reasoned Casanova.

"You had better lower me, anyhow," said Balbi, without hesitation; for
no doubt he was very tired of that slippery roof, on which a single
false step might have sent him to his account. "Once I am inside you can
consider ways of following me."

That cold-blooded expression of the fellow's egoism put Casanova in
a rage for the second time since they had left their prison. But, as
before, he conquered it, and without uttering a word he proceeded to
unfasten the coil of rope. Making one end of it secure under Balbi's
arms, he bade the monk lie prone upon the roof, his feet pointing
downwards, and then, paying out rope, he lowered him to the dormer. He
then bade him get through the window as far as the level of his waist,
and wait thus, hanging over and supporting himself upon the sill. When
he had obeyed, Casanova followed, sliding carefully down to the roof of
the dormer. Planting himself firmly, and taking the rope once more, he
bade Balbi to let himself go without fear, and so lowered him to the
floor--a height from the window, as it proved, of some fifty feet. This
extinguished all Casanova's hopes of being able to follow by allowing
himself to drop from the sill. He was dismayed. But the monk, happy to
find himself at last off that accursed roof, and out of all danger of
breaking his neck, called foolishly to Casanova to throw him the rope so
that he might take care of it.

"As may be imagined," says Casanova, "I was careful not to take this
idiotic advice."

Not knowing now what was to become of him unless he could discover some
other means than those at his command, he climbed back again to the
summit of the roof, and started off desperately upon another voyage of
discovery. This time he succeeded better than before. He found about a
cupola a terrace which he had not earlier noticed, and on this terrace
a hod of plaster, a trowel, and a ladder some seventy feet long. He
saw his difficulties solved. He passed an end of rope about one of the
rungs, laid the ladder flat along the slope of the roof, and then, still
astride of the apex, he worked his way back, dragging the ladder with
him, until he was once more on a level with the dormer.

But now the difficulty was how to get the ladder through the window,
and he had cause to repent having so hastily deprived himself of his
companion's assistance. He had got the ladder into position, and lowered
it until one of its ends rested upon the dormer,