On either side of me rose a number of
crouching figures. From right and left they rushed at me. Each body
held a rope. The cordon was nearly complete. I could pass on neither side, and the
end was near. There was only one chance, and I took it. I hurled myself across the
dyke, and escaping out of the very clutches of my foes threw myself
into the stream. At any other time I should have thought that water foul and filthy, but
now it was as welcome as the most crystal stream to the parched
traveller. It was a highway of safety! My pursuers rushed after me. Had only one of them held the rope it
would have been all up with me, for he could have entangled me before I
had time to swim a stroke; but the many hands holding it embarrassed
and delayed them, and when the rope struck the water I heard the splash
well behind me. A few minutes’ hard swimming took me across the stream. Refreshed with the immersion and encouraged by the escape, I climbed
the dyke in comparative gaiety of spirits. From the top I looked back. Through the darkness I saw my assailants
scattering up and down along the dyke. The pursuit was evidently not
ended, and again I had to choose my course. Beyond the dyke where I
stood was a wild, swampy space very similar to that which I had
crossed. I determined to shun such a place, and thought for a moment
whether I would take up or down the dyke. I thought I heard a sound—the
muffled sound of oars, so I listened, and then shouted. No response; but the sound ceased. My enemies had evidently got a boat
of some kind. As they were on the up side of me I took the down path
and began to run. As I passed to the left of where I had entered the
water I heard several splashes, soft and stealthy, like the sound a rat
makes as he plunges into the stream, but vastly greater; and as I
looked I saw the dark sheen of the water broken by the ripples of
several advancing heads. Some of my enemies were swimming the stream
also. And now behind me, up the stream, the silence was broken by the quick
rattle and creak of oars; my enemies were in hot pursuit. I put my best
leg foremost and ran on. After a break of a couple of minutes I looked
back, and by a gleam of light through the ragged clouds I saw several
dark forms climbing the bank behind me. The wind had now begun to rise,
and the water beside me was ruffled and beginning to break in tiny
waves on the bank. I had to keep my eyes pretty well on the ground
before me, lest I should stumble, for I knew that to stumble was death. After a few minutes I looked back behind me. On the dyke were only a
few dark figures, but crossing the waste, swampy ground were many more. What new danger this portended I did not know—could only guess. Then as
I ran it seemed to me that my track kept ever sloping away to the
right. I looked up ahead and saw that the river was much wider than
before, and that the dyke on which I stood fell quite away, and beyond
it was another stream on whose near bank I saw some of the dark forms
now across the marsh. I was on an island of some kind. My situation was now indeed terrible, for my enemies had hemmed me in
on every side. Behind came the quickening roll of the oars, as though
my pursuers knew that the end was close. Around me on every side was
desolation; there was not a roof or light, as far as I could see. Far
off to the right rose some dark mass, but what it was I knew not. For a
moment I paused to think what I should do, not for more, for my
pursuers were drawing closer. Then my mind was made up. I slipped down
the bank and took to the water. I struck out straight ahead so as to
gain the current by clearing the backwater of the island, for such I
presume it was, when I had passed into the stream. I waited till a
cloud came driving across the moon and leaving all in darkness. Then I
took off my hat and laid it softly on the water floating with the
stream, and a second after dived to the right and struck out under
water with all my might. I was, I suppose, half a minute under water,
and when I rose came up as softly as I could, and turning, looked back. There went my light brown hat floating merrily away. Close behind it
came a rickety old boat, driven furiously by a pair of oars. The moon
was still partly obscured by the drifting clouds, but in the partial
light I could see a man in the bows holding aloft ready to strike what
appeared to me to be that same dreadful pole-axe which I had before
escaped. As I looked the boat drew closer, closer, and the man struck
savagely. The hat disappeared. The man fell forward, almost out of the
boat. His comrades dragged him in but without the axe, and then as I
turned with all my energies bent on reaching the further bank, I heard
the fierce whirr of the muttered “Sacre!” which marked the anger of my
baffled pursuers. That was the first sound I had heard from human lips during all this
dreadful chase, and full as it was of menace and danger to me it was a
welcome sound for it broke that awful silence which shrouded and
appalled me. It was as though an overt sign that my opponents were men
and not ghosts, and that with them I had, at least, the chance of a
man, though but one against many. But now that the spell of silence was broken the sounds came thick and
fast. From boat to shore and back from shore to boat came quick
question and answer, all in the fiercest whispers. I looked back—a
fatal thing to do—for in the instant someone caught sight of my face,
which showed white on the dark water, and shouted. Hands pointed to me,
and in a moment or two the boat was under weigh, and following hard
after me. I had but a little way to go, but quicker and quicker came
the boat after me. A few more strokes and I would be on the shore, but
I felt the oncoming of the boat, and expected each second to feel the
crash of an oar or other weapon on my head. Had I not seen that
dreadful axe disappear in the water I do not think that I could have
won the shore. I heard the muttered curses of those not rowing and the
laboured breath of the rowers. With one supreme effort for life or
liberty I touched the bank and sprang up it. There was not a single
second to spare, for hard behind me the boat grounded and several dark
forms sprang after me. I gained the top of the dyke, and keeping to the
left ran on again. The boat put off and followed down the stream. Seeing this I feared danger in this direction, and quickly turning, ran
down the dyke on the other side, and after passing a short stretch of
marshy ground gained a wild, open flat country and sped on. Still behind me came on my relentless pursuers. Far away, below me, I
saw the same dark mass as before, but now grown closer and greater. My
heart gave a great thrill of delight, for I knew that it must be the
fortress of Bicêtre, and with new courage I ran on. I had heard that
between each and all of the protecting forts of Paris there are
strategic ways, deep sunk roads where soldiers marching should be
sheltered from an enemy.