The disastrous news, that sixteen workmen had perished in the mine of M. Robinot, was soon circulated in the town of St. Etienne.  It was regarded as one of those fatal and deplorable events unfortunately, too common in that neighborhood, and on the ensuing Thursday it was no longer talked of.  Politics, and the state of parties in Paris, exclusively occupied the public attention.

The engineers of the mines, however, and some of their pupils, who, on the first alarm, had hastened to the spot, still remained there, continuing their indefatigable endeavors to discover the miners who were missing.  Nothing that mechanical science, manual labor, and perseverance, prompted by humanity, could perform, was left undone.

Thirty hours had already elapsed since the fatal accident, when two workmen announced the discovery of a jacket and some provisions belonging to the miners.  The engineers immediately essayed to penetrate into the galleries where these objects had been found, which they accomplished with much difficulty, by crawling on their hands and feet.  In vain they repeatedly called aloud; no voice, save the echo of their own, answered from those narrow and gloomy vaults.  It then occurred to them to strike with their pickaxes against the roof of the mine.  Still the same uncheering silence!  Listen! yes! the sounds are answered by similar blows!  Every heart beats, every pulse quickens, every breath is contracted; yet, perhaps, it is but an illusion of their wishes—­or, perhaps, some deceitful echo.  They again strike the vaulted roof.  There is no longer any doubt.  The same number of strokes is returned.  No words can paint the varied feelings that pervaded every heart.  It was (to use the expression of a person present) a veritable delirium of joy, of fear, and of hope.

Without losing an instant, the engineers ordered a hole to be bored in the direction of the galleries, where the miners were presumed to be; at the same time, they directed, on another point, the formation of an inclined well, for the purpose of communicating with them.

Two of the engineer’s pupils were now dispatched to the mayor of St. Etienne, to procure a couple of fire pumps, which they conducted back to the mine, accompanied by two firemen.  In the ardor of youthful humanity, these young men imagined that the deliverance of the miners was but the affair of a few hours; and, wishing to prepare an “agreeable surprise” for the friends of the supposed victims, they gave strict injunctions at the mayoralty to keep the object of their expedition a profound secret.