g for three hours I let myself drop to the ground, for I
could not move a step further. I must either take some food or die there,
so I told the monk to leave the cloak with me and go to a farm I saw,
there to buy something to eat. I gave him the money, and he set off,
telling me that he thought I had more courage. The miserable man did not
know what courage was, but he was more robust than myself, and he had,
doubtless, taken in provisions before leaving the prison. Besides he had
had some chocolate; he was thin and wiry, and a monk, and mental
anxieties were unknown to him.

Although the house was not an inn, the good farmer's wife sent me a
sufficient meal which only cost me thirty Venetian sous. After satisfying
my appetite, feeling that sleep was creeping on me, I set out again on
the tramp, well braced up. In four hours' time I stopped at a hamlet, and
found that I was twenty-four miles from Trevisa. I was done up, my ankles
were swollen, and my shoes were in holes. There was only another hour of
day-light before us. Stretching myself out beneath a grove of trees I
made Father Balbi sit by me, and discoursed to him in the manner
following:

"We must make for Borgo di Valsugano, it is the first town beyond the
borders of the Republic. We shall be as safe there as if we were in
London, and we can take our ease for awhile; but to get there we must go
carefully to work, and the first thing we must do is to separate. You
must go by Mantello Woods, and I by the mountains; you by the easiest and
shortest way, and I by the longest and most difficult; you with money and
I without a penny. I will make you a present of my cloak, which you must
exchange for a great coat and a hat, and everybody will take you for a
countryman, as you are luckily rather like one in the face. Take these
seventeen livres, which is all that remains to me of the two sequins
Count Asquin gave me. You will reach Borgo by the day after to-morrow,
and I shall be twenty-four hours later. Wait for me in the first inn on
the left-hand side of the street, and be sure I shall come in due season.
I require a good night's rest in a good bed; and Providence will get me
one somewhere, but I must sleep without fear of being disturbed, and in
your company that would be out of the question. I am certain that we are
being sought for on all sides, and that our descriptions have been so
correctly given that if we went into any inn together we should be
certain to be