CHAPTER IV: SUCCESS
Although the governor apologized to Hector for the poorness of therepast and the haste with which it had been prepared, it was reallyexcellent, consisting of soup, some fish fresh from the river, a cutlet,and an omelette, with a bottle of good wine of Asti. Paolo's wants hadbeen attended to in the kitchen. It was six o'clock when they started.The officer in command had already received his instructions, and thegovernor accompanied Hector to the door, where two horses were standingsaddled.
"They are not your own," he said, "but are two of mine. I thought thatyours had made a sufficiently long journey today."
Thanking him for his kindness, Hector mounted, and took his place bythe side of Captain Simon, while Paolo fell in with the orderlies ridingclose behind.
"I presume, monsieur, that you are going to obtain some information forViscount Turenne. I don't want to ask any questions as to the nature ofyour mission, but as I have orders to bring back with the horses yourcloaks and hats, I presume that in the first place you are going onfoot, and in the second, you are going in disguise."
"Your judgment is correct, captain. The viscount wishes to obtaincertain information, and I am going to fetch it for him, if I can."
"I hope that you will be successful, sir. It is a good night fortravelling, the stars are bright and the moon down, so that you willhave light enough to keep the road, and time enough to step aside shouldyou meet any party who might be inclined to question all passersby."
"Do you know the roads well about here?" Hector asked.
"I was stationed in Turin before the enemy came with too great a forceto be resisted."
"I want to strike across the country, and to come into the road fromTurin to Casale at a distance of three or four miles from the city."
"A mile or so away a road branches off from this which keeps by theriver. It is a mere country road, and except in two or three smallvillages that you will pass through, you are not likely to meet withanyone upon it. It is about eight miles to the main road from the pointwhere you turn off, and you will then be five miles from Turin. It isjust possible that you may meet patrols, but I should think it veryunlikely; now that our army has gone into winter quarters at Carignano,they are not likely to be very vigilant."
As they rode along Hector related some of the incidents of the latebattle. No signs of the enemy were met with, and the officer presentlysaid, "I am sorry to say that this is the point where you leave us,monsieur. I wish it had been a little farther, so that I could hear moreof the fight."
Hector and Paolo dismounted. Two troopers were called up and took chargeof their horses, while the cloaks and hats were given to the officer'sorderly, then the two lads put on the Savoyard hats they had carriedunder their cloaks. The officer took two packets from his holster.
"The colonel bade me give this to you at starting," he said. "He thoughtthat after a long walk on foot you would want some slight refreshmentbefore the inns were open in the morning."
"Will you please give him my hearty thanks for his thoughtfulness,"Hector said, "and accept the same yourself for your courtesy inescorting me."
"Now we are fairly on our way, Paolo," he went on as he turned down thelane, for it was little more; "this package is a bottle of wine, and theone that I have handed to you contains the eatables."
"That is good, master. We shall find it pretty cold before morning, andthere is nothing like a good meal to warm one up again."
"Did you get the bow and arrows at Chivasso?"
"Yes, sir. I went out and bought them as soon as we got there. I wantedthem, I told the man, for a boy of ten years old, but all he had were agood deal too long, which I was glad of, for a child's bow would hardlyhave been strong enough, so I made him cut one down until it was notmore than three feet long. That way I shall be able, as we agreed, tocarry it under my doublet. Of course it will make me walk stiffly, andthere will be no possibility of sitting down, but that matters not atall. It is all the stronger, and will send an arrow a good distance. Ihave got six arrows as you ordered me. They are regular arrows, but Imade the man shorten them so as to suit the bow, and then repoint them.I have got them inside my doublet. I tied them together, made a hole inthe lining under the arm, and put them in."
"You have not forgotten the cord, I hope, Paolo?"
"Not I, master. I should have deserved having my ears cut off if I haddone so."
They were in no hurry, and walked only fast enough to keep themselveswarm. In two hours and a half they arrived at the main road and turnedto the right. "Now we will go another couple of miles, Paolo, and thenlook out for a sleeping place. An empty barn or stable or a stack offodder is what we want. We may as well sleep warm as cold. We shall notwant to be moving on till seven o'clock."
