ad forgotten and left it in his room or had
lost it in his fall; anyhow, he had not the key.

But summoning his recollections, he quite gave up the first idea for
the second, which was the only likely one: again he crossed the court,
looking for the place where the key might have fallen, by the aid of the
wall round a tank on which he had laid his hand when he got up; but
the object of search was so small and the night so dark that there was
little chance of getting any result; still Caesar sought for it, for
in this key was his last hope: suddenly a door was opened, and a night
watch appeared, preceded by two torches. Caesar far the moment thought
he was lost, but remembering the tank behind him, he dropped into
it, and with nothing but his head above water anxiously watched the
movements of the soldiers, as they advanced beside him, passed only a
few feet away, crossed the court, and then disappeared by an opposite
door. But short as their luminous apparition had been, it had lighted
up the ground, and Caesar by the glare of the torches had caught the
glitter of the long-sought key, and as soon as the door was shut behind
the men, was again master of his liberty.

Half-way between the castle and the village two cavaliers and a led
horse were waiting for him: the two men were Michelotto and the Count of
Benevento. Caesar sprang upon the riderless horse, pressed with fervour
the hand of the count and the sbirro; then all three galloped to the
frontier of Navarre, where they arrived three days later, and were
honourably received by the king, Jean d'Albret, the brother of Caesar's
wife.

From Navarre he thought to pass into France, and from France to make
an attempt upon Italy, with the aid of Louis XII; but during Caesar's
detention in the castle of Medina del Campo, Louis had made peace with
the King of Spain; and when he heard of Caesar's flight; instead of
helping him, as there was some reason to expect he would, since he was a
relative by marriage, he took away the duchy of Valentinois and also
his pension. Still, Caesar had nearly 200,000 ducats in the charge of
bankers at Genoa; he wrote asking for this sum, with which he hoped to
levy troops in Spain and in Navarre, and make an attempt upon Pisa: 500
men, 200,000 ducats, his name and his word were more than enough to save
him from despair.

The bankers denied the deposit.

Caesar was at the mercy of his brother-in-law.

One of the vassals of the King of Nav