No immediate relief is possible. Perhaps the colliery is only a vast tomb, for out of a hundred and thirty-nine men who entered the mine in the morning, only twenty-nine have escaped. A hundred and ten are scattered in the interior of the mine, some at one point and some at another, at different depths and in varying conditions. How are they to be found? and is it certain that even one of them is living? A dike was made at the surface to keep out the water, and the engineers consulted the plan of the mine, in order to devise the surest and readiest means of relief. While this was being done, a young boy, who had previously been employed in the mine, entered one of the galleries, and, after knocking for some time on the walls, thought he could distinguish sounds answering to his own. He called his comrades, and repeated the experiment with the same result. The engineers were informed, and everybody hastened to the spot. M. Parsan, of the Imperial School of Mines, had arrived from Alais, to direct the work of salvage. He ordered everybody to maintain the most perfect silence, and then he made a signal by knocking with a pick at regular intervals of time. He has written an exciting account of these operations. “With ears resting on the coal,” he says, “and holding our breath, we soon heard, with profound emotion, extremely faint, but distinct and timed blows,—in fact, the miners’ signal,—which could not be the repetition of our own, because we had only knocked at equal intervals.” Between the prisoners and their rescuers there was a solid wall more than sixty feet thick, which must be cut through; but the greater part of the miners were shut up in the mine. But volunteers were ready from the other mines, and soon the blows of the pick carried hope to the hearts of the prisoners. The work began at six o’clock on the evening of the 12th, at five differents points in the gallery where the sounds were heard. [Sidenote: PUSHING THE WORK OF RESCUE.] The five drift-ways were made towards the place where the sufferers were enclosed. One pickman at a time worked in each heading, and he was relieved at the moment when he began to feel wearied. He worked with all his energy, and the coal which he removed was carried away in baskets as fast as it was detached. The labor proved more difficult in consequence of a want of air, and it became necessary to put up ventilators. Sometimes the lamps would only burn in front of the air-pipe. At two o’clock on the morning of the 14th, the voices of the imprisoned colliers could be heard. “There are three of us,” they said; and they gave their names. The coal increased in hardness, and the heat became unbearable. All that day and the next the best pickmen went to the front, hewing the coal with all their strength, the prisoners all the while making themselves heard. Finally, at midnight of the 15th, one of the drift-ways was completed, and the three men were reached.