d to
their attacks; for although my hopes of ultimate deliverance were now
sadly diminished, and in all likelihood starvation was to be my fate,
still this kind of death was preferable to being eaten up by rats. The
very thought of such a fate filled me with horror, and determined me to
do all in my power to save myself from so fearful a doom.

I was now very tired, and required rest. The box was large enough for
me to have slept within it, stretched at full length; but I thought I
could more easily defend myself against the encroachments of the rats in
my old quarters; and, taking up my knife and bundle, I crawled back
behind the butt.

My little chamber was now of much smaller dimensions, for in it I had
stowed the cloth taken from the box. In fact, there was just room
enough for my body and the bag of crumbs--so that it was more like a
nest than an apartment.

With the pieces of cloth piled in one end against the brandy-cask, I was
well defended in that quarter, and it only remained to close up the
other end as I had done before. This I accomplished; and then, after
eating my slender supper, and washing it down with copious libations, I
sought the repose, both of body and mind, of which I stood in such need.

CHAPTER FORTY SIX.

THE BALE OF LINEN.

My sleep was neither very sweet nor very sound. In addition to my
gloomy prospects, I was rendered uncomfortable by the hot atmosphere,
now closer than ever, in consequence of the stoppage of every aperture.
No current of air, that might otherwise have cooled me, was permitted to
reach my prison, and I might almost as well have been inside a heated
oven. I got a little sleep, however, and with that little I was under
the necessity of being satisfied.

When fairly awake again, I treated myself to a meal, which might be
called my breakfast; but it was certainly the lightest of all
breakfasts, and did not deserve the name. Of water I again drank
freely, for I was thirsty with the fever that was in my blood, and my
head ached as if it would split open.

All this did not deter me from returning to my work. If two boxes
contained broadcloth, it did not follow that all the cargo was of this
sort of merchandise, and I resolved to persevere. I had made up my mind
to try in a new direction--that is, to tunnel through the end of the
packing-case as I had done through its side--the end which was turned
towards the outside--for I knew that the other rested agains