"Well, I am about to go to sleep that I may be stronger and calmer tomorrow. I seal up this manuscript, which I am anxious to carry away. By means of Gottlieb I have procured a new supply of paper, pencil, and light, which I will hide away, that other prisoners may experience as much pleasure from them as I have."
Here Consuelo's journal finished. We will now resume the story of her adventures. It is needful to inform the reader that Karl had not boasted, without reason, that he was aided and employed by powerful persons. The invisible persons who toiled for the deliverance of our heroine, had been profuse in their expenditures of gold. Many turnkeys, eight or ten veterans, and even an officer, had been enlisted to stand aside--to see nothing--and to look no farther for the fugitives than mere form required. On the evening fixed for the escape, Karl had supped with Swartz, and pretending to be drunk, had asked them to drink with him. Mother Swartz was as fond of strong liquor as most cooks are. Her husband had no aversion to brandy, when other people paid for it. A narcotic drug stealthily introduced into their libations, assisted the effect of the strong brew. The good couple got to bed, not without trouble, and snored so loudly, that Gottlieb, who attributed everything to supernatural influences, thought them enchanted when he attempted to take possession of the keys. Karl had returned to the bastion, where he was a sentinel, and Consuelo went with Gottlieb to that place and ascended the rope ladder the deserter threw her. Gottlieb, who, in spite of every remonstrance, insisted on escaping with them, became a great difficulty in the way. He who in his somnambulism passed like a cat over the roofs, could not now walk over three feet of ground. Sustained by the conviction that he was assisted by an envoy of heaven, he was afraid of nothing, and had Karl said so, would have thrown himself from the top of the parapet. His blind confidence added to the dangers of their situation. He climbed at hazard, scorning to see or make any calculation. After having made Consuelo shudder twenty times, and twenty times she thought him lost, he reached the platform of the bastion, and thence our three fugitives passed through the corridors of that part of the citadel in which the officers, initiated in their plot, were posted. They advanced without any obstacle, and all at once found themselves _vis-à-vis_ with the adjutant Mayer, _alias_ the ex-recruiter. Consuelo thought all was lost. Karl, however, kept her from running away. "Do not be afraid, signora," said he; "we have bought him over!"