r and the sheet of lead I
detached it; then raising it on our shoulders, we bent it up high
enough to allow of our squeezing through the opening. Putting my head
out to reconnoitre, I saw with dismay how bright the moon was, now in
the first quarter. It was a check which we must endure with patience,
and wait till midnight to escape, when the moon would have gone to
light up the Antipodes. On such a glorious night all Venice would be
out on the Piazza below, and we dared not venture out on the roof; our
shadows cast on the ground would have attracted attention; our
extraordinary appearance up there would excite general curiosity, and
above all, that of Messer Grande and his spies, the sole guards of
Venice. Our fine scheme would soon have been disturbed by their odious
interference. I therefore decided positively that we were not to creep
out till the moon had set....

It was time to be off. The moon had set. I hung half the rope round
Balbi's neck on one side and his bundle of clothes on the other
shoulder. I did the same for myself; and both, in our waistcoats with
our hats on, went to the opening in the roof.

"And issuing forth we then beheld the stars."--DANTE.

I crept out first; Balbi followed me. Soradaci, who had accompanied us
to the roof, was ordered to pull the sheet of lead down again and then
to go and pray to his saint. Crawling on my knees on all fours, I
clutched my crowbar firmly, and stretching as far as I could, I
slipped it obliquely between the points of the sheets; then, grasping
the end of the sheet I had turned up, I dragged myself up to the ridge
of the roof. The friar, to follow me, inserted the fingers of his
right hand into the belt of my breeches. Thus I had the double task of
a beast which drags and carries both at once, and that on a steep
roof, made slippery by a dense fog. Half-way up this dreadful climb,
Balbi bid me stop, for one of his parcels had fallen, and he hoped it
might not have gone further than the gutter. My first impulse was to
give him a kick and send him after his bundle; but God be praised, I
had enough self-command not to do this, for the punishment would have
been too severe for both of us, since I alone could never have
escaped. I asked him whether it was the packet of ropes, but as he
replied that it was only his bundle, in which he had a manuscript he
had found in the loft, and which he had hoped would make his fortune,
I told him he must take patience; for