Volume II Part 72 (2/2)

It was thus necessary forht line I soon foundthe sides I stretched rating, behind which was aof square panes of glass joined with thin strips of lead

I did not trouble , s a file, and I had onlyto lose courage, when an incident of the simplest and most natural kind came to my aid and fortified my resolution

Philosophic reader, if you will place yourself for a s which for fifteen er on the top of a roof, where the slightest step in a wrong direction would have cost me my life, if you consider the few hours atup at any moment, the candid confession I am about to make will not lower et that a erous position is in reality only half hiht, which, by a violent shock, drew me out of the state of perplexity I had fallen into The clock re was All Saints' Day--the day of my patron saint (at least if I had one)--and the prophecy of my confessor cathened me, both bodily and mentally, was the profane oracle of my beloved Ariosto: 'Fra il fin d'ottobre, a il capo di nove talison , and pushi+ng my pike into the sash which held it I resolved to take it out in a piece In a quarter of an hour I succeeded, and held the whole grate in lass , though woundingit as I had done before, I regained the ridge of the roof, and went back to the spot where I had left Balbi I found hi left hi for it to get light to return to the prison

”What did you think had becoht you must have fallen over”

”And you can find no better way than abuse to express the joy you ought to feel at seeingall this time?”

”Follow ain and made my way towards theAs soon as were opposite to it I told Balbi what I had done, and asked hi into the loft For one it was easy enough, for the other could lower him by the rope; but I could not discover how the second of us was to get down afterwards, as there was nothing to which the rope could be fastened If I let s, for I did not know the distance between theand the floor of the roo uttered in the friendliest possible tone, the brute replied thus:

”You let ot to the botto to follow nant ienius stayed my arm, and I uttered not a word in reproach of his base selfishness On the contrary, I straightway untied ly under the elbows, andhim lie flat down I lowered hiot there I told him to lower hi hiainst the sides of theAs soon as he had done so, I slid down the roof as before, and lying down on the dorrasp of the rope I told the o When he reached the floor of the loft he untied hi the rope back I found the fall was one of fifty feet-too dangerous a jump to be risked The monk who for two hours had been a prey to terror; seated in a position which I confess was not a very reassuring one, was not quite cool, and called out to me to throw him the ropes for him to take care of--a piece of advice youwhat to do next, and waiting for soe of the roof, and from there spied out a corner near a cupola; which I had not visited I went towards it and found a flat roof, with a largeclosed with two shutters At hand was a tubful of plaster, a trowel, and ladder which I thought long enough fored this troublesoet the end of the ladder (which elve fatho, and the difficulties I encountered made me sorry that I had deprived myself of the aid of thethe ladder and earlier the 100 fathoht have ed a 12 foot ladder up the steep roof, but not a longer

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I had set the ladder in such a way that one end touched the , and the other went below the gutter I next slid down to the roof of the , and drawing the ladder towards hth round, and then let it go again till it was parallel with theI then strove to get it in, but I could not insert it farther than the fifth round, for the end of the ladder being stopped by the inside roof of theno force on earth could have pushed it any further without breaking either the ladder or the ceiling There was nothing to be done but to lift it by the other end; it would then slip down by its oeight I ht, it is true, have placed the ladder across the , and have fastened the rope to it, in which ht have let myself down into the loft without any risk; but the ladder would have been left outside to sherence and the guards where to look for us and possibly to find us in the

I did not care to risk by a piece of ier, and to destroy all traces of our whereabouts the ladderhand, I resolved to go myself to the parapet to lift the ladder and attain the end I had in view I did so, but at such a hazard as had alo the ladder while I slackened the rope without any fear of its falling over, as it had caught to the parapet by the third rung

Then, my pike in my hand, I slid down beside the ladder to the parapet, which held up the points ofon my belly In this position I pushed the ladder forward, and was able to get it into theto the length of a foot, and that diht I now only had to push it in another two feet, as I was sure that I could get it in altogether by means of the rope from the roof of theTo iot on my knees, but the effort I had to use made me slip, and in an instant I was over the parapet as far as my chest, sustained by my elbows

I shudder still when I think of this awful moment, which cannot be conceived in all its horror My natural instinct ain the parapet, and--I had nearly saidcare not to let led upwards with e of the parapet Fortunately the ladder was safe, for with that unlucky effort which had nearly cost me so dearly I had pushed it inroin on the parapet, I saw that I had only to lift upand to put up first one knee and then the other to be absolutely out of danger; but I had not yet got to the end of ave me so severe a spasm that I became cramped and unable to use my limbs However, I did not loseby experience that keeping still is the best cure for the false cramp It was a dreadful ood fortune to get my two knees on to the parapet, and as soon as I had taken breath I cautiously hoisted the ladder and pushed it half-way through theI then tookup as I had done before I reached the here e aided th,the end of it I then threw into the loft the bundles and the fragments that I had broken off the , and I stepped down to the monk, elcomed me heartily and drew in the ladder Arlooed it to be about thirty paces long by twenty wide

At one end were folding-doors barred with iron This looked bad, but putting my hand to the latch in the middle it yielded to the pressure, and the door opened The first thing we did was to ainst a large table surrounded by stools and ar to the part where we had seen e opened the shutters of one of theht of the stars only shewed us: the cupolas and the depths beneath the , and I did not recognize our surroundings I shut theup, and we returned to the place where we had left our packages Quite exhausted I leta bundle of rope under my head a sweet sleep came to my, relief I abandoned myself to it without resistance, and indeed, I believe if death were to have been the result, I should have slept all the same, and I still remember how I enjoyed that sleep

It lasted for three and a half hours, and I akened by theme He told me that it had just struck five He said it was inconceivable to him how I could sleep in the situation ere in But that which was inconceivable to him was not so to me I had not fallen asleep on purpose, but had only yielded to the demands of exhausted nature, and, if I may say so, to the extre to wonder at, since I had neither eaten nor slept for two days, and the efforts I had made--efforts alht well have exhausted any man In hted to see the darkness disappearing, so that we should be able to proceed with lance around, I said to ht, therefore, be some easy exit from it” We addressed ourselves to the end opposite to the folding-doors, and in a narrow recess I thought I made out a doorway I felt it over and touched a lock, into which I thrust my pike, and opened it with three or four heaves We then found ourselves in a small room, and I discovered a key on a table, which I tried on a door opposite to us, which, however, proved to be unlocked I told thethe key we passed out and ca presses full of papers They were the state archives I caht of stone stairs, which I descended, then another, which I descended also, and found a glass door at the end, on opening which I entered a hall well known to me: ere in the ducal chancery I opened aand could have got down easily, but the result would have been that we should have been trapped in the maze of little courts around St Mark's Church I saw on a desk an iron instrument, of which I took possession; it had a rounded point and a wooden handle, being used by the clerks of the chancery to pierce parch the desk I saw the copy of a letter advising the Proveditore of Corfu of a grant of three thousand sequins for the restoration of the old fortress I searched for the sequins but they were not there God kno gladly I would have taken thehed the monk to scorn if he had accused ift froardedto the door of the chancery, I putim a hole in the door I took care to choose the side where the wood had fewest knots, and working with all speed I struck as hard and as cleaving strokes as I was able The monk, who helped me as well as he could with the punch I had taken fro clamour of my pike which er myself, but it had to be risked