ou are in a bad case, my son, I fear," said the monk as he approached
me.

I knew the voice, though the cowl, in the gloom of the cell, prevented
me from seeing my visitor's features.

"What, Padre Pacheco!" I exclaimed. "My dear padre! how could you have
risked your safety by coming here?"

"For your sake, Barry, I would go through much greater danger," he
answered. "I followed you to this place, being resolved to attempt your
liberation; and I have heard all about you from our friend the doctor.
It being reported that you and others are to be put to death to-morrow,
on finding that he would not be allowed to visit you again I boldly came
to the prison, letting the jailer suppose that the commandant had sent
for me to shrive you. He at once admitted me; and here I am to tell you
that your friend the English captain will send a boat in to-night at
eleven o'clock, when all the garrison, with the exception of the guards,
will be asleep. The doctor will come to visit his patients late in the
day, and will then find out who is to be on guard, and will do his best
to give them sleeping potions, so that you may boldly pass between them
and scramble over the wall. I do not, therefore, consider that you will
have to run any great risk."

The padre talked on in a low voice. When I expressed my fears that he
would compromise his own safety, he answered that as soon as he knew
that I had escaped he intended to get away, if possible, on board the
_Flying Fish_, and that he had engaged a boat to take him off. This
much relieved my mind.

We were still conversing when we heard the jailer turn the key in the
lock. On this the padre got up and went towards the door. "He has made
as good a confession as I could have expected," he observed to the
jailer as he went out; "I hope, my friend, you will be as prepared to
die, when your time comes, as he is."

I was after this left alone for the greater part of the day; and towards
evening the jailer brought me some more food. I was very thankful to
see his back as he went out, and heartily trusted that I might never set
eyes on him again.

I could only calculate the time by hearing the guards changed. At last,
believing that it was nearly eleven o'clock, I prepared for my
adventure. Putting up my bedstead as before, I climbed to the window,
from which I noiselessly removed the bar; then getting outside, I
replaced it, and dropped a height of ten feet or so into a sort of i