SOME ACCOUNT OF A CAPTIVITY. 319 



four years' captivity which I suffered in the prison of Cambray. I 

 do not like to dwell upon such matters. Besides, in the monotonous 

 routine of prison discipline, but few incidents occur sufficiently vivid 

 to give interest to a narrative. The circumstance of my attempted 

 escape, my recapture, and final success, will stand out in more lively 

 colours, and compensate for this comparatively dull portion of my 

 history. 



During my imprisonment I suffered severely from hunger ; for my 

 three days' allowance of bread was not sufficient to satisfy the crav- 

 ings of more than a day and a half. Many of my fellow-prisoners 

 finished their allowance in a single day j and I, though with only a 

 moderate appetite, found it difficult to make it spin out for two days. 

 Many and many a time have I walked round the prison-yard and 

 counted the trees, or thought of home, or, in short, any thing that 

 might prolong my walk, from a fear of going into the room and 

 pouncing upon my unfortunate loaf for the sight of it was irre- 

 sistible. I had certainly the assistance of the money allowed by the 

 English and French governments, making in all twelve-pence far- 

 thing a-week ; but then there were sad drawbacks upon this little 

 sum. A Jerseyman undertook to set up a French school, for which 

 he charged twopence halfpenny every ten days ; and as I had a de- 

 sire to learn French, I had to pay this sum out of my little pittance. 

 But this was not my greatest trouble a grammar must be bought. 

 The price of Wanostrocht's grammar was three francs and a half, 

 nearly a month's allowance ; but the grammar was bought, though 

 my poor stomach suffered for it ; and, after a little, time I made the 

 delightful discovery that my schoolmaster spoke very bad French, and 

 that he did not understand a single word of grammar either French 

 or English. I gave up both him and his school ; but I still continued 

 to speak French with every Frenchman or woman with whom I 

 could contrive to fall into conversation. I used to write, too, after 

 a fashion ; but my mode of proceeding, though awkward, served my 

 purpose. I sometimes took a French book and translated perhaps a 

 half page of it into English ; this I put by for a few days, and then, 

 after looking carefully over it, attempted, in the best way I could, to 

 turn it into French again without looking at the French book. This 

 translation was in its turn put by for a few days ; and then, by com- 

 paring it with the French book, I found out how far I was deficient. 

 By practising in this way alternately, with French and English 

 authors, I found I had made myself pretty well acquainted with the 

 French language. As to the pronunciation, that could only be ac- 

 quired by habit, and no creature worked harder to acquire that habit 

 than I did. 



