At midnight; this dreary night, eight prisoners, thinking to take advantage of the night to make their escape, as no sentries were in sight, formed a ladder, and with it ascended and descended the first wall directly against the guard-house, and in ascending the second, the soldiers in the guard-house discovered them, and apprehended seven; the eighth got quite over the wall, and made his escape. These seven were taken to the guard-house and there put into the black-hole, which is the place for prisoners that attempt to make their escape: the weather extremely cold, was likely to prove their last. But the fifth day they were removed to the cachot, and remained on two-thirds allowance, sleeping on straw for ten days. The prisoners, soldiers, and officers, were now furnished with salt provisions, which are always kept at the prison against any emergency of this kind. Every man upon the mountain was now much alarmed, as only ten days’ stock of provision was in reserve on the mountain, and there were now upwards of nine thousand French and American prisoners, besides fifteen hundred soldiers and officers, doctors, and a numerous train of turnkeys. LINES, BY AN AMERICAN PRISONER. On the 14th day of January, This night ordained by Fate, For eight poor Yankee sailors To try for their escape. Seven of them detected were, And in the guard-house lay; The eighth resolved on liberty, By chance he got away. The night, being dark and dreary, And he had far to go, So this poor Yankee sailor Got hobbled in the snow. Discovered by his enemies, That forced him back again, Within the walls of Dartmoor, Oppressed with cold and pain. Shortland, bred a seaman, In Neptune’s school was taught; His heart compressed with pity, Methinks I read his thought-- Saying, go into the guard-house, And set those eight men free, I’ll show the sons of liberty There’s honor still in me. The back house was at some distance, and the snow drifted in from ten to fifteen feet deep; this formed an impassable barrier; but Capt. Shortland, at the head of two hundred French prisoners, all the horse of the garrison, and clerks, turnkeys, &c., after working one whole day, shovelled a passage sufficient for wagons to pass. For should the weather continue as cold as it then was, all communication between that place and Plymouth, whence the provisions were brought, being totally stopped by the great depth of snow, they were in danger of starving. On the twenty-fifth the weather began to moderate and the snow began to dissolve.