After walking three miles they came upon a small village.
"Do you stay here, master, I will go round and see if I can find aplace. I am more accustomed to these villages than you are."
In five minutes he returned. "I have found a capital place," he said."It is a stable, but it is empty. No doubt the Spaniards have taken thehorses, and are using them in their transport wagons."
"It is enough for us that the place is empty, Paolo."
The door stood ajar. They entered and closed it behind them, and theythen felt about until they found a pile of rough fodder. They pulledsome of this aside, lay down and covered themselves up with the stalksthey had removed, and in three minutes were fast asleep, for they hadhad a long day's work. Hector slept until he was awakened by Paolo,who said, "The day is breaking, and the village will be astir in a fewminutes." The weather had changed, and as they stepped out fine flakesof snow were drifting through the air, and the ground was alreadywhitened. They regained the road and walked along until they came to awood.
"We may as well wait here and breakfast, Paolo." The parcel was openedand found to contain a cold capon and some bread, and on these and thewine they made a capital breakfast, each taking a long sip at the bottleto the health of the colonel. "The market people are beginning to comealong, and we may as well buy something from them going in. If wehave not something to sell it is not unlikely that we shall be askedquestions." It was now broad daylight, and they saw several peasantspass along the road, some with baskets, others driving a pig or a goat.
"Either of these would do," Hector said; "but we don't know where themarket is, and it would never do to seem ignorant of that." The snow hadstopped suddenly some minutes before, and the sun was now shining.
"That is lucky," Hector said as they walked down towards the road, "wemay hope that there will be no more snow and that the sun will soon meltwhat has fallen. It would be fatal to us if the ground were white, forthe most careless sentry could not help seeing us upon it."
They reached the road just as a peasant came along. He was an old man,and was dragging behind him a pile of faggots, which were placed upontwo rough poles. He was walking between these, holding two ends in hishands, while the others trailed along on the ground behind.
"Bargain with him, Paolo."
"That is a heavy load, father," the latter said.
"Ay, it is heavy."
"How much do you expect to get for your faggots in the town?"
"I shall get a crown," the man said. "I would not take under, and theyought to be worth more than that now the snow has begun to fall."
"We are going into the town," Paolo said. "We are younger than you,and between us we could drag it along easily. I have got a crown in mypocket to buy some things with. I don't mind giving it to you for yourload. If I can sell the faggots for a few soldi over that we shall beable to buy something for ourselves."
"It is a bargain, lad," the old man said. "I am getting old and therheumatism is in my bones, and I shall be very glad to be spared thejourney; so give me your money and take the poles. I hope you will besuccessful, and sell them a little higher. You had better ask a crownand a half. The women are sure to beat you down, but you will make tenor twelve soldi for yourselves."
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Paolo handed the crown to the old man.
"How had we better take this, Paolo?" Hector asked, as the old man,chuckling with satisfaction at having escaped a toilsome journey, turnedto retrace his steps.
"There is room for us both between the shafts," Paolo said, "one behindthe other. It would be much easier to walk holding both poles than forus both to take one, as in that way the weight will be balanced on eachside of us."
There was indeed just room between the ends of the poles and the pile ofbrushwood for them to walk close behind each other, and as the greaterportion of the weight rested on the other ends of the poles they did notfind the burden a heavy one.
"How are we going to sell these, Paolo?"
"We shall have no difficulty in selling them, master. This frost willset every housewife on the lookout for wood, and you will find that wesha'n't have to go far before we are accosted."
It was two miles from the spot where they had bought the faggots to thegates of Turin.
"I sha'n't be sorry to get rid of this load," Hector said. "It is notthe weight but the roughness of the poles. My hands are quite chafed bythem."
"Loose your hold for a bit, master. My hands have been accustomed torough work, and many a load of faggots have I drawn in my time."
