certain questions as to the manner of his arrest, and asked
him as an Old Castilian, for whom honour is still of some account, what
the truth really was as to Gonzalvo's and Ferdinand's breach of faith,
with him. Caesar appeared extremely inclined to give him his entire
confidence, but showed by a sign that the attendants were in the way.
This precaution appeared quite natural, and the governor took no offense,
but hastened to send them all away, so as to be sooner alone with his
companion. When the door was shut, Caesar filled his glass and the
governor's, proposing the king's health: the governor honoured the toast:
Caesar at once began his tale; but he had scarcely uttered a third part
of it when, interesting as it was, the eyes of his host shut as though by
magic, and he slid under the table in a profound sleep.

After half a hour had passed, the servants, hearing no noise, entered and
found the two, one on the table, the other under it: this event was not
so extraordinary that they paid any great attention to it: all they did
was to carry Don Manuel to his room and lift Caesar on the bed; then they
put away the remnant of the meal for the next day's supper, shut the door
very carefully, and left their prisoner alone.

Caesar stayed for a minute motionless and apparently plunged in the
deepest sleep; but when he had heard the steps retreating, he quietly
raised his head, opened his eyes, slipped off the bed, walked to the
door, slowly indeed, but not to all appearance feeling the accident of
the night before, and applied his ear for some minutes to the keyhole;
then lifting his head with an expression of indescribable pride, he wiped
his brow with his hand, and for the first time since his guards went out,
breathed freely with full-drawn breaths.

There was no time to lose: his first care was to shut the door as
securely on the inside as it was already shut on the outside, to blow out
the lamp, to open the window, and to finish sawing through the bar. When
this was done, he undid the bandages on his leg, took down the window and
bed curtains, tore them into strips, joined the sheets, table napkins and
cloth, and with all these things tied together end to end, formed a rope
fifty or sixty feet long, with knots every here and there. This rope he
fixed securely to the bar next to the one he had just cut through; then
he climbed up to the window and began what was really the hardest part of
his perilous enterprise,