The climbing, then, is easy; and, what with the dense fog, and our own quickness, I think we shall have little difficulty in gaining the garden. The only precautions we need use are, to wait for a very dark morning, and to be sure that we are the last of the file, so that no one behind may give the alarm –’

‘Or attempt to follow our example, and spoil the pie by a superfluous plum!’ added Augustus. ‘You counsel admirably; and one of these days, if you are not hung in the meanwhile, will, I venture to augur, be a great logician.’

The next morning was clear and frosty; but the day after was, to use Tomlinson’s simile, ‘as dark as if all the negroes of Africa had been stewed down into air.’ ‘You might have cut the fog with a knife,’ as the proverb says. Paul and Augustus could not even see how significantly each looked at the other.

It was a remarkable trait of the daring temperament of the former; that, young as he was, it was fixed that he should lead the attempt. At the hour, then, for chapel – the prisoners passed as usual through the door. When it came to Paul’s turn he drew himself by his hands to the pipe, and then creeping along its sinuous course, gained the wall before he had even fetched his breath. Rather more clumsily, Augustus followed his friend’s example: once his foot slipped, and he was all but over. He extended his hands involuntarily, and caught Paul by the leg. Happily our hero had then gained the wall to which he was clinging, and for once in a way, one rogue raised himself without throwing over another. Behold Tomlinson and Paul now seated for an instant on the wall to recover breath! The latter then, – the descent to the ground was not very great, – letting his body down by his hands, dropped into the garden.

‘Hurt?’ asked the prudent Augustus in a hoarse whisper before he descended from his ‘bad eminence,’ being even willing

                           To bear those ills he had,

           Than fly to others that he knew not of,

without taking every previous precaution in his power.

‘No!’ was the answer in the same voice, and Augustus dropped.

So soon as this latter worthy had recovered the shock of his fall, he lost not a moment in running to the other end of the garden: Paul followed. By the way Tomlinson stopped at a heap of rubbish, and picked up an immense stone; when they came to the part of the wall they had agreed to scale, they found the watchman, about whom they needed not, by the by, to have concerned themselves; for had it not been arranged that he was to have met them, the deep fog would have effectually prevented him from seeing them: this faithful guardian Augustus knocked down, not with the stone, but with ten guineas; he then drew forth from his dress a thickish cord, which he had procured some days before, from the turnkey, and fastening the stone firmly to one end, threw that end over the wall. Now the wall had (as walls of great strength mostly have) an overhanging sort of battlement on either side, and the stone, when flung over and drawn to the tether of the cord to which it was attached, necessarily hitched against this projection; and thus the cord was, as it were, fastened to the wall, and Tomlinson was enabled by it to draw himself up to the top of the barrier. He performed this feat with gymnastic address, like one who had often practised it; albeit, the discreet adventurer had not mentioned in his narrative to Paul any previous occasion for the practice. As soon as he had gained the top of the wall, he threw down the cord to his companion, and, in consideration of Paul’s inexperience in that manner of climbing, gave the fastening of the rope an additional security by holding it himself. With slowness and labour Paul hoisted himself up; and then, by transferring the stone to the other side of the wall, where it made, of course, a similar hitch, our two adventurers were enabled successively to slide down, and consummate their escape from the house of correction.

‘Follow me now!’ said Augustus, as he took to his heels; and Paul pursued him through a labyrinth of alleys and lanes, through which he shot and dodged with a variable and shifting celerity that, had not Paul kept close upon him, would very soon (combined with the fog) have snatched him from the eyes of his young ally. Happily the immaturity of the morning, the obscurity of the streets passed through, and, above all, the extreme darkness of the atmosphere, prevented that detection and arrest which their prisoners’ garb would otherwise have insured them. At length, they found themselves in the fields; and, skulking along hedges, and diligently avoiding the highroad, they continued to fly onward, until they had advanced several miles into ‘the bowels of the land.’ At that time ‘the bowels’ of Augustus Tomlinson began to remind him of their demands; and he accordingly suggested the desirability of their seizing the first peasant they encountered, and causing him to exchange clothes with one of the fugitives, who would thus be enabled to enter a public-house and provide for their mutual necessities. Paul agreed to this proposition, and, accordingly, they watched their opportunity and caught a ploughman. Augustus stripped him of his frock, hat, and worsted stockings; and Paul, hardened by necessity and companionship, helped to tie the poor ploughman to a tree. They then continued their progress for about an hour, and, as the shades of evening fell around them, they discovered a public-house. Augustus entered, and returned in a few minutes laden with bread and cheese, and a bottle of beer. Prison fare cures a man of daintiness, and the two fugitives dined on these homely viands with considerable complacency. They then resumed their journey, and at length, wearied with exertion, they arrived at a lonely haystack, where they resolved to repose for an hour or two.

Chapter X

Unlike the ribald, whose licentious jest

Pollutes his banquet, and insults his guest;

From wealth and grandeur easy to descend,

Thou joy’st to lose the master in the friend.

We round thy board the cheerful menials see,

Gay with the smile of bland equality;

No social care the gracious lord disdains;

Love prompts to love, and reverence reverence gains.

              Translation of Lucan to Piso, prefixed to the

                                Twelfth Paper of ‘The Rambler’

Coyly shone down the bashful stars upon our adventurers, as, after a short nap behind the haystack, they stretched themselves, and, looking at each other, burst into an involuntary and hilarious laugh at the prosperous termination of their exploit.

Hitherto they had been too occupied, first by their flight, then by hunger, then by fatigue, for self-gratulation; now they rubbed their hands, and joked like runaway schoolboys, at their escape.

By degrees their thoughts turned from the past to the future; and ‘Tell me, my dear fellow,’ said Augustus, ‘what you intend to do. I trust I have long ago convinced you, that it is no sin “to serve our friends” and to “be true to our party;” and therefore, I suppose, you will decide upon taking to the road!’

‘It is very odd,’ answered Paul, ‘that I should have any scruples left after your lectures on the subject; but I own to you frankly, that, somehow or other, I have doubts whether thieving be really the honestest profession I could follow.’

‘Listen to me, Paul,’ answered Augustus; and his reply is not unworthy of notice. ‘All crime and all excellence depend upon a good choice of words. I see you look puzzled; I will explain. If you take money from the public, and say you have robbed, you have indubitably committed a great crime; but if you do the same, and say you have been relieving the necessities of the poor, you have done an excellent action: if, in afterwards dividing this money with your companions, you say you have been sharing booty, you have committed an offence against the laws of your country; but if you observe that you have been sharing with your friends the gains of your industry, you have been performing one of the noblest actions of humanity. To knock a man on the head is neither virtuous nor guilty, but it depends upon the language applied to the action to make it murder or glory.* Why not say, then, that you have testified “the courage of a hero,” rather than “the atrocity of a ruffian?” This is perfectly clear, is it not?’

‘It seems so,’ answered Paul.

‘It is so self-evident, that it is the way all governments are carried on. Wherefore, my good Paul, we only do what all other legislators do. We are never rogues so long as we call ourselves honest fellows, and we never commit a crime so long as we can term it a virtue! What say you now?’

Paul smiled, and was silent a few moments before he replied:

‘There is very little doubt but that you are wrong; yet if you are, so are all the rest of the world. It is of no use to be the only white sheep of the flock. Wherefore, my dear Tomlinson, I will in future be an excellent citizen, relieve the necessities of the poor, and share the gains of my industry with my friends.’

‘Bravo!’ cried Tomlinson. ‘And now that that is settled, the sooner you are inaugurated the better.