The alarm would be given, for the list of names was called over before lock-up, and a search would of course be made.

Still, if he could find a good place for concealment, it might succeed, since the search after dark would not be so close and minute as that which would be made next morning.

The only disadvantage would be that the sentries would be specially on the alert, as, unless the fugitive had succeeded in some way in passing out of the gates in disguise, he must still be within the walls, and might attempt to scale them through the night.

This certainty largely increased the danger, and Vincent went to bed that night without finally determining what had better be done.
The next morning, while walking in the grounds, he determined the place he would choose for his concealment if he adopted the plan he had thought of the evening before.

The lower rooms upon one side of the building were inhabited by the governor and officers of the prison, and if he were to spring through an open window unnoticed just as it became dusk, and hide himself in a cupboard or under a bed there, he would be safe for a time, as, however close the search might be in other parts of the building, it would be scarcely suspected, at any rate on the first alarm, that he had concealed himself in the officers' quarters.