sily
and without the slightest danger of discovery.

He caught eagerly at the idea, and assured me that two or three of the
iron bars which guarded the window were quite rotten at the bottom, and
could be sawn through in an hour. The day-time would be safest, and he
would undertake to be near, to cover any sound which might be made, and
give warning of any danger.

"Gettin' out o' the cell is as easy as pie, sir," said Hinge. "That's
all right. But gettin him out o' fortress--that's another pair o' shoes
altogether!"

I thought hard for perhaps ten minutes, and then I fancied I saw my way.
Half a dozen questions cleared it. The general was away in Vienna. The
time of his return was uncertain. There were half a dozen horses under
Hinge's charge. It would surprise nobody if a message came from the
general ordering Hinge to meet him at any hour with two led horses. If
he knew when that hour would come he could have the prisoner ready in
uniform, and they could ride out together. But to do this we should need
a written order from the general, which would have to pass the officer
on duty. That order once being passed and sent on to him, Hinge would be
answerable for the rest.

This threw a dreadful difficulty in the way, but the groom was ready
with a partial help. He had received a similar order which had been
countermanded, and therefore never surrendered, as it would have been if
he had passed the gates with it. He thought he knew its whereabouts, and
he would look for it.

In effect, he found it, and found means to send it on to me. It was
scrawled in pencil from a posting place on the road to Vienna, distant
from Itzia four-and-twenty miles English, or thereabouts. I pored over
this document in my own room, and made many heart-breaking attempts to
imitate it. They were absolute failures, one and all. I had no faculty
in that direction, and my own hand stared at me from the written
page the more plainly and uncompromisingly for every effort I made to
disguise it. Apart from the utter vileness of the imitation, I did not
even clearly understand the words employed, and for aught I knew might
be giving an order which, if put into execution, would be useless for my
purpose.

I was compelled, unwillingly, to appeal to Brunow. He made light of
the business, and in less than an hour he brought me an imitation which
looked completely deceptive. He had been able, he told me, to trace the
greater part of the order on the w