ened his
preparations, and soon led them to the roof of the house of Jacob
Mordecai, from which they scrambled to that of a friendly neighbour, and
crossed over, with the care of burglars and the quiet steps of cats, to
the other side. Here a difficulty met them, in the shape of a leap
which was too long for Francisco's heavy person to venture.

He might, indeed, have taken it with ease on level ground and in
daylight; but, like his son Mariano on a somewhat similar occasion, he
felt it difficult to screw up his courage to the point of springing
across a black chasm, which he was aware descended some forty or fifty
feet to the causeway of the street, and the opposite parapet, on which
he was expected to alight like, a bird, appeared dim and ghostly in the
uncertain light.

Twice did the courageous man bend himself to the leap, while the blood
rushed with apoplectic violence to his bald head; and twice did his
spirit fail him at the moment of need!

"Oh, Bacri!" he said in a hoarse whisper, wiping the perspiration from
his brow, as he stood on the giddy height, "if there were only a damsel
in distress on the opposite side, or a legion of Turks defying me to
come on, I could go over, methinks, like a rocket, but to be required to
leap in cold blood upon next to nothing over an unfathomable abyss,
really--. Hast never a morsel of plank about thee, Jacob?"

Fortunately for all parties, Jacob had a flower stand on his roof, to
which he returned with Mariano, who wrenched a plank therefrom, and
brought it to the point of difficulty.

After this they met with no serious obstruction. Sometimes descending
below the streets and passing through cellars, at others crossing roofs
or gliding along the darkest sides of dark walls and passages, they
traversed the town without being challenged, and gained the southern
wall near the point at which Mariano had crossed it on a former
occasion.

Here the Jew bade them God-speed, and left them.

"I hope thou art sure of the road, Mariano?" said Francisco anxiously.

"Trust me, father; I know it well. Only have a care that you tread
lightly and make no noise.--Come."

Leading them to the point on the ramparts where poor Castello's head
still stood withering in the night-wind, Mariano bade them remain in
shadow while he attached the rope to the spike.

The sentinel could be dimly seen, for there was no moon, pacing to and
fro within two hundred yards of them. They watched and