We did not wait long for the order, and the jailer announced it to us, on the eve of its being put into execution; and I had the night before me to fortify Moiselet in his resolutions.  He persisted in them more strongly than ever, and acceded with rapture to the proposition I made him of effecting an escape from our escort as soon as it was feasible.

So anxious was he to commence his journey, that he could not sleep.  At daybreak, I gave him to understand that I took him for a thief as well as myself.

“Ah, ah, grip also,” said I to him, “deep, deep Francois, you not spoken, but tief all as von.”

He made me no answer; but when, with my fingers squeezed together a la Normande, he saw me make a gesture of grasping something, he could not prevent himself from smiling, with that bashful expression of Yes, which he had not courage to utter.  The hypocrite had some shame about him, the shame of a devotee.  I was understood.

At length the wished-for moment of departure came, which was to enable us to accomplish our designs.  Moiselet was ready three whole hours beforehand, and to give him courage, I had not neglected to push about the wine and brandy, and he did not leave the prison until after having received all his sacraments.

We were tied with a very thin cord, and on our way he made me a signal that there would be no difficulty in breaking it.  He did not think that he should break the charm which had till then preserved him.  The further we went the more he testified that he placed his hopes of safety in me; at each minute he reiterated a prayer that I would not abandon him; and I as often replied, “Ya, Francois, ya, I not leave you.”  At length the decisive moment came, the cord was broken.  I leaped a ditch, which separated us from a thicket.  Moiselet, who seemed young again, jumped after me:  one of the gendarmes alighted to follow us, but to run and jump in jack-boots and with a heavy sword was difficult; and whilst he made a circuit to join us, we disappeared in a hollow, and were soon lost to view.

A path into which we struck led us to the wood of Vaujours.  There Moiselet stopped, and having looked carefully about him, went towards some bushes.  I saw him then stoop, plunge his arm into a thick tuft, whence he took out a spade:  arising quickly, he went on some paces without saying a word; and when we reached a birch tree, several of the boughs of which I observed were broken, he took off his hat and coat, and began to dig.  He went to work with so much good-will, that his labour rapidly advanced.  Suddenly he stooped down, and then escaped from him that ha! which betokens satisfaction, and which informed me, without the use of a conjuror’s rod, that he had found his treasure.  I thought the cooper would have fainted; but recovering himself, he made two or three more strokes with his spade, and the box was exposed to view.  I seized on the instrument of his toil, and suddenly changing my language, declared, in very good French, that he was my prisoner.