ased my
physical powers, was the profaner oracle of my beloved Ariosto:--

"Between the end of October and the beginning of November."

If a great misfortune sometimes makes a small mind devout, it is
almost impossible that superstition should not have some share in the
matter. The sound of the clock seemed to me a spoken charm which bade
me act and promised me success. Lying flat on the roof with my head
over the edge, I pushed my bar in above the frame which held the
grating, determined to dislodge it bodily. In a quarter of an hour I
had succeeded; the grating was in my hands unbroken, and having laid
it by the side of the dormer I had no difficulty in breaking in the
window, though the blood was flowing from a wound I had made in my
left hand.

By the help of my bar I got back to the ridge of the roof in the same
way as before, and made my way back to where I had left my companion.
I found him desperate and raging; he abused me foully for having left
him there so long. He declared he was only waiting for seven to strike
to go back to prison.

"What did you think had become of me?"

"I thought you had fallen down some roof or wall."

"And you have no better way of expressing your joy at my return than
by abusing me?"

"What have you been doing all this time?"

"Come with me and you will see."

Having gathered up my bundles, I made my way back to the window. When
we were just over it I explained to Balbi exactly what I had done, and
consulted him as to how we were to get into the loft through the
window. The thing was quite easy for one of us; the other could let
him down. But I did not see how the second man was to follow him, as
there was no way of fixing the rope above the window. By going in and
letting myself drop I might break my legs and arms, for I did not know
the height of the window above the floor. To this wise argument,
spoken with perfect friendliness, the brute replied in these words:--

"Let me down, at any rate, and when I am in there you will have plenty
of time to find out how you can follow me."

I confess that in my first impulse of indignation I was ready to stab
him with my crowbar. A good genius saved me from doing so, and I did
not even utter one word of reproach for his selfishness and baseness.
On the contrary, I at once unrolled my bundle of rope, and fastening
it firmly under his arm-pits I made him lie flat on his face, his feet
outwards, and then let him down on to the