The Times publishes an extraordinary story of an escape of
six Communists from the fortress of Port Louis, between Brest and La Rochelle. The writer says that he and five companions discovered a way from their dormitory to a cellar under it, and determined to make a road from the cellar to the sea. They sunk a shaft in the earth 13 feet deep, and excavated a tunnel 48 feet, till they reached the wall of the rampart. All this had been done with nails torn out of the woodwork, but when the rampart wall was reached the nails were useless. It is constructed of enormous blocks of granite, joined by Roman cement, and is 16 feet thick. The prisoners, how- ever, tore a bar out of a window, and by indescribable labour excavated a hole through which they could creep out on to the racks, whence they escaped to England. The Times heads the story, " An Historical Parallel to Monte Cristo ;" but things quite as wonderful have been done by prisoners, with their incredible patience, which finds in work a relief from the monotony of the days. If the tale is a mere invention, there is a very good realistic novel-writer among us, and unknown. The Communist says all the prisoners knew of the attempt and never betrayed him, and perhaps the warders were not all quite so unsympathetic as they appeared.
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