With a dreadful fascination I watched the turnkey chalk it on the door and the governor fold up his paper and stick it in his belt.

Then as they turned to the door despair seized me.

But before they could leave, a sudden clamour at the far end of the room detained them.

One of the condemned, driven mad by the announcement of his doom, had sprung to the window and was tearing at the bars with such superhuman force that they promised at any moment to yield.
The jailer and his men made a dash to seize him, and in that moment I slipped out of the half-closed door, stopping only to wipe out my name with my cap as I passed, and crept into the courtyard.
No one could have seen my departure, for though I lay hid an hour under the shadow of the wall, and even saw the jailer and his men cross the court, there was no hue and cry or alarm of an escape.

Nor, I surmise, did any one even of my fellow-prisoners, distracted as they were by their own concerns and the excitement of the madman's attempt, miss me.
My only hope now lay in patience and prudence.