spending another night in that room of murder.
I was patient, too, patient with the cunning of a maniac.

The dagger made my chisel; my sword, wrapped in a cloth to muffle the
strokes, furnished me a maul. Full half the day was before me. The
rough paving stones below held out the hope of escape or death. How to
reach the street after the bars were removed, I did not suffer myself
to consider. I should go mad if I lay idle. I leaned as far out the
window as the grating would allow, and observed a guard standing in
plain view at the corner. It was very evident the Provost of Paris had
taken possession of the house, and there was little use in my trying to
make a way out the door.

I bitterly resented the intrusion of every passenger along the street,
and scanned with hatred the few who came. For while they remained in
hearing I was obliged to cease my chipping at the masonry and leaden
cement which held my freedom. I bided my time, and, long before the
shadow of the house across the way had climbed to the window where I
worked, had the gratification of finding a bar give way in my hands,
and found I could take it out. Removing this bar, it gave me a
powerful leverage on the others, and by exerting all my strength,
succeeded in bending the two on either side to such a degree I could
force my body between.

While thus engaged, my eyes were ever fixed anxiously upon the street,
in the hope that Jerome might pursue his plan of watching the house,
and I would catch sight of him. The passers-by were few indeed, but
somehow it struck me that the same persons passed several times, and in
something like regular order. A patrol of Jerome's? My heart bounded
at the thought. I watched more carefully; yes, it was true. I counted
five different persons; some walked fast, some walked slow, but all
looked about them and inspected the house with more than an ordinary
glance. And, no, I was not mistaken, that simple-looking countryman
yonder was Jerome.

I was quite at a loss how to attract his attention; I feared to yell,
lest that give notice to the sentry. I took a spur from my heel and
dropped it directly in front of him; I knew he would recognize it, for
it was his own, loaned to me for my more fashionable appearance. He
heard the jingle and glanced around. His hat blew off as if by
accident and fell near the spur. In stooping to pick it up, the spur
also found its way into his hand beneath the hat. He was tru