Stories to remember - Chapter 9

 

THE TWO PRISONERS

After this first meeting the two prisoners made nightly visits to each other's cells, taking care to be back before the jailer came to bring their food. Dante learned that his fellow prisoner's name was the Abbe Faria. He was an Italian priest who had been a prisoner in the Chateau d'If since the year 1808, seven years longer than Dante.

He was a small man, aged not by years, but by the sorrow and misery in which he had lived. His hair was long and white and his face was marked by suffering. In spite of his white hair he had a long black beard which reached his waist. His eyes were dark and strong. He was dressed, like Dante, in torn and dirty rags.

Before his imprisonment Father Faria had been secretary to a Cardinal Spada in Rome. Soon after the Cardinal's death, he was arrested and accused of plotting against the state. That was why he was a prisoner in the Chateau d'If.

He had been placed among the mad prisoners in the dungeons because he was always talking about the ' great treasure' he possessed. He had even promised some of this treasure to the jailer if he would help him to escape from prison. But everyone knew that he had neither wealth nor possessions.

Father Faria was a very learned man. He spoke many languages and had a great knowledge of mathematics, science, medicine and literature. As well as making the tools which he used for tunneling, he had made pens and ink and paper. He made pens from fish bones and ink from soot, which he dissolved in a little wine which he managed to beg from his jailer. When he had no ink, he  even cut himself and used his blood to write with. He made paper from his shirts, specially treated with a liquid he had invented which made linen as smooth as parchment. With these materials he had written a book.

Besides all these things he had made needles and a knife from small bones, and an escape ladder from cotton unraveled from sheets.

'But where have you hidden all these things?' asked Dante.

'In an old fire place, behind the wall of my cell,' answered Faria. 'That is also where I found the soot for making my ink.'

He told Dante that he had hoped to use this ladder when his tunnel reached the outside of the fortress. He would lower it over walls or high rocks and could then escape by jumping into the sea. Then he would swim away.

But, alas! He was wrong. Instead of reaching the outside of the prison, his tunnel had led only to Dante's cell.