38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



cision : " Since they talk of my death," said I to my 

 friend Rodriguez. " the event will not be long in comin^. 



O * O o 



I should prefer being drowned to being hung. I will 

 make my escape from this fortress ; it is for you to furnish 

 me with the means." 



Rodriguez, knowing better than any one how well 

 founded my apprehensions were, set himself at once to 

 the work. 



He went to the captain-general, and made him feel 

 what would be the danger of his position if I should 

 disappear in a popular riot, or even if he were forced to 

 give me up. His observations were so much the better 

 comprehended, as no one could then predict what might 

 be the issue of the Spanish revolution. " I will under- 

 take," said the captain-general Vives to my colleague 

 Rodriguez, " to give an order to the commander of the 

 fortress, that when the right moment arrives, he shall 

 allow M. Arago, and even the two or three other French- 

 men who are with him in the castle of Belver, to pass 

 out. They will then have no need of the means of es- 

 cape which they have procured ; but I will take no part 

 in the preparations which will become necessary to enable 

 the fugitives to leave the island ; I leave all that to your 

 responsibility." 



Rodriguez immediately conferred secretly with the 

 brave commander Damian. It was agreed between 

 them that Damian should take the command of a half- 

 decked boat, which the wind had driven ashore ; that he 

 should equip it as if for a fishing expedition ; that h'a 

 should carry us to Algiers ; after which his reentrance 

 at Palmas, with or without fish, would inspire no sus- 

 picion. 



All was executed according to agreement, notwith- 



