clinging with hands and feet to this fragile
support. Luckily he was both strong and skilful, and he went down the
whole length of the rope without accident; but when he reached the end
and was hanging on the last knot, he sought in vain to touch the ground
with his feet; his rope was too short.

The situation was a terrible one: the darkness of the night prevented the
fugitive from seeing how far off he was from the ground, and his fatigue
prevented him from even attempting to climb up again. Caesar put up a
brief prayer, whether to Gad or Satan he alone could say; then letting go
the rope, he dropped from a height of twelve or fifteen feet.

The danger was too great for the fugitive to trouble about a few trifling
contusions: he at once rose, and guiding himself by the direction of his
window, he went straight to the little door of exit; he then put his hand
into the pocket of his doublet, and a cold sweat damped his brow; either
he had forgotten and left it in his room or had lost it in his fall;
anyhow, he had not the key.

But summoning his recollections, he quite gave up the first idea for the
second, which was the only likely one: again he crossed the court,
looking for the place where the key might have fallen, by the aid of the
wall round a tank on which he had laid his hand when he got up; but the
object of search was so small and the night so dark that there was little
chance of getting any result; still Caesar sought for it, for in this key
was his last hope: suddenly a door was opened, and a night watch
appeared, preceded by two torches. Caesar far the moment thought he was
lost, but remembering the tank behind him, he dropped into it, and with
nothing but his head above water anxiously watched the movements of the
soldiers, as they advanced beside him, passed only a few feet away,
crossed the court, and then disappeared by an opposite door. But short
as their luminous apparition had been, it had lighted up the ground, and
Caesar by the glare of the torches had caught the glitter of the
long-sought key, and as soon as the door was shut behind the men, was
again master of his liberty.

Half-way between the castle and the village two cavaliers and a led horse
were waiting for him: the two men were Michelotto and the Count of
Benevento. Caesar sprang upon the riderless horse, pressed with fervour
the hand of the count and the sbirro; then all three galloped to the
frontier of Navarre, where they arrive