go and return, if
you make haste," said the Jew.

"Then let me go at once," urged the other.

"Not so," answered Bacri; "we must proceed wisely as well as with
caution.--Go, Angela," he said to the maiden, who entered the room at
that moment, "open the closet at the head of the terrace stair; you will
find a thin knotted rope hanging there,--fetch it hither."

In a few minutes Angela returned with the rope.

"Sit thee down, pretty one," said Bacri kindly, "while I give this youth
some directions. I will explain to you afterwards the cause of his
being sent away.--This line, Mariano, is all you need. It is long
enough to reach from the city walls to the ground. You will go towards
the tower to the west of Bab-Azoun gate. There is an iron spike on the
wall there, on which is fixed the head of your poor friend Castello.
Fasten the rope to the spike and lower yourself. The ground reached,
leave the rope hanging, it will serve for your ascent on returning; then
speed round the back of the town, and over the hills by Frais Vallon to
the house of the British consul, tell him of the urgent need there is
for his seeing the Dey and letting him know the danger which hovers over
his head, and then return as fast as possible. This rope you will find
suitable to its objects. An active young fellow like you can have no
difficulty in re-mounting the walls with the aid of these knots, and you
need not fear interruption if you exercise ordinary caution, for Turkish
soldiers, like the warriors of all nations, become arrant cowards when
supernatural fears assail them. Poor Castello's head will keep the
nearest sentinel as far off as is consistent with his duty. No doubt
they are well used to trunkless heads in this city, but there is a vast
difference between the sight of such in the glare of day, when
surrounded by comrades, and amid the excitement of war or an execution,
and a similar head in the stillness of a calm night during the solemn
hours of a long and solitary watch."

"But why not allow me to start off at once?" asked Mariano, with some
impatience at the Jew's prolixity.

"Because the sentinels will not be relieved for an hour yet, and it is
well to make such an enterprise as near to the relief as possible--
wearied men at the end of a long watch being less on the alert than at
the beginning of it. Besides, the moon will be lower in half an hour,
and that will favour your enterprise."

Being constrained to wai