"I will hold on, Paolo. It is not more than a quarter of a mile farther.My hands have done plenty of work, too, but it has been done with smoothhandled weapons. It is well that they should become accustomed to harderwork."
They passed without a question through the gate, and following theexample of other vendors of wood, of whom they saw several, Paolo beganto shout, "Large faggots for sale!"
It was not long before a door opened and a woman beckoned him.
"How much do you want for the whole?"
"A crown and a half," Paolo said.
"I have been offered as many for a crown," the woman replied.
"Then, signora, you did wrong to refuse. It took two days' work to cutthem, and we have dragged them here for miles. Two crowns would not payfor the labour. Not one scudo would I take under the price that I havenamed. Why, if the town is besieged these faggots would be worth twentycrowns before the winter is over."
"Well, I will give you the money," the woman said. "It is extortionate.Generally I can buy them at half that price."
"I do not say no to that," Paolo laughed, "but with two armies wantingfirewood and cutting down the copses without even taking trouble to askleave of their owners, I think that you will see firewood very scarce inthe city before long."
"Well, carry it in and pile it in the yard."
This was soon done, the poles were thrown on to the top of the heap, andthe boys went off along the street again.
"We have made half a crown for ourselves," Paolo laughed; "now we mustdecide how we shall spend it."
"It would be a good plan to spend some money anyhow," Hector said."What kind of things would you be likely to buy for your family in thecountry?"
"Well, I should say a cooking pan to begin with, and a few yards of warmstuff for making my mother a skirt."
"Well, buy the cooking pan first and sling it across your shoulder, andthen as we wander about we can look in the shops and it will seem as ifwe were on the search for articles that we had been told to purchase; itwould be better than sauntering about without any apparent object.But first let us walk briskly towards the side of the town facing thecitadel. The Strada Vecchia is the one that I want to examine first."
The knowledge that he had gained from the plan of the city enabledHector to find the street without their having to ask any questions.
"Now, buy your cooking pan at the next smith's shop you come to, andthen we can go slowly along making our observations."
They soon found that the street they had entered was, for the most part,deserted by its inhabitants. The shops were all closed, the road wasstrewn with fallen chimneys and balconies, and here and there wereyawning holes showing how severely the street had suffered when theartillery duel was going on between the guns on the walls and thoseof the citadel. A short distance down the street a chain was stretchedacross it, and here a musketeer was pacing up and down on guard. Twoothers could be seen at the farther end of the street, where there wasa gateway in the wall, now closed up with sandbags piled thickly againstit.
"We will see if the other streets are similarly guarded."
This was found to be so, sentries being placed in every street runningdown to the wall in this quarter.
"So far so good, Paolo. I do not think that matters could have beenbetter for us. The next thing is to buy a tool with which we can wrenchopen a door or the shutter of a window; but a door will be best, becausewe could not work at a shutter without running the risk of being seen bya sentinel, while in a doorway we should be screened from observation.These houses in the Strada Vecchia are old, and the doors ought not togive us much trouble."
"Some of these old locks are very strong, master. I should think thatit would be easier to cut out one of the panels than to force the dooropen."
"Possibly it would, but it is not an easy thing to get the saw to work.We should have to bore a hole large enough for the saw to go throughbefore we could use it. However, we will buy both a saw and a crowbar;as they are both things that are useful to woodcutters, your buying themwill not appear suspicious, nor will the purchase of an auger, but wehad better get them at different shops."
Leaving that part of the town they re-entered the streets where businesswas being carried on as usual.
"We won't buy the things until late in the afternoon, Paolo. There wouldbe no advantage in dragging them about all day."
They sauntered about the streets for some hours, then Paolo went into asmall baker's and bought two loaves of coarse bread. At another shop hepurchased some cheese, and with these they sat down on a stone bench inthe principal square and leisurely ate their food and looked on at thecrowd, which consisted principally of soldiers, Spanish veterans, stiffin carriage and haughty in manner, together with others, horse andfoot, belonging to the contingent of the Duke of Milan, an ally of theSpanish. Among these were townspeople, the younger ones chatting witheach other or with ladies of their acquaintance; the middle aged andolder men talking gravely together as they walked up and down.
