t lose my head, and remained perfectly still till the spasm was
over, knowing that perfect stillness is the best cure for nervous
cramps--I had often found it so. It was a frightful moment. A few
minutes after, I gradually renewed my efforts. I succeeded in getting
my knees against the gutter, and as soon as I had recovered my breath
I carefully raised the ladder, and at last got it to the angle where
it was parallel with the window. Knowing enough of the laws of
equilibrium and the lever, I now picked up my crowbar; and climbing in
my old fashion, I hauled myself up to the roof and easily succeeded in
tilting in the ladder, which the monk below received in his arms. I
then flung in my clothes, the ropes and the broken pieces, and got
down into the attic, where Balbi received me very heartily and took
care to remove the ladder.

Arm in arm, we surveyed the dark room in which we found ourselves; it
was thirty paces long by about twenty wide. At one end we felt a
double door formed of iron bars. This was unpromising, but laying my
hand on the latch in the middle it yielded to the pressure, and the
door opened. We first felt our way round this fresh room, and then,
trying to cross it, ran up against a table with arm-chairs and stools
around it. We returned to the side where we had felt windows, and
having opened one, by the dim starlight we could see nothing but steep
roofs between domes. I did not for an instant think of escaping by the
window; I must know where I was going, and I did not recognize the
spot where we were. So I closed the window, and we went back to the
first room, where we had left our baggage. Quite worn out, I let
myself drop on to the floor, and putting a bundle of rope under my
head, utterly bereft of all power of body or of mind, I fell into a
sweet sleep. I gave myself up to it so passively, that even if I had
known that death must be the end of it I could not have resisted it;
and I remember distinctly that the pleasure of that sleep was
perfectly delicious.

BARTOLOMEO DE LAS CASAS

(1474-1566)

[Illustration: BARTOLOMEO DE LAS CASAS]

Bartolomeo de las Casas, the Apostle of the Indians, was one of the
first to protest by speech and pen against the hideous cruelties
inflicted upon native West Indians by the invading Spaniards; and he
left in his writings the record of a bondage compared with which negro
slavery was mild. Bartolomeo, the son of Antonio de las Casas, a
companion of Co