NoClassDefFoundError with jdbc applet

I created an applet using Eclipse:

package gui;
public class MyApplet extends JApplet {

This applet needs two external banks: proj.jar and firebirdsql-full.jar (jdbc)

So I created HTML, like this, in the same folder as the banks:

<APPLET CODE="gui.MyApplet.class" width="650" height="650" ARCHIVE="proj.jar,myApplet.jar,firebirdsql-full.jar">
    <a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp">Java</a>
</APPLET>

I also tried changing the order of jar in the attribute ARCHIVE.

However, I keep getting the following error (in the java console):

Exception in thread "thread applet-gui.MyApplet.class-2" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
    at db.DAO.getDBConnection(DAO.java:45)
    at db.MyDAO.initPreparedStatements(MyDAO.java:37)
    at db.MyDAO.<init>(MyDAO.java:33)
    at db.MyDAO.getInstance(MyDAO.java:27)
    at model.Controller.<init>(Controller.java:27)
    at gui.MyApplet.getJTabbedPane(MyApplet.java:81)
    at gui.MyApplet.getJContentPane(MyApplet.java:69)
    at gui.MyApplet.init(MyApplet.java:52)
    at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Did I miss something?

Edit:

Somehow, while debugging this, I also got another stack:

Exception in thread "thread applet-gui.MyApplet.class-1" 
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
    at db.DAO.getDBConnection(DAO.java:45)
    at db.MyDAO.initPreparedStatements(MyDAO.java:37)
    at db.MyDAO.<init>(MyDAO.java:33)
    at db.MyDAO.getInstance(MyDAO.java:27)
    at model.Controller.<init>(Controller.java:27)
    at gui.MyApplet.getJTabbedPane(MyApplet.java:81)
    at gui.MyApplet.getJContentPane(MyApplet.java:69)
    at gui.MyApplet.init(MyApplet.java:52)
    at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.util.PropertyPermission FBLog4j read)
    at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPropertyAccess(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.System.getProperty(Unknown Source)
    at org.firebirdsql.logging.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:36)
    at org.firebirdsql.logging.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:72)
    at org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver.<clinit>(FBDriver.java:63)
    ... 12 more