uperintended the casks and cisterns; he also amused
himself with carpentering. Now he possessed several pairs of pincers,
among which was one both big and heavy. I then, thinking it would suit
my purpose, took it and hid it in my straw mattress. The time had now
come for me to use it; so I began to try the nails which kept the
hinges of my door in place. The door was double, and the clinching of
the nails could not be seen; so that when I attempted to draw one out,
I met with the greatest trouble; in the end however I succeeded. When
I had drawn the first nail, I bethought me how to prevent its being
noticed. For this purpose I mixed some rust, which I had scraped from
old iron, with a little wax, obtaining exactly the same color as the
heads of the long nails which I had extracted. Then I set myself to
counterfeit these heads and place them on the holdfasts; for each nail
I extracted I made a counterfeit in wax. I left the hinges attached to
their door-posts at top and bottom by means of some of the same nails
that I had drawn; but I took care to cut these and replace them
lightly, so that they only just supported the irons of the hinges.

All this I performed with the greatest difficulty, because the
castellan kept dreaming every night that I had escaped, which made him
send from time to time to inspect my prison. The man who came had the
title and behavior of a catchpoll. He was called Bozza, a serving-man.
Giovanni never entered my prison without saying something offensive to
me. He came from the district of Prato, and had been an apothecary in
the town there. Every evening he minutely examined the holdfasts of
the hinges and the whole chamber, and I used to say:--"Keep a good
watch over me, for I am resolved by all means to escape."

These words bred a great enmity between him and me, so that I was
obliged to use precautions to conceal my tools; that is to say, my
pincers and a great big poniard and other appurtenances. All these I
put away together in my mattress, where I also kept the strips of
linen I had made. When day broke, I used immediately to sweep my room
out; and though I am by nature a lover of cleanliness, at that time I
kept myself unusually spick and span. After sweeping up, I made my bed
as daintily as I could, laying flowers upon it, which a Savoyard used
to bring me nearly every morning. He had the care of the cistern and
the casks, and also amused himself with carpentering; it was from him
I sto