“’The bullet must have passed through him without touching any vital point.  He may do yet.’

“He bent down, and asked me in French what my name was, and I said ‘Victor Dubosc, lieutenant;’ so they stuck a card with my name over my bed, and asked me no more questions.  I lay there for six weeks, and then I was well enough to get up and walk about.

“Three weeks later, I went down with some other convalescents to Ostend, and there we were embarked, and taken to Portsmouth.  Then we were put in boats and rowed to Porchester, which is a place at the end of a sort of lake behind Portsmouth.  There was an old castle there, with a mighty high wall, enclosing a lot of ground, where there were huts—­rows of them—­all filled with our prisoners.  Some of the huts were a little better than others, and these were for the use of officers.  A regiment of soldiers was in tents outside the walls, and a hundred men were always on guard with loaded muskets.

“I said to myself, often and often, ’If Kennedy were here, he would soon hit upon some plan for getting away;’ but for the life of me, I could not see how it was to be managed.  It was a dull time, I can tell you.  The food was bad, and the cooking was worse.  Only a few officers were there, most of them being sent to some place a long distance inland; but, as we were all wounded, I suppose they thought that the loss of blood would keep us quiet.

“One of the officers, having a little money hidden about him, bought a pack of cards from an English soldier, and we passed most of our time playing; but it was poor work, for we had nothing to play for.  At last, I said to myself, ’Patrick O’Neil, there must be an end of this or your brain will go altogether.  It is not worth much at the best of times, or it would have thought of some plan for getting out of this place before now.’

“At last, I hit on a plan.  It was a dangerous one, there was no doubt of that; but as I was desperate, I did not think much of the danger.  The worst they could do was to shoot me, which I suppose is what they would have done.  My idea was to pounce suddenly on one of the sentries, who kept guard all night; to gag him, and tie him up, before he could give the alarm; and then to dress up in his clothes, and take his matchlock.

“But the difficulty was, what was I to do next.  The soldiers came on duty for twelve hours, coming in at six in the morning and going out at six in the evening.

“It was clear to me that it could only be done in the dark, and I had to wait for nearly two months.  It was the beginning of October before it was dark enough, at six in the morning, for me to fall in with the others and march out without being noticed.