a Cuul-U'urk at Beaujonc, near Liege. 245 



Messieurs Georgen, colonel of the Gendarmerie, De Rouve- 

 roy, auditor under the prefect, and other distinguished persons, 

 came in the night to oiFer their service. Every where intense 

 anxiety was displayed, and the men at work, desirous of the merit 

 of rescuing their companions, refused to be relieved. At seven 

 o'clock in the morning of the 4th March, the workmen, equally 

 impatient as ourselves, let oflF a blast, the smoke of which incom- 

 moded them This mode of expediting the drift was therefore for- 

 bidden, because its effects in the interior might kill those whom 

 we were endeavouring to save, and, by igniting the hydrogen 

 gas, destroy our own workmen. Besides, we were now certain of 

 the existence of all those who followed the brave Goffin, and as 

 we are come to the moment of their being rescued, we shall re- 

 late the occurrences in the interior according to the simple nar- 

 rative we received, not altering it, but for the sake of perspi- 

 cuity. 



We left Goffin in the midst of the miners, whom he had col- 

 lected near the upcast shaft, after all hope of escape by the Beau- 

 jonc pit was done away. Some of the men remained to watch 

 the progress of the water ; others betook themselves to the gal- 

 leries of the mine on the rise side of the pit, which they reached 

 in the most deplorable condition. The boys crying bitterly, 

 crowded about Goffin, exclaiming, " Dear master, how shall we 

 escape !" " My God, must we die so young !" He ordered 

 silence, and consoled them with promises that they should all 

 escape. He then distributed his people in the different rise- 

 boards, from the 4tli to the 7th board, and which communicate 

 with each other by the headway (par la Rousse). The most 

 robust and courageous workmen he allotted to the 7th board, 

 where a drift was commenced under the persuasion that the 

 workings of the Mamonster pit might be penetrated from thence. 

 Though it was impossible that more than two men could work 

 at a time, yet by constantly relieving each other, the work pro- 

 ceeded. The feeble carried away the excavated materials into 

 the dip. They had proceeded about seven and a half yards, 

 and hoped to be soon in the bosom of their families. Every 

 stroke of the pick returning a heavier sound, shewed that they 

 were near a waste ; but what was their disappointment, when they 