Among these there was an air of gloom and depression. The state of panicin which the troops of Prince Thomas, who had marched out confidentthat they were about to annihilate the French, had returned, and theknowledge that the Marquis of Leganez had also failed, had created afeeling of the deepest disquiet among that portion of the population whohad taken a leading part in throwing off the authority of the duchessand in acknowledging that of Prince Thomas. They had regarded her causeas lost, but the vigorous steps that France was taking to assist her hadcaused uneasiness; and if, while as yet a comparatively small force hadarrived, these had shown so bold a front, had captured Chieri in theface of a powerful army, had revictualled Casale, had defeated PrinceThomas and forced their way past the array of Leganez, it might well bethat in the spring, when reinforcements reached them, they might evendefeat the Spaniards and lay siege to Turin itself. The boys remainedwhere they were until it began to grow dusk, when, after buying atthree shops a saw, a crowbar, and an auger, they went and sat down on adoorway in a quiet street until eight o'clock. Then they took their wayto the Strada Vecchia. It was entirely deserted. Lights showed in oneor two of the windows, but, except that they could hear the tread of thenearest sentry, all was silent. Taking off their wooden shoes they movedcautiously along, keeping close to the houses. The fourth they came tohad an unusually deep doorway, and they decided at once that this wouldsuit their purpose. First they tried with the crowbar, but the lock heldfirmly.
"We will try another way, Paolo. If the door yields, it will go with acrash, and the sentry might come down to see what had caused the noise.We had better take out this lower panel; we shall want four holes boredtouching each other to make one large enough for the saw to enter."
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The wood was of oak, and it took Paolo fully five minutes to make theholes.
"Now give me the auger," Hector said when it was found that the hole waslarge enough for the saw to pass through.
"I will begin at the bottom of the panel while you saw away at the top."
Paolo had done his share by the time the holes along the bottom wereready for the saw.
"Now you take the auger again," Hector said. "We have not done half ourwork yet. The holes must be made on each side. There is no turning thesaw."
It took them an hour and a half of hard work before the last cut wascompleted and the panel fell forward.
"You go in first, Paolo. I will follow you, and will wedge the panelinto its place again with some of the chips that the auger has cut out.No one has passed since we began, and if anyone did come along beforemorning he would not be likely to notice that the panel was gone. Stillit is as well to avoid all risk."
As soon as the panel was replaced they mounted the stairs. Beforebeginning they had seen that there were no lights in any of the windows,and feeling sure that the house was deserted they groped their wayupstairs without hesitation until they reached the attics in the slopingroof. They entered one of these facing the street, opened the casement,in which oiled paper took the place of glass, and stepped down on tothe parapet. Their course was now easy. The divisions between the houseswere marked by walls some six feet high extending from the edge of theparapet over the roof. They were able to climb these, however, withouthaving to use their cord, one helping the other up and then beingassisted by him. They had left the cooking pan and their tools, withthe exception of the crowbar, behind them, and had fastened their woodenshoes round their necks. The sun during the day had melted the snow thathad fallen in the morning, but light flakes were again beginning to comedown fast.
"I don't care how hard it snows as long as it keeps on," Hector said ina low voice in answer to an exclamation from Paolo when the first flakefell upon his face. "The harder the better, for in that case no sentrycould see us half a dozen paces away. There is another advantage. Thewind is from the north, and we have only to keep the driving snow on ourright cheeks to make our way straight to the fortress, whereas with anovercast sky on such a dark night as this we should very soon lose allidea of the direction that we were going in."
Being obliged to use great caution to avoid noise while getting over thewalls, it took them half an hour to reach the end of the street. Theyhad, while waiting before commencing their operations, twisted one oftheir sashes, and then wound it round the hook so thickly that thiswould fall almost noiselessly upon the ground. The snow prevented themfrom seeing six feet below them, but they felt sure that there must bea narrow lane between the house and the wall. They had during the daybought a length, equal to that of their rope, of strong string.
