:’ this, though it created for a moment rather an unpleasant sensation, convinced me that we had reached thus far unobserved. I then forced the poker into the earth, and by rising and falling with nearly my whole weight hammered it down with my chest; about two feet behind I did the same with the stake, fastening a small line from the upper part of the poker to the lower part of the stake: this done, we made the well-rope secure round the poker, and gently let it down through one of the grooves in the rampart, which receives a beam of the draw-bridge when up. I then cautiously descended this half chimney, as it were, by the rope; when I had reached about two-thirds of the way down, part of a brick fell, struck against the side, and rebounded against my chest; this I luckily caught between my knees, and carried down without noise. I crossed the bridge, and waited for Hunter, who descended with equal care and silence.

“We then entered the ravelin, proceeded through the arched passage, which forms an obtuse angle with a massive door leading to the upper citadel, and, with my picklock, endeavoured to open it; not finding the bolt yield with gentle pressure, I added the other hand, and gradually increased the force until I exerted my whole strength, when suddenly something broke. I then tried to file the catch of the bolt, but that being cast iron, the file made no impression; we then endeavoured to cut away the stone in the wall which receives the bolt, but that was fortified with a bar of iron, which rendered our attempt abortive; the picklocks were again applied, but with no better success: it now appeared complete ‘check-mate;’ and, as the last resource, it was proposed to return to the bridge, slip down the piles, and float along the canal on our backs, there being too little water to swim, and too much to ford it. In the midst of our consultation, it occurred to me, that it would be possible to undermine the gate this plan wan no sooner proposed than commenced; but