n so doing he carelessly passed under
the trap-door, and Mesty, who had carried up with him two or three of
the stones, dashed one down on the head of Don Silvio, who fell
immediately. He was carried away, but his orders were put in execution;
the room was filled with straw and fodder, and lighted. The effects
were soon felt. The trap-door had been shut, but the heat and smoke
burst through; after a time, the planks and rafters took fire, and their
situation was terrible. A small trap-window in the roof on the side of
the house was knocked open, and gave them a temporary relief; but now
the rafters burned and crackled, and the smoke burst on them in thick
columns. They could not see and with difficulty could breathe.
Fortunately the room below that which had been fired was but one out of
four on the attics, and, as the loft they were in spread over the whole
of the roof they were able to remove far from it. The house was slated
with massive slate of some hundredweight each, and it was not found
possible to remove them so as to give air, although frequent attempts
were made. Donna Rebiera sank exhausted in the arms of her husband, and
Agnes fell into those of our hero, who, enveloped in the smoke, kissed
her again and again; and she, poor girl, thinking that they must all
inevitably perish, made no scruple, in what she supposed her last
moment, of returning these proofs of her ardent attachment.

"Massa Easy, help me here--Massa Gascoigne, come here. Now heab wid all
your might: when we get one off we get plenty."

Summoned by Mesty, Jack and Gascoigne put their shoulders to one of the
lower slates; it yielded--was disengaged, and slid down with a loud
rattling below. The ladies were brought to it, and their heads put
outside; they soon recovered; and now that they had removed one, they
found no difficulty in removing others. In a few minutes they were all
with their heads in the open air, but still the house was on fire below,
and they had no chance of escape. It was while they were debating upon
this point, and consulting as to their chance of safety, that a breeze
of wind wafted the smoke that issued from the roof away from them, and
they beheld the detachment of troops making up to the house; a loud
cheer was given, and attracted the notice of the soldiers. They
perceived Easy and his companions; the house was surrounded and entered
in an instant.

The galley-slaves, who were in the house searching for