s glass at once,
and Caesar began his story, but he had hardly told a third of it, when in
spite of its exciting adventures, the eyes of his guest closed as if by
magic, and his head fell on the table in a deep sleep.

At the end of half-an-hour, the servants, not hearing any noise, entered
the room, and found the two boon companions, one on the table and the
other under it. There was nothing very unusual about such an event to
excite their suspicions, so they contented themselves with carrying Don
Manuel to his chamber and laying Caesar on his bed; they then locked the
door with great care, leaving the prisoner alone.

[Illustration]

For a minute or two longer Caesar lay still, apparently plunged in a
profound slumber, but when the sound of footsteps had completely died
away, he softly raised his head, opened his eyes, and moved towards the
door, rather slowly it is true, but without seeming to feel any
ill-effects from his accident on the previous day. He stood still for a
few seconds with his ear at the keyhole, then, raising himself, with a
strange expression of triumph on his face, he passed his hand over his
forehead, and, for the first time since the guards had left the room,
breathed freely.

But there was no time to be lost, and without a moment's delay he
fastened the door from the inside as securely as it was fastened
without. He next extinguished his lamp, threw open his window, and
finished cutting through the bar. This done, he took off the bandages
tied round his leg, tore down the curtains, both of his window and his
bed, and made them into strips, adding to them sheets, table cloths,
napkins, and whatever else he could lay hands on. At last he had a rope
between fifty and sixty feet long, which he secured firmly at one end to
the bar next to the one that he had sawn away, and mounting on the
window-ledge, he began the most dangerous part of his expedition in
trusting himself to this frail support. Happily, Caesar was as strong as
he was agile, and slid down the whole length of the cord without
accident; but when he had reached the very end, in vain he tried to
touch the earth with his feet. The rope was too short.

Caesar's position was terrible. The darkness of the night preventing his
knowing how far he might be above the ground, and his exertions had so
fatigued him that he could not have gone back even had he wished. There
was no help for it, and, after muttering a short prayer, he let go the