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About three weeks after my attempt to escape, the good Gelfhardt first came to stand sentinel over me; and the sentinel they had so carefully set was indeed the only hope I could have of escape; for help must be had from without, or this was impossible.
Gelfhardt scarcely had taken his post before we had free opportunity of conversing together; for, when I stood with one foot on my bedstead, I could reach the aperture through which light was admitted. Gelfhardt described the situation of my dungeon, and our first plan was to break under the foundation which he had seen laid, and which he affirmed to be only two feet deep.
I procured wire from Gelfhardt, and tried how well I could imitate the inner grating: finding I succeeded tolerably, I cut the real grating totally away, and substituted an artificial one of my own fabricating, by which I obtained a free communication with the outside, additional fresh air, together with all necessary implements, tinder, and candles.
The first thing necessary was to free myself from my fetters. To accomplish this, Gelfhardt supplied me with two small files, and by the aid of these, this labour, though great, was effected. The cap, or staple, of the foot ring was made so wide that I could draw it forward a quarter of an inch.
The officer of the town-guard, and the town-major again entered my dungeon to fetch a lanthorn they had forgotten, and the officer at going out, told me in a whisper, "One of your associates has just hanged himself." It was impossible to imagine my terror or sensations; I believed it could be only my kind, my honest Gelfhardt.
My greatest aid was in the wax candles, and light I had procured; but as Gelfhardt stood sentinel only once a fortnight, my work was much delayed; the sentinels were forbidden to speak to me under pain of death: and I was too fearful of being betrayed to dare to seek new assistance.
I returned the written paper to Gelfhardt by the same means it had been received, gave him my instructions, and he sent his wife with it to Gummern, by whom it was safely put in the post. My hopes daily rose, and as often as Gelfhardt mounted guard, so often did we continue our projects.
The 15th of August came, but it was some days before Gelfhardt was again on guard; and oh! how did my heart palpitate when he came and exclaimed, "All is right! we have succeeded." He returned in the evening, and we began to consider by what means he could convey the money to me.
Nothing was wanting but money to buy a boat, and crossing the Elbe with Gelfhardt, to take refuge in Saxony. By Gelfhardt's means I became acquainted with a kind-hearted girl, a Jewess, and a native of Dessau, Esther Heymannin by name, and whose father had been ten years in prison.
I could not, with my hands chained to an iron bar, reach the aperture of the window that admitted air besides that it was too small. It was therefore agreed that Gelfhardt should, on the next guard, perform the office of cleaning my dungeon, and that he then should convey the money to me in the water-jug. This luckily was done.
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