eak and giddy, I rose
with pain and difficulty to my feet.

The chamber, or rather cell, in which I stood was about eight feet
square, and of a height very disproportioned to its other dimensions;
its altitude from the floor to the ceiling being not less than twelve or
fourteen feet. A narrow slit placed high in the wall admitted a scanty
light, but sufficient to assure me that my prison contained nothing to
render the sojourn of its tenant a whit less comfortless than my worst
enemy could have wished.

My first impulse was naturally to examine the security of the door, the
loop-hole which I have mentioned being too high and too narrow to afford
a chance of escape. I listened attentively to ascertain if possible
whether or not a guard had been placed upon the outside.

Not a sound was to be heard. I now placed my shoulder to the door, and
sought with all my combined strength and weight to force it open. It,
however, resisted all my efforts, and thus baffled in my appeal to mere
animal power, exhausted and disheartened, I threw myself on the ground.

It was not in my nature, however, long to submit to the apathy of
despair, and in a few minutes I was on my feet again.

With patient scrutiny I endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the
fastenings which secured the door.

The planks, fortunately, having been nailed together fresh, had shrunk
considerably, so as to leave wide chinks between each and its neighbour.

By means of these apertures I saw that my dungeon was secured, not by a
lock, as I had feared, but by a strong wooden bar, running horizontally
across the door, about midway upon the outside.

'Now,' thought I, 'if I can but slip my fingers through the opening of
the planks, I can easily remove the bar, and then----'

My attempts, however, were all frustrated by the manner in which my
hands were fastened together, each embarrassing the other, and rendering
my efforts so hopelessly clumsy, that I was obliged to give them over in
despair.

I turned with a sigh from my last hope, and began to pace my narrow
prison floor, when my eye suddenly encountered an old rusty nail or
holdfast sticking in the wall.

All the gold of Plutus would not have been so welcome as that rusty
piece of iron.

I instantly wrung it from the wall, and inserting the point between the
planks of the door into the bolt, and working it backwards and forwards,
I had at length the unspeakable satisfaction to perceive that the beam
w