g, I found, after some time, that it was attached to
something heavy, on the outside of the casement. Therefore I set about
drawing in string from above, and more string, and more, and then
appeared a knot and a splice, and the end of a thick rope. So I drew and
drew, till it stopped, and I could see a stout bar across the stanchions
of the casement. Thereon I ceased drawing, and opening the little
wallet, I found two files, one very fine, the other of sturdier fashion.

Verily then I blessed the violer woman, who at great peril of her own
life, and by such witty device as doubtless Madame St. Catherine put into
her heart, had sent the jackanapes up from below, and put me in the way
of safety. I wasted no time, but began filing, not at the thick circlet
on my wrist, but at a link of the chain whereto it was made fast. And
such was the temper of the file, that soon I got the stouter weapon into
the cut, and snapped the link; and so with the others, working long
hours, and often looking fearfully for the first glimmer of dawn. This
had not come in, when I was now free of bonds, but there was yet the
casement to be scaled. With all my strength I dragged and jerked at the
rope, whereby I meant to climb, lest the stanchions should be rusted
through, and unable to bear my weight, but they stood the strain bravely.
Then I cast off my woman's kirtle, and took from my pouch the
arrow-point, and therewith scratched hastily on the plastered wall, in
great letters: "Norman Leslie of Pitcullo leaves his malison on the
English."

Next I bound the jackanapes within the bosom of my doublet, with a piece
of the cord whereto the rope had been knotted, for I could not leave the
little beast to die the death of a traitor, and bring suspicion,
moreover, on the poor violer woman. Then, commanding myself to the
Saints, and especially thanking Madame St. Catherine, I began to climb,
hauling myself up by the rope, whereon I had made knots to this end; nor
was the climbing more difficult than to scale a branchless beech trunk
for a bird's nest, which, like other boys, I had often done. So behold
me, at last, with my legs hanging in free air, seated on the sill of the
casement. Happily, of the three iron stanchions, though together they
bore my weight, one was loose in the lower socket, for lack of lead, and
this one I displaced easily enough, and so passed through. Then I put
the wooden bar at the rope's end, within the room, behind t