"I have got it as you ordered it, master," Paolo said as they came outof the shop, "but it would never bear our weight."
"I think it might do in case of necessity," Hector said. "In fact, I amsure it would. It does not require a great thickness of new cord to holda man's weight; but I don't want it for that."
Paolo walked silently along for some time, and then said: "If it is notwanted to carry our weight, master, I cannot think what it is wantedfor."
"It is wanted to get the hook down with. You see when we get down intothe street there would be little chance of getting the hook off itshold. We shall most likely want it again, and certainly we shall wantthe rope. I have been puzzling over it, and I think I have found a wayat last. My idea is to fasten this thin rope to the point of the hook,then, on pulling upon it the point will rise until it gets level withthe top of the wall on which it is fixed, and we can then shake it downwithout difficulty. I don't know whether it will act, but I think thatit ought to do so; an upward pull at the point must, I should think,lift it as far as the edge."
"I should think that it must," Paolo agreed. "I should never havethought of that."
"We will try it on this last division wall. I have no doubt about itmyself, because even if it did not pull it quite to the top the thingwould be so canted over that I think it would fall from its own weight."
They now attached the string to the point, fixed the hook to the topof the wall, and then pulled upon the string. The hook at once fell totheir feet.
"That is capital," Hector said. "Now we can go to work. We need carrythis crowbar no farther. In the first place we will cross this roof andother roofs as far as we can go; the sentry at the corner is probablystanding up for shelter in a doorway, and we may as well get as far aswe can from him, and at the same time not go far enough to get near theone at the next corner."
After one or two attempts the hook became fixed on the ridge of theroof, and they at once climbed up, unfastened the hook, and slid down onthe now snow covered tiles. Two more roofs were crossed in the sameway, and then they prepared to descend. They had, when they put on theirdisguises, tied knots in the rope at a distance of a foot apart. Theynow adjusted the hook on the parapet.
"Shall I go first, master, or will you?"
"I will go first, though in fact it matters little which of us does it;but first I must warm my fingers. I don't think that I could trust tothem at present."
He gathered a handful of snow, made it into a ball, and held it in hishands until the cold pained him, then he dropped the snow and thrust hishands up the sleeves of his doublet. Paolo looked on in astonishment,but having great faith in his master imitated his example.
"That is a curious way of warming the hands," he said.
"I daresay you have made snowballs in your time, Paolo, and if you haveyou will remember that, although it made your hands bitterly cold atfirst, after you had done they soon became almost as hot as fire."
"I do remember that, master, but I should never have thought of it as away of warming our hands."
For a minute or two there was a sharp pain as the blood began to rushinto the fingers, and when this passed off their hands were in a glow.Hector took the rope, lowered himself over the parapet, and then beganto descend. When halfway down the darkness became more intense thanbefore, and he knew that he was now below the level of the outer wall.When he reached the ground he shook the rope as a signal, and then,stretching his arms before him, crossed the lane. It was but a step, forthe house stood but five feet back from the wall. He waited until Paolojoined him, then he drew on the thin rope and, to his satisfaction, hefelt it yield.
"Stand aside," he said, "it is heavy enough to give one a nasty thump."
Paolo withdrew a few paces, then Hector gave another pull. The rope gaveway at once. He flattened himself against the house, and the hook fellwith a dull thud a foot or two away.
"Coil up the rope, Paolo, and then feel along the wall to the right;don't go too far. I will go to the left, there may be some steps up tothe rampart."
This proved to be the case, and together they made their way up quietly,but even had they had their shoes on, the snow was already sufficientlydeep to deaden their footsteps. On reaching the top they stood silentfor a minute or two. Presently they heard the sound of heavy stamping offeet. They turned at once to descend, if necessary, the steps theyhad mounted, then Hector put his hand upon the other's shoulder andwhispered, "It is the sentry trying to warm his feet; no doubt he isstanding up somewhere to shelter himself from the snow; let us go on atonce."
