We had taken the precaution of providing two long boot-hooks to stick in the wall, to make our rope fast to, in case we should find no other means of securing it. These proved of the greatest use in getting down the third rampart. In fact, had we not had them with us, we must have surrendered ourselves, for not one single means could we find of fastening the rope to anything, and to drop from a height of 30 feet might have been destruction. The boot-hooks served our purpose: we were at the bottom of the third wall; and all that we had now to do was to pass the outer sentinels, who were few in number, and rather slack in vigilance, perhaps from the supposed impossibility of any prisoner effecting an escape in this direction. We had, in fact, let ourselves down by this frail rope a total height of from about 180 to 200 feet.
At the bottom of the third rampart we remained in the _fosse_ or ditch; and we had to watch the turn of the sentinel that was pacing immediately before us. As soon as his back was fairly turned, we ascended the scarp of the ditch, and gently rolled ourselves down the slope or glacis. In a few minutes, with our hearts rebounding with joyous emotions, we were on the road to Strasbourg, on which we continued running as fast as we possibly could for nearly an hour. We then halted to put on our shoes, which we had hung round our necks as we rolled down the glacis, as we had found it more secure to descend the walls without shoes than with them, the feet being much more pliable.
We now turned round to take, as we hoped, a final view of the Mansion of Tears, the name that had been so long given to this detestable fortress by the unfortunate prisoners, many of whom had shed an abundance, or showers of them, within its horrid cells and dungeons. We spontaneously returned our thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance, and shook each other cordially by the hand, overwhelmed with exultation at our almost miraculous success. When we looked at the stupendous heights of the rock and fortress, it seemed as if a miracle alone could have enabled us to descend them, suspended by so slight and ill-made a cord as that which we had been able to construct out of our shirt-linen and a little cobbler’s twine.