Again I wept tears of gratitude.

This was on Sunday, the day after Christmas, and I settled to make the attempt on the Wednesday afternoon.
'Now, Cornelis, when the lieutenant took us to see the British prisoners, you remember, he told us many things about the ways of prisons.

He told us how they loved to catch a man in the act of escape, so that they could use him harshly with a clear conscience.

I thought of that, and calculated that now my friends would have told everything to the commandant, and that they would be waiting to bottle me on the Wednesday.

Till then I reckoned I would be slackly guarded, for they would look on me as safe in the net ...
'So I went out of the window next day.