They crossed the rampart, fastened the hook on the top of the wall, anddescended, and were again successful in bringing the rope down afterthem.
"Go carefully, Paolo; no doubt there is a moat somewhere here." Therewas, however, no necessity for caution, for the white surface of thesnow was soon broken by a black line.
"It will be awfully cold," Paolo said, with teeth that chattered at theprospect.
"Of course you can swim, Paolo?"
"Not very well, master."
"Then I will go first. You fasten the rope under your arms, and I willhaul you across. Be sure you do not make a noise in g
etting into thewater. But first of all take off your doublet, I will carry it and mineacross on my head. It cannot be many yards across. The wind will soondry the rest of our things, and once our work is done we can warmourselves by running. I would say strip altogether, but we may have todo another swim; for, as we agreed, there is no chance of our being ableto return by the way we came."
Fastening the two doublets on his head, Hector lowered himself into thewater, which was three feet below the level on which they stood. Hehad fastened the rope across his shoulder. As he expected, he found thewater out of his depth, and at once struck out to the opposite side. Itwas about forty feet across. He found, on reaching the other side, thatthe wall was there nearly five feet above the water. He undid the ropeand threw up the hook. At the second attempt it caught, and he climbedthe side, and then in a low voice told Paolo to start. Presently heheard a slight splash, followed by a gasp. He hauled away rapidly on therope, and in a couple of minutes Paolo stood beside him, shivering andgasping.
"Put your doublet on. Now let us go forward as fast as we can." Theyclimbed the steep slope to the top of the glacis, and then ran downuntil they were brought to a standstill by another moat.
"This is the one marked in the plan as dividing the fortifications ofthe town from those of the citadel. Now we have another swim beforeus. It is wider than the last, but is really no distance. Give me yourdoublet again."
"I don't mind this so much," Paolo said. "I cannot be colder than I am."
"Don't try to swim, Paolo; lie on your back, with your mouth just out ofwater. I will have you over in no time."
It was fully fifty yards across; but, accustomed to bathe in almost icycold water, the swim was nothing to Hector, who was soon across, andwho then towed Paolo over as before. They mounted another glacis, andpresently reached the edge of a third moat.
"We need go no farther. I know that this moat is but some fifteen yardsfrom the foot of the fortifications. Now, get the arrows out. Cut offa foot or two of the thin cord, and unravel it. I must warm my fingersagain first, I cannot use them at all."
"Mine are pretty cold, too." And both lads warmed them as before. Paolothen set to work to string the bow, which required all his strength toaccomplish. While he was doing so, Hector drew from his pouch the sixlittle pellets, and taking the arrows, straightened out each pellet,wrapped it round an arrow, and secured it firmly with a small strandfrom the string. When he had done this, he took the bow from Paolo,fitted an arrow to the string, drew it with his full strength, and then,pointing the arrow high, loosed it. The six arrows were sent off. Justas the last was discharged there was a shout of "Who is there? Speak,or I fire!" It was a sentry on the wall, who had caught the sound of thetwang of the bow.
"I am a friend, a messenger from the French general," Hector replied."I have just shot six arrows into the fortress; a message is attached toeach for the governor. Report to the officer, and have a search made forthem in the morning.
"That is a piece of good luck," he went on as they turned away. "Ithought of shouting, but we might have got a shot in reply, and I madesure that one or other of the arrows would be picked up. Still, thismakes certain of it."
"I think I would rather stop out here until morning," Paolo said, "thenthey will take me in. I am afraid I shall never get across the river."
"Nonsense! The water is low, and we are not likely to have to swimfarther than we did in crossing the last moat. Getting through the partof the town between us and the river is a more serious matter. However,it is not very far across, and they are not likely to be very vigilant."
They turned to the right, and kept along at the edge of the moat, untilHector considered that they had made a fourth of the circuit of thewalls, and were now facing the river. They had decided before that thiswould be the easiest side on which to leave the town. The sentinelswould not expect that anyone attempting to enter or leave the citadelwould try to do so here; as, in addition to passing the wall facing thefortress and that bordering the river, they would be obliged to swimthe river itself. The snow was falling as quickly as ever, and the windblowing fiercely.
"There is no fear of their seeing us, unless we happen to run into thevery arms of the sentry," Hector said encouragingly; "we shall only havethe moat to swim; and as, according to the plan, it is nothing like sowide as that we passed before, we shall have no trouble with it."
"Ah! here it is," Paolo groaned.
"Nonsense!" Hector said. "One cold bath more or less makes no differencenow. There, give me your coat again, and I will take it over."
The moat was indeed but some twelve yards across, and in two or threeminutes Paolo stood shivering on the other side.
"The edge is not far from the wall, not much more than the breadth ofthe moat. Give me the cord."
A few steps and they reached the wall. After two attempts the hookcaught, and Hector climbed up. He was looking back to watch Paolo whenhe was suddenly seized from behind, and a deep voice in Italian said,"If you move I will kill you. Who are you?"
With a sudden effort Hector twisted himself round and seized thedisengaged wrist of his opponent, which he doubted not held a dagger.The man loosened his hold of his doublet and tried to grasp his neck,but Hector in a moment leapt forward and threw his arm round the man'swaist. They wrestled backwards and forwards, but the soldier was apowerful man, and Hector found that he could not long retain a grasp ofhis wrist. Suddenly he felt his antagonist collapse; the dagger droppedfrom his hand, the other arm relaxed its hold, and he fell a lifelessmass.
"Thank you, Paolo. You were but just in time. The fellow was too strongfor me. Now let us slip down the inside of the wall as quickly aspossible."
A minute later they both stood at the foot of the wall, the hook wasshaken off, and they proceeded along the wall until they came to astreet.
"It is not more than two or three hundred yards to the outer wall,"Hector whispered.
Whether there were sentinels or not in the street they knew not. If so,they had withdrawn themselves into deep doorways to avoid the blindingsnow, and the wind drowned the slight sound made by their feet on thesoft snow.
In a short time they reached the outer wall, crept along it until theyfound the steps leading up, crossed it in safety, fixed their hook, andrapidly descended. A run of fifty yards brought them to the edge of theriver bank.
"We will try to find a boat," Hector said. "There are sure to be somealong here."
They walked across the dry bed of the river till they reached thewater's edge, and then followed this. In a few minutes, to theirdelight, they came upon a boat. The bow was hauled a few feet out ofwater, and a rope, doubtless attached to a heavy stone anchor, stretchedfrom its bows. This they cut, put their shoulders to the gunwale,and soon had her afloat. Then they scrambled in, put the oars outcautiously, and began to row. Both had had some practice at theexercise, and it was not long before the boat grounded on the oppositeshore.
"Pull it up a bit," Hector said. "No doubt it belongs to some poorfisherman to whom its loss would be serious. Now we must keep along thebank for some distance, until quite sure that we are well beyond anypatrols the enemy may have on the road. Let us get into a run, Paolo,and see if we can't get our blood in motion again, for I own that I feelhalf frozen."
They set off at a brisk trot, which they kept up for half an hour, andthen they struck off from the river and soon found the road. Followingthis, after an hour's walking they came upon a little shed by theroadside, and in one corner found a pile of old sacks.
"We are in luck again!" Hector exclaimed joyfully. "Tired as I am, Idon't think that I could have slept in these wet clothes, if one cancall them wet--at present they are frozen stiff. These sacks are thevery thing. We can strip now and wring out our clothes thoroughly. Thereare enough sacks here to lay under us and cover us too. After wringingout the shirts we will put them in under the sacks next to us. The heatof our bodies will dry them to some extent, and they will be warm toput on in the morning. The other things we ca
n pile over us. There is nochance of their getting dry; but I am so pleased with our success that Iam not disposed to grumble at trifles."