measures to concert with these friends of mine, whom I
could rely on, and who had nothing to fear from the resentment of three
rascals.

After we had had a good supper I told them how the affair stood, and that
I was determined to escape, and to carry my goods with me. "And now," I
said, "I want your advice."

After a brief silence Binetti said if I could get to his house I could
lower myself down from a window, and once on the ground I should be
outside the town walls and at a distance of a hundred paces from the high
road, by which I could travel post and be out of the duke's dominions by
daybreak. Thereupon Baletti opened the window and found that it would be
impossible to escape that way, on account of a wooden roof above a shop.
I looked out also, and seeing that he was right I said that I should no
doubt hit on some way of making my escape from the inn, but what troubled
me chiefly was my luggage. The Toscani then said:--

"You will have to abandon your mails, which you could not take off
without attracting attention, and you must send all your effects to my
house. I engage to deliver safely whatever you may put in my care. I will
take away your effects under my clothes in several journeys, and I can
begin to-night."

Baletti thought this idea a good one, and said that to do it the quicker
his wife would come and help. We fixed on this plan, and I promised
Binetti to be with him at midnight on Sunday, even if I had to stab the
sentry, who was at my door all day, but who went away at night after
locking me in. Baletti said he would provide me with a faithful servant,
and a post-chaise with swift horses, which would take my effects in other
mails. To make the best use of the time, the Toscani began to load
herself, putting two of my suits of clothes under her dress. For the next
few days my friends served me so well that, at midnight on Saturday, my
mails and my dressing case were empty; I kept back all the jewellery
intending to carry it in my pocket.

On Sunday, the Toscani brought me the keys of the two mails, in which she
had put my goods; and Baletti came also to tell me that all the necessary
measures had been taken, and that I should find a post-chaise, under the
charge of his servant, waiting for me on the high road. So far good, and
the reader shall now hear how I contrived to escape from my inn.

The sentry confined himself to a small ante-chamber, where he walked up
and down, without ever coming in