was peril to life in every step of this dangerous exploit, there
was, in the event of success, a meeting once more with Marietta--a
meeting never to part again. Whatever the reasons for having deserted
him he was determined to overbear. Some one must have calumniated him:
he would meet the slander. Marietta herself would do him justice; he
would soon show her that the passing vision of ambition had no hold upon
his heart, that he only cared for her, wished for nothing beyond their
own wayward life. As he thus reasoned, he tore his mantle into long
strips, which he twisted and knotted together, testing its strength till
assured that it would bear his weight. He then fastened one end to
the window-bars, and grasping the cord in both hands, he prepared to
descend. Could he but gain the pediment in this wise, the rest of the
descent would not be difficult.

With one fervent prayer to Her whose protection he had learned to
implore from very infancy, he glided softly from the window-sill and
began the descent. For a second or two did he grasp the stone ledge with
both hands, as if fearing to loose his hold, but at length, freeing one
hand and then the other, he gave himself up to the cord. Scarcely had
his full weight straightened the rope than the frail texture began to
give way; a low sound, as of the fibres tearing, met his ear, and just
as his feet touched the pediment the rope snapped in two, and the shock
throwing him off his balance, he swayed forward. One inch more and his
fate was certain; but his body recovered its equipoise, and he came
back to the wall, where he stood motionless, and almost paralysed with
terror. The ledge on which he stood, something less than two feet in
width, was slightly sloped from the wall, and about forty feet from
the ground. To crouch down upon this now and reach the column which
supported it" was his next task, nor was it till after a long struggle
with himself that he could once again peril life by such an attempt.

By immense caution he succeeded in so bending down that he at last
gained a sitting position on the ledge, and then, with his face to
the wall, he glided over the pediment and grasped one of the columns.
Slipping along this, he arrived at the window-sill, from which the drop
to the ground was all that now remained. Strange was it that this latter
and easier part of all the danger affrighted him more than all he had
gone through. It was as if his overtasked courage was exha