er the bondage of
the Turks, and being weary thereof, pondered continually, day and night,
how he might escape, never ceasing to pray God to further his
enterprise, if it should be to His glory.

Not far from the road, at one side of the city, there was a certain
victualling-house, which one Peter Unticare had hired, paying a fee to
the keeper of the prison. This Peter Unticare was a Spaniard, and also a
Christian, and had been a prisoner about thirty years, never contriving
any means to escape, but keeping himself quiet without being suspected
of conspiracy. But on the coming of John Foxe they disclosed their minds
to each other about their loss of liberty; and to this Unticare John
Foxe confided a plan for regaining their freedom, which plan the three
Englishmen continually brooded over, till they resolved to acquaint five
more prisoners with their secret. This being done, they arranged in
three more days to make their attempt at escape. Whereupon John Foxe,
and Peter Unticare, and the other six arranged to meet in the prison on
the last day of December, and there they told the rest of the prisoners
what their intention was, and how they hoped to bring it to pass. And
having, without much ado, persuaded all to agree, John Foxe gave them a
kind of files, which he had hoarded together by means of Peter Unticare,
charging them every man to be free of his fetters by eight o'clock on
the following night.

The next night John Foxe and his six companions, all having met at the
house of Peter Unticare, spent the evening mirthfully for fear of
rousing suspicion, till it was time for them to put their scheme into
execution. Then they sent Peter Unticare to the master of the road, in
the name of one of the masters of the city, with whom he was well
acquainted, and at the mention of whose name he was likely to come at
once, desiring him to meet him there, and promising to bring him back
again.

The keeper agreed to go with Unticare, telling the warders not to bar
the gate, for he would come again with all speed. In the meantime the
other seven had provided themselves with all the weapons they could find
in the house, and John Foxe took a rusty old sword without a hilt, which
he managed to make serve by bending the hand end of the sword instead of
a hilt.

Now the keeper being come to the house, and seeing no light nor hearing
any noise, straightway suspected the plot, and was turning back. But
John Foxe, standing behind the