CHAPTER VIII

Our Departure from Verdun for Bitche--Mars-la-Tour, Metz, and Sarrelouis--I receive a useful Present from Mr. Brown--Sarreguemines--A last Chance--A mounted Guard--Thoughts of an Escape--Calculations upon a Chase in a Wood between Horse-soldiers and Prisoners on Foot--Attempt resolved upon--Signal given--Flight from the Prison Caravan to the Wood--French Pursuit--A Prisoner recaptured--My Escape from the Wood into another--My Companions, I fear, less fortunate--My Concealment--A swampy Bed and a stormy Sky, with a Torrent of Rain, for a Canopy--A prospective Flight of nearly 800 Miles--The Misery of a fruitless Search for lost Companions--Feeding on Haws, and herding with Quadrupeds and Vermin--A Hut discovered--Hunger compels me to enter--A Compromise, a Bribe, Female Advocacy, and an Escape--On the Road to the Rhine--A Preparation to sell Life dearly--A narrow Escape--Living on Cabbage-Stalks and raw Turnips--Bad Feet and worse Health--A lonely House near a Wood--Strong Temptations to Enter--A brutal Host, extreme Danger, and a narrow Escape--Bad Specimens of Human Nature